" PokerStars will neither tolerate, nor condone the presence of barred players
in our games, and will not allow to play those who would conspire to keep
secret such a player's presence on PokerStars.
Therefore, in accordance with our policy of barring not only those who cheat
but those who are closely associated with such cheaters, your PokerStars br /> account has been permanently closed."
Another player associated with JJProdigy was banned from PS a couple of weeks ago when it was learned he was 16 years old. FishOnTilt had been one of the top ranked online players of 2008. The suspicion was JJProdigy was playing the account because prior to 2008, FishOnTilt was not a winning player. He later denied JJProdigy was playing the account, but acknowledged he was mentoring him.
Yet another Protégé of JJProdigy, Sorel Mizzi was permanently banned by FullTilt Poker last year for multi-accounting.
One of the interestig things about this is JJProdigy(Josh Field) recently had his 18th birthday. It's amazing that a player so young can have such an influence on the biggest games online, and yet cannot even play legally in Las Vegas (or anywhere else until recently). Multi-accounting aside, what is it exactly that he knows about the game that has translated into so much success for the players above, and obviously many more that we don't know about?
© Copyright 2008
24 comments
hmmm I think I have seen JJProdigy before .. I think it was a while back but i remeber either playing with him or watching him play
I guess he either has special software or just knows somethign we dont; know LOL
Well Best of luck to ya and have fun
Hickoid
Actually, Mizzi admitted multi-accounting. You may recall, he bought another account during the FTP Sunday $750K that was already deep in the tournament from Chris Vaughn. He had been knocked out earlier in the same game. He eny on to win under Vaughn's account. Both were subsequently banned. Vaughn, who as an average player, went on to win the PS Sunday Million the following Sunday.
gbmantis has admitted to allowing other players to play on his account, and in fact, quite regularly on his Full Tilt account.
Forgot to mention, Vaughn was an editor for Bluff Magazine at the time, and had just finished a story on Mizzi and the two were IMing during the tournament.
JJProdigy was found to have multi-accounted during a tournament he won under a username he claimed belonged to his grandmother. His own account had been knocked out of the same tounament earlier(same as in Mizzi's scenario). Subsequently, the money was seized including an additional $40K from "grandmas" account. JJ was 14 or 15 years old at the time.
there's a thread right now about JJ with a little about his proteges:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61/mtt-community/finally-coming-clean-300274/
I disagree that they are "great poker minds." These are a group of kids that have exploited the sites through multi-accounting. I provided 2 specific examples of how JJ and Sorel were eliminated from tournaments and then used a second screen ID to win the tournaments they were eliminated from. No negative equity for them in that scenario, just everyone else in the tournaments. These are not people to be looked up to or revered as brilliant. They cheated and were caught. Not one of them came out and apologized prior to being outed and/or banned.
By the way, I don't buy JJ's apology for one second. The investigations/ appeals of gbmantis and stealthmonk/ aperfectgent are still pending and they continue to play on other sites. His apology is clearly to distance himself from them so they can continue to play.
All of that aside, what they are doing revolves around a specific strategy or set of principles that can be replicated. It has been replicated and that is why they are successful. That is the question. Perhaps, it is rhetorical.
Agreed that JJ's apology is a little sketchy as this is like apology #10 but these players are all experts at MTT strategy. If you have a -ROI in a tournament then entering multiple accounts is even more ----ROI, do you see why?
Whether they multi-account or not they are excellent players. They just chose to ignore the rules and are now paying the consequences.
I am agreeing with you that they are great players, and have employed a winning game strategy. They are not negative ROI players and that is why they benefited from multi-accounting. Just using an unknown screen name for them is +EV because their opponents do not know who they are playing. In the examples cited above, JJ and Sorel were knocked out of big tournaments under their own screen names, and then won the same game playing as an unknown. It is also why they were caught.
I'm sure there are those out there who are familiar with the style of play that are keeping it to themselves. I suppose I would. I have watched a couple of them play on several occassions and saw the obvious situational/ position related raises. Their reads are obviously superior as well as their post flop play. I think JJ could make quite a bit of money by writing a book. Despite the cheating, he obviously has the goods.
its a shame so much was put at stake,,yet this multy account activity and big staking and money moving around from account to account is what built his game,, all these achievements by a mind so young,,, calll it cheating if u will but he still put money in the bank and u haave to give him credit for that
sad day for poker but if i have learned anything in poker, ethics is a big part of the game,,,,,,,
funny thing tho for a game that rewards bluffing, blind stealing, and big stack bullys
i feal bad for the guy and the what he had to answer for
From a post yesterday, JJProdigy answers questions about his screen names and some of the players he has helped.
3) Names that I have used in the past include: iemdavid, misterblair, i<3$-flow, NewSeptember(ftp), bigtruck4w, BufuVoodoo(ftp), whitefish77, g0t t!lt? ... these are the major ones I remember, if I think of anymore I will post them.
4) This will be a long post and I'll talk about it more if I get more reqeusts
5) Some of the people I have helped are.. Imperium, stealthmunk, gbmantis, plattsburgh, fishontilt, d0nt taze me ... this is just the top of my head