The creation of multiple accounts, and account flipping; where one sells his account for cash while deep into a huge poker tournament, have came to light more in the press recently.
Multiple accounts are when players create additional accounts from different computers and have numerous account names at any one site. Why? The +EV (expected value) is a huge advantage, especially in MTT’s (multi-table tournaments).
In one case, a player known as JJProdigy was playing the Party Poker $500K Sunday Tournament this year in February. The tournament had decreased to three tables when a post was made on a popular poker forum that JJ was in the race for the $140K first prize. This was a schoolboy error for JJProdigy, as the attention he gained making the post, led other forum members to first cheer, then investigate his claim; they found JJ had already been knocked out of the tournament hours before. How could he be posting so triumphantly that he was about to win?
The $140K Winner turned out to be someone with the call sign “ABlackCar”, it was later discovered by Party Poker that the account was owned by the same player that used the call sign “JJProdigy”. The players account was frozen by Party Poker, and the player was banned.
The player was Josh Field, a young and very talented Poker player already making himself known in the professional game, and his youthful enthusiasm pushed him to cheat to gain an edge over competitors.
Unfortunately it is often the case that the pressure to cheat, comes from young poker stars wanting to gain an edge:
Chris Vaughn is a young poker star and also Managing Editor for Bluff Magazine (a poker magazine). On the 21st he entered the $1 Million Guaranteed tournament at Full Tilt Poker, and very soon he was down to the last three tables and playing for big money.
According to Chris, he was playing at home and had started experiencing a lag in his internet connection; from the chat room he had found other players were also experiencing this lag, and while the connection was not timing out, he initially thought is would be best to continue playing from his workplaces high speed connection, only five minutes drive away.
Of course, even five minutes would be too long to leave the poker game, so he contacted Sorrel Mizzi, a trusted friend, who also happened to be a world poker champion he had met through various live poker tournaments.
Originally the idea was that he would ask Mizzi to take over for him until he reached work, then he would continue the game from there. Through instant messenger though, the conversation turned from Sorrel taking over for five minutes, into him buying the account from Chris and taking over the game.
Full Tilt Poker however, are aware of account flipping and within minutes had noticed that Chris Vaughan’s account was being played from a different IP.
Soren Kongsgaard, the runner up received an email from Full Tilt explaining that Vaughn’s account had been disqualified. The letter confirmed that Kongsgaard would now gain the winner’s spot, with all other runners up in the event to be moved up one spot as well.
Sorell and Chris have publicly apologised for their discretion, and although banned from certain Poker Sites including Full Tilt they hope to redeem their image as Poker Champions, and will currently focus on live tournaments.
