Hi All,
First let me say that I am a heads up player only at BetOnline poker. As in, I only play in tables that have 2 seats. Therefore, it is impossible for me to "collude" with anyone.
My account at BetOnline poker was recently frozen for sharing an IP address. This occurred when me and my brother stayed at a hotel this weekend (2/24/2012) on a trip to Austin, and both played on the site at the same time. As mentioned above, I am a heads up player only, and we did NOT play together in any money games of any sort whatsoever.
The next day, my account was frozen with ~$4000 in it, and I received the following e-mail from BetOnline:
While checking your account, we noticed that you played in the same tables as poker user: “(Player1)”. Also we noticed an unusual play pattern related to username (Player2).
This pattern involves the funds transferring from his account to your account through the hands played.
Can you please explain your relation with these usernames?
Why were you playing in same tables from same internet connection?
Playing from the same Internet Connection is considered as Collusion Fraud and is reason enough to close your account permanently.
Please be aware that we keep records of all the hands.
- NOTE: I have replaced the names of two players on the email with Player1 and Player2. Player1 was my brother. I have absolutely no idea who Player2 was.
I wrote a response to the email explaining that:
1) Player1 was my brother, and a simple hand review should show that we had NEVER played in any cash ring games together. I was NOT in the same tables as he was, contrary to the email. Just to be completely transparent: We did once play together in a PLAY money game, for fun, a few weeks back. That is the ONLY time we played hands at a ring table together
2) I have no idea who Player2 is. If it is someone I have played heads up against at some point, then a review of the hand history should show that I was only playing legitimate poker, and NOT doing any kind of chip dumping or anything else.
I received no response to the email, and my account is still locked. My brother received a similar email, and had his account locked as well. I have contacted BetOnline support several times for the issue. Their online chat originally told me I would receive a response within 24 hours, but I did not. After that their phone support told me to wait for a reply to my email, but they refused to give any timeframe when I could expect a response. From what I've heard of their frontline support, I'm not even confident that my emails have gotten through to anyone who can help me.
I know playing from the same IP address was dumb, but I'm being completely honest when I say it did not even occur to me before this that it was a sign of collusion or cheating. The fact alone that I play only heads up should surely be evidence enough to clear me of any collusion suspicions.
I have been an online poker player for 10 years now, and have NEVER cheated or colluded in any form or fashion. I've tried to be transparent here and include all pertinent information. Believe me there is no "Oh well, actually just this one time we played in a ring game together for only a few hands" or any other such information that I'm deliberately skipping out on. I don't cheat, period. Neither does my brother.
Please, if anyone has experienced anything similar at this site, or has any advice on what my next steps could be, please let me know as I'm very worried that I'm going to have a lot of money taken from me for an unfair reason.