Online Casino Poker Player Admits To Operating Multiple Accounts

Published on: August 31, 2008 

Collusion and cheating is a concern that many people have when playing online at casinos and poker rooms.  A good example of how cheating can be done is found in the case of online poker pro Brian Townsend.  Townsend came forward on his own blog and admitted that over the last six months he had been operating and playing with multiple accounts at PokerStars and FullTilt Poker.  "I wanted to have come forward and make this public sooner, but unfortunately because of certain business relationships I could not do that," Townsend stated. “What I did was wrong and I am going to be punished by FullTilt Poker by having my red pro status revoked for six months. I am unsure what action, if any, PokerStars will take."

The red pro status Townsend is referring to has allowed him to earn an hourly rate and rake back on FullTilt when he played under his normal operating account.  He did not enjoy or have those perks when playing under the accounts he was operating.  He will lose that status and has also opted to donate $25,000 of earnings to a yet as unnamed charity as a ‘good faith’ effort towards his business partners.  He claims that the anonymous accounts were so that he would play smaller games anonymously without having to go public with this smaller stake playing.  Townsend dropped to smaller games as part of his personal bankroll management system.

Lee Jones, the COO for CardRunners who Townsend is involved with believes that the group and the two online poker rooms were hurt by the young man’s actions.  They were the ones who decided on the charitable donation punishment in addition to Townsend’s loss of privileges at the two rooms he frequents.

Unfortunately Townsend is not the first high-profile poker player to be involved in a multi-account scandal.  Justin Bonomo, who is now sponsored by Bodog, was caught playing multiple accounts during online tournaments in 2006.  Josh Field, a teen know as ‘JJProdigy’ was kicked out of a tournament in 2007 as a multi-account player.  Even after being ousted from the tournament, Field continued to play multiple accounts.

Townsend had been using his anonymous accounts to play online poker cash games and not in major tournaments, unlike the others.  He consistently used his main account, the one he will lose all privileges with, for his tournament play.  The other accounts in cash games only made any edge that he had over his opponents more difficult for the websites to quantify.

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