Pokerstars account frozen. Interesting story?

Hello everybody,

I would like to share my story with you in order to hear some advices and opinions on my case.

I started playing poker around 10 years ago, while on college. It was only a fun activity at the start. We would normaly gather 5-6 friends at one house playing all together and doing things that were illegal, like when someone had no money at his account he would ask to play from a friends account. We didnt really knew what was legal or illegal at the time, we were just having some fun by gambling and mainly losing money. After a while we all got banned from pokerstars and most of us stopped playing poker at the time.

After a year i started playing poker again at some eurosites and i found out that i was starting to win decent money from poker and started to take it more serious as a job. For the next years i froze my studies and started a professional career playing on eurosites and at fulltilt. I tried then to get my account unbaned at pokerstars. They said that after 3 years i could get my account unbaned, but 3 years had already passed. I sent them again but as much as i remember (6 years ago) i didnt got an answer. Anyway i didnt really cared at the time as i had a lot of pokersite options. But then fulltilt was closed.

At this time, around 2013 all action was happening at pokerstars, all my poker friends were making more money than me, and i decided to play there from a real-life friend's account at pokerstars that never played poker other than play money. At the start i just put 500$ to see how the traffic was, i wasnt really thinking to start playing for real there. But i started to win decent money soon and decided to keep playing under friend's name (it was only me playing from this account from the start. My friend wasnt playing poker at all)

After 1,5 year of playing, around 2015, i thought of sending an e-mail at pokerstars asking them to change the name of the account explaining the situation but i worried that i might had my account banned and then i couldnt have action. After this period, i decided to stop playing poker professionaly. I finished my under-graduate studies, then went for post-graduate studies and now i am starting a phd at sociology. The last 3 years i was playing poker sparingly just to sustain my studies. I would go for massive play for 1-1,5 month, earn the year or bit more, and then stop and return to my studies.

On the format that i play there are a lot of situations that other poker playres used illegal methods to gain advantage, so i guess it might seemed suspisious for other regs that i was just playing so sparingly and at the same time achieved good results, and maybe some regs asked pokerstars to check my account. So pokerstars sent me an email informing me that my account is frozen and asked my some questions. After my reply the asked me to shoot a video of me playing to prove them that i do not use any illegal software, charts etc.

Here is the big problem for me. I can shoot a video proving that i never used any illegal software of method to gain advantage, but the account owner is my friend (who has no ide a about poker). Lots of poker friends are advicing me to try shooting the video by showing my friend playing while me somehow telling him what to do every street. But i dont think of it as an option. This would be a real cheat from my side.

I am thinking of sending them a huge e-mail of my full story, explaining everything and hoping for the best. Also, i have most of my money at pokerstars and without these money i am almost broke (i guess i should start searching for a job as a delivery guy rather than continuing my phd at the moment ).

What is your thoughts on this guys? Do you think that they will confiscate my money or is there a chance to give me my money even if they ban the account? (After all i havent cheated other player's money, i cheated pokerstars for having an account foolishly banned). Thank you all, and sorry for this loooong post.

Cheers

I believe that if you tell them that you are playing with your friend's account, they will ban you again, and you will lose your money, maybe they suspect something, that's why they ask you for a video of you playing.
You have to find another way, teach your friend to play poker, or something.

To recover your account, you have to get in touch with them, from live chat, the mail does not work anymore, the pokerstars service is rubbish since I arrived.

whatever happens, you did it yourself
pretty standard across the board at all sites
one player, one account

I think that all you can do from here on out is be truthful and hope for the best. Maybe they will give you your money back and maybe they will not, but if you are truthful and explain why that money is yours they might not confiscate it. You broke the rules not once but twice, I don't think they will be very lenient with you. You will probably be banned again and lose your money, But you sound like a winning poker player, I don't know why you would try and pull the wool over the biggest poker sites eyes. You should have just got a hold of them and tried getting un-banned. I don't know why you did what you did but it's done, now you'll have to take the punishments as they come. They will probably ban you for life now and take your earnings, but if your a winning poker player what is wrong with winning at other sites not so big. It sucks not to be able to play at the biggest site online but you messed up, not once, but twice now. Good luck in your en-devours but I think they ban you for life, unless you find a way out of it. You sounds like a smart guy, but don't do something that will get you in even more trouble, be smart about the situation, and the truth is always better than some bullshit.Cheers:beerglass:beerglass

The whole time I was reading your story I was thinking this guy is breaking the rules and this won't end well. It is what it is.

here is art 10.1 on pokerstars terms and conditions :

A User must have a single User account at The Stars Group and must use the Service with a single account. Users are not allowed to open multiple accounts at The Stars Group. If The Stars Group becomes aware of other accounts opened by a User, The Stars Group may close such additional accounts without prior notice and may confiscate the funds in such accounts.

so you are off ..lateley pokerstars have begun a campaign against winnning players.it started with downgrading rakeback down as 1 % .they don`t need winning players anymore.soon they will have no players at all hopefully.

even their RNG was contested allover and allover again .thier idea of bussiness changed.they want recreational players and want to get ridded of winning regulars.they know that all of us played once in a while in another account ( mainly because they treat regulars account like shit lately) so they started a campaign against us.

depends in which copuntry you live in ...if your friend is still your firiend ... he can contact a goverment organization .if you accept in front of them that you`ve played from his account ... you can see above what they can do.
what i think you shloud be interested in it is to withdraw your money .so you need to teach your friend aliitle bit of poker .. to make that video , contact the goverment and hope for the best.

you know they have tearms and conditions that you cannot beat.

if you want to be honest and tell them the truth ..go ahead.but it depends of the amount of money you have in that account .they are like jackals lately ...

swoopdonk said:

The whole time I was reading your story I was thinking this guy is breaking the rules and this won't end well. It is what it is.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the same. Its not a good idea to break the TOS of a poker site, and especially not if you are going to play for serious money. Other people like Jonathan Little and Gordon Vayo have also learned this the hard way.

I’m almost sure that if you write that you played from your friend’s account, your friend’s account will also be blocked !!!