Leo Fernandez Suspended from Team PokerStars, Account Sharing Alleged on Forums

One of the South American members of Team PokerStars, Argentina's Leo Fernandez, has been suspended from the site for a period alleged to be six months after unspecified violations of the site's terms and conditions (ToC).  The news was originally broken by Spanish-language poker site SuperPoker.com, which covered the recent LAPT Panama, where a patchless Fernandez participated.

Allegations regarding the reasons for Fernandez cluttered a major 2+2 discussion thread about the Argentinian, a global tournament traveler and cash-game player whose first big score was a fifth in a 2009 EPT high-rollers event for more than $160,000.  That something did happen regarding Fernandez was confirmed by PokerStars reps, however, one of whom told SuperPoker, "Leo made ​​a big mistake that we didn't agree and of which we cannot speak right now."  However, Stars' official page for Fernandez remains up and active as of this posting, with no mention of the suspension.

What that mistake might have been could be allowing other players to participate on Fernandez's sponsored PokerStars account, with Dan "mrgr33n13" Coleman among the accusers and several posters on multiple forums claiming that Fernandez friend Fabrizio Gonzalez might be sharing the account.  Additional allegations surfaced concerning suspect and possible collusion play involving Fernandez in some of Stars highly-promoted "Home Games" offerings, which if true, would be plenty of reason to draw Stars' ire.

If only it was the first skirmish for Fernandez, but it's not.  Poker veterans remember Fernandez, fellow Argentinian player Veronica Dabul, and two unnamed others being targeting by the Wynn Casino in a $700,000 lawsuit a couple of years back.  That lawsuit alleged team cheating at craps by Fernandez, Dabul and the others, including the "sliding" of dice by Fernandez while Dabul and the other allegedly distracted the croupiers.  No resolution of that lawsuit was ever publicized, however, though it's a safe bet that the team's members are no longer welcome at Wynn properties.

While everyone can make a mistake, the allegations regarding Fernandez tend to paint him as equal-opportunity, repeating cheat across multiple forms of gaming, and it wouldn't be a surprise if the six-month suspension purportedly dished out by Stars turned into a permanent form of severance.

Garden City Group Confirms Final Balances to Be Paid, Not Deposits

On the subject of the very slow claims remission process for Full Tilt Poker, to be eventually overseen by the Garden City Group, there's the tiniest bit of news.  And by tiny, we mean tiny; a recent update to the FullTiltPokerClaims.com site shows a recent addition of some old news, but what's there is worth examining very closely, because it seems to confirm the answer to one question.

As published on the GCG site, this text is new (August 1st):

Important Update About the Calculation Formula and Start of the Claims Process 

GCG, working with the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the United States Department of Justice, has completed the review of data provided by Full Tilt Poker ("FTP"). It has been determined that the calculation formula to be used for the Petition for Remission process will be based on players' final balances with FTP as of April 15, 2011 (the "FTP Account Balances"). The claims process will begin shortly. Once the process begins, GCG will email instructions on how to complete an online claim to all potentially eligible claimants identified by GCG utilizing data supplied by FTP.  Account balances from online poker sites other than FTP are not included in this remission process. Petitioners must also meet all other requirements outlined in 28 C.F.R. § 9.8 to be considered eligible for remission. 

If you do not receive an email notice and you believe you are eligible to participate in the remission process, you may file a claim online using the directions that will be provided on this website. If the forfeited funds available for distribution equal or exceed the aggregate FTP Account Balances for all eligible Petitioners, each eligible Petitioner with an approved claim will receive the entirety of his or her FTP Account Balance. If the aggregate FTP Account Balances for all eligible Petitioners exceed the funds available for distribution, payments shall be made to eligible Petitioners on a pro rata basis. Please continue to check this website for updates regarding this administration. Last updated August 1, 2013. Followed by: Summary of the Settlement Agreement and Forefeitures

In July 2012, the United States entered into settlement agreements with FTP and PokerStars - two of the three online poker companies named as defendants in a civil forfeiture action brought by the United States alleging bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses. Under the terms of the settlement with FTP, the company agreed to forfeit virtually all of its assets to the United States (the "Forfeited Full Tilt Assets") in order to fully resolve the action. The amended complaint filed in that action alleged that FTP defrauded its players by misrepresenting to the public that player funds held by FTP were safe, secure and available for withdrawal at any time. In reality, the company did not maintain funds sufficient to repay all of its players and instead, utilized player funds to finance more than $400 million in dividend payments to Full Tilt's owners.

Under the terms of the settlement with PokerStars (the "PokerStars Settlement"), the company agreed, among other things, to forfeit $547 million to the United States and to assume FTP's liability for the approximately $184 million owed by Full Tilt to foreign players. The PokerStars Settlement also provides that PokerStars will acquire the Forfeited Full Tilt Assets from the Government and also precludes PokerStars from offering online poker for real money in the United States unless and until it becomes permissible to do so under relevant law. Utilizing funds forfeited from PokerStars in this action, the Department of Justice has established the Petition for Remission process, by which eligible U.S. fraud victims will be able to seek compensation for their losses.

Let's look at that more closely.  Besides the chiding about the misrepresentation by Full Tilt, the statement -- an official statement, mind you -- is very specific about detailing that the money paid by PokerStars was very specifically related to the complete settlement of both PokerStars and Full Tilt matters.

The balances vs. deposits thing had been argues for a while, but the truth of it is, despite the argument that this solution condones the poker playing, it's the only solution that really made sense.  Besides that, it's a lot less expensive; to think that the US government was going to give all of the US Full Tilt poker-playing freeroll on their deposits was a pipe dream, same as it was that they'd allow the FTP owners to walk away with any latent profits that that sort of a solution would imply.

And what isn't mentioned at all?  That would be Absolute Poker.  Here's the key line: "Account balances from online poker sites other than FTP are not included in this remission process." 

Also, the first paragraph of the second recent addition clearly defines the settlement as being in connection with "two of the three online poker companies," and not with the third, Absolute.

While it was always a pipe dream of AP and UB.com players to think that this settlement money would somehow be used to refund players from those sites, this latest seems to confirm that that won't be happening, and that only Full Tilt players will be receiving refunds from the GCG process.

How many players will PokerStars send to the WSOP

With the 2008 WSOP rounding the corner it is going to be interesting to see this year how many people that win a seat in one of the online poker sites actually play in the World Series of Poker.



Last year, things changed for the online poker rooms who were sending players to the WSOP and this was probably most felt by PokerStars, who has consistently qualified more players to the WSOP than any other online poker room. In 2004 and 2005 and I believe in 2006 the powers that be allowed poker rooms like poker stars to purchase the seats for their qualified players directly.

Today, this has changed.

The online poker rooms can not purchase the main event seat for players and provide them with a ticket. Today, online poker rooms have to provide the player the funds to purchase the seat and rely on the players to make the purchase themselves. And we all know that there is a big difference in getting a 'ticket' to the WSOP than getting the $10 grand in your hand and then turning that over for a seat in the main event...

This year, Poker Stars is sending over 1,000 players to the WSOP and other sites like FullTilt are already qualifying players and have been announcing a 150 seat WSOP main event guarantee, but while they might 'award' this many seats, how many will actually result in players playing in the event?

Last year we saw an overall fall off on the total size of the field due to the fact that so many players qualified online but chose to take the cold hard cash and not try and parlay it into winning the biggest poker tournament in the world.

What would you do? Lets say you win one of the Step Sit-N-Go's at PokerStars with an investment of around $7 or $8 bucks and turn that into a seat worth $10k plus $2k for travel and hotel? Would you take the cash and run, or would you take the shot and play in the biggest poker tournament in the world?

Personally, I might play in some of the smaller events. Maybe take the $$ and play in a few of the $1500-$2000 events but probably not the main event... maybe next year.

Here is the 2008 WSOP Schedule kicking off on May 29th with Live Action and Satellites!

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