On August 6th, Dan “Wretchy” Martin will once again be able to take to the felts of PokerStars. The world’s largest online poker site banned the rising poker star for three months due to multi-accounting under the user names Wretchy and WhatsLogic.
In a post on the online poker forum PocketFives.com, Martin added that his girlfriend can no longer play on the same cash game tables or tournaments as him. Martin’s girlfriend was not banned from Full Tilt Poker. However, the online poker pro did not escape punishment on that site and was banned for 30 days. He noted that each online poker room found the following: “I played under WhatsLogic for an ample time period (6-9 months), but that I did not ever play both accounts that were in a tournament. The hand histories proved this because the style of play was completely different.” The WhatsLogic name was primarily used in cash games, whereas Wretchy was one of the world’s top tournament players.
Martin revealed that the couple played 45 tournaments together, with one-fifth of those taking place using the same IP address. The incidents occurred over an 18 month time period. Martin noted that he did not have two IP addresses and only recently purchased a wireless data card. He noted, “I do feel that I’ve learned a lot about myself and other people because of this issue. To those of you that turned your back to me, stay turned away. To those that supported me, thank you.”
The controversy began after a post in February by Martin on PocketFives.com that read, “I played under WhatsLogic for a few months… unknown this bish!” The comments came in response to a posted hand history involving an all-in pot that was called by Martin using the name Wretchy. PocketFives.com moderator Murderer then posted a thread on May 9th questioning whether the Wretchy and WhatsLogic accounts were somehow related. After sorting out the situation with Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, Martin posted the aforementioned summary of the situation. However, he noted that he was anything but clandestine about his actions: “Everyone and their brother knew it was me under WhatsLogic as I clearly posted here that it was me. If you read things perhaps you’d know I was never trying to hide that fact.”
Martin will now head to the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas and noted that he may play on Full Tilt Poker (after his 30 day ban expires) and Ultimate Bet while there. The up and coming poker player was able to remove his money from PokerStars. However, his bankroll remains tied up on Full Tilt until the end of 30 days. Martin is 13th on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and took down the challenging PokerStars $100 rebuy in March. On May 3rd, six days before the post by Murderer, he grabbed second in that tournament’s $300,000 Guaranteed version for $52,000. The Oregon native has victories in both the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl and PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand.
Murderer posted tournaments that Wretchy and WhatsLogic had played in simultaneously. On PokerStars, they included three tournaments in September of 2008 with buy-ins ranging from $109 to $215. On Full Tilt, murderer pointed out several instances in October of 2007 where the two accounts played in the same multi-table tournaments. Murderer then referenced two threads that appeared on PocketFives.com from the same time period, one by Martin posting about a hand involving WhatsLogic and another by SluggerWV displaying a separate hand involving WhatsLogic that ended in “gg wretchy.”
Using multiple accounts is against the Terms of Service of major online poker sites. One of the only examples of a room that allows members to change their screen names is Cake Poker. On the USA-friendly site that just hired Lee Jones to be its Poker Room Manager, players can change user names once every seven days.
He should be KICKED OFF the site FOREVER, but they won’t do that, he pays too much RAKE!!! ANY small stakes player would get kicked off for life!
You got that right Joe.
It’s too bad that an old school gambling ethic wasn’t applied to teaching Wretchy why it’s a real bad idea to cheat. If Wretchy cheated in a Vegas casino he would be banned for life and sentenced to prison. If he was caught cheating in certain local games the punishment would be far worse and far more “awe inspiring” than prison and banishment. I’ve heard some call it allowing a cheater to experience “a significant life-changing event” to see the error of their ways.
It just goes to show that cheating is fine if you have some degree of “celebrity” status. How many dollars did this unethical sob cost his honest opponents by playing two hands? How many dollars would any good player win with the edge of knowing two hands at the table…not to mention controlling the bets of two hands. Absolutely pathetic and disgusting.
Card cheats are immoral bastards and if he has no regard for one rule then none of the other rules matter either. This guy and all like him are pure trash and should never be allowed back.
Controlling cheating and people like Wretchy is half of the reason the government wants to shut down online poker. Maybe it’s a good idea to put these websites out of business for allowing cheaters to participate. If a website is not 100 percent ethical then it should be eliminated and the operators prosecuted along with the cheats.
Thank you Dan for schooling me that online gambling is loaded with cheating. I will never use Poker Stars after reading about Wretchy.
Actually guys, I am a small stakes player, and I had 5 accounts with pokerstars. I did not get banned. They caught me, and closed 4 of the accounts…
Just my 2 cents
i got caught with 2 accounts not know ing the rules and they cancelled 1 and transfered funds and ffp
There’s a difference between having multiple accounts under the same ISP (ie my wife and I both play) and playing tournaments TOGETHER using both accounts under the same ISP.
Now that’s something I never did as I see that to be cheating.
If my wife and I joined the SAME tournaments let’s say with a buyin of $26 $38000 Guaranteed with let’s say 500 players and found ourselves at the FT where the winner gets $11000, it would be difficult for other players to believe that there was no collusion.
However I think it’s OK to have multiple accounts under the same ISP as long as you NEVER join the same tournaments together. It’s just a conflict of interest.
that is so true i even wrote an e-mail to the staff and didn’t get any response didn’t even know that it was bannable.