In a recent blog confessional, Cardrunners pro Brian Townsend has admitted to playing under two different poker accounts on Stars and Tilt. He had been using the aba30 and sbrugby names, then with the fulltilt deal, he switched to a red pro under his name. His ‘illegal’ aliases were: Stellarnebula on FTP and makersmark66 on Stars.
He offers an open, honest, and sincere apology about his actions. Frankly, while it is against the rules, this is probably the most common example of ‘bending’ the online poker rules. I’ve had multiple accounts on different sites, just because I didn’t like my screen name.
For a recognizable pro, the advantage to playing annonymously is understandably tempting. Also, in Brian’s case he was moving down in limits, and was worried what people would think about that. So to protect his ego, and get action at the lower limits, he played under different names.
He stated that his FT red pro status is being suspended for 6 months (meaning no 100% rakeback) and that he is contributing $25k of his ‘cardrunners distributions’ to a charity tbd.
He is a class act. This shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It speaks to a larger problem, with how easy it is to create accounts – set up different bank accounts, different names, whatever. I don’t know how you can address it outside of using social security numbers or something crazy to identify people.
For the full blog entry go to Cardrunners.
PROP [blog] | Poker Clothing | A Degenerate Lifestyle Brand 
cheating fuckin wanker, burn in hell you bastard. hes the sort of wanker that id go for 1st if a world war broke out. id slice his fuckin throat
Well six months for first cheat with multiples accounts.
And now against Isildur1, for sharing hand histories FOR YEARS with, Hastings and Cole, it’s just a … little month.
“I talk alot of poker with Brian Hastings and Cole South, but this has been going on for years. We have shared hands with each other when we were playing 25/50 together. I have never spoke to one of them while a hand is happening nor would I. After a hand sure we would discuss and share player reads but never during hands.”
Now he forgets first cheat, and what he wrote in his blog 12/09.
Oh, just full tilt rules ;o)
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2. Shared hand history databases and “data mining” software, including subscription services and the exchange of personal databases:
The use of shared hand histories provides detailed information on opponents a player has little or no personal experience playing against, and is deemed to be an unfair advantage. Violating this policy is subject to the maximum penalties for prohibited software use.
Players are not permitted to use the hand histories for hands that they have not personally participated in. Software designed to collect hand history information from games that the player did not participate in is prohibited. Some specific examples include:
* Poker Edge
* Poker Crusher
* SpadeEye
* IdleMiner
* HandHQ
* community shared hand histories
* exchanging hand histories with a friend