Next Sunday will mark the start of the Bluff Online Poker Challenge, a month-long competition on Lock Poker with a cover story in Bluff Magazine on the line. Originally slated to take part in the festivities was Josh “JJProdigy” Field. However, due to violations of the Cake Poker Network’s Terms of Service, Field will not be allowed to participate.
Field told Poker News Daily that the reason he won’t be able to play in the Challenge, which takes place on a site on the Cake Poker Network, is because he “let a stakee use [his] account” on its flagship site. According to Cake Poker’s Terms of Service, “You agree to keep your account information secret and confidential and to not allow anyone else to use or have access to it.” Field was one of the top online tournament players three years ago. However, in February of 2006, he was caught multi-accounting on PartyPoker during its $500,000 Guaranteed. It was then revealed that he was also just 16 years-old, well under the minimum age to play online.
Nevertheless, Field was looking forward to battling it out against top pros in the Bluff Online Poker Challenge. He commented, “It was a chance to get some positive light shed on me for a change.” On whether he thought the possibility even existed that the Cake Poker Network would not allow him to compete, Field commented, “I didn’t think there was a possibility of it, to be honest. Cake said the stakee and I were banned because we were trying to ‘deceive’ other players. I never thought that was an issue on a site where you can change your screen name once per week and your city name that’s displayed whenever you want.”
Field believes he is banned permanently from the Cake Poker Network. In addition to Cake Poker and Lock Poker, other sites that make their homes on the Network include Doyle’s Room (which was introduced one month ago as the newest member of the Cake Poker Network), Gutshot Poker, PlayersOnly, and Red Star Poker. Rumors have circulated that Poker Host may join in the coming weeks. Gold cards and gold chips have become a staple of its partner online poker rooms, whose members can also take advantage of web-based hand history sharing and tables featuring realistic-looking players.
Each contestant in the Challenge will receive $200 in a Lock Poker account. They will have one month to balloon their bankrolls as much as possible. Whoever has the highest total at the end of the month will win their picture on the cover of Bluff Magazine as well as a feature story. Only multi-table and single-table tournaments can be played and the action kicks off March 1st.
The star-studded roster of pros lined up to play includes Poker News Daily columnist Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, Jeff “yellowsub” Williams, Ari “Bodog Ari” Engel, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet, Brett “gank” Jungblut, Bryan “devo” Devonshire, Maria Ho, Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Soren Kongsgaard, Adam “a_junglen” Junglen, Phil “USCPhildo” Collins, Esther “Etay” Taylor, Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins, David “The Maven” Chicotsky, Brett “Bhanks11” Hanks, Jim “KrazyKanuck” Worth, Brandon “Any2Cantu” Cantu, and Mark “P0ker H0” Kroon.
Worth is the elder statesman of the group at 40 years-old, while Hawkins is just 20. Kroon is a member of Team Ultimate Bet. Originally slated to appear was Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi. However, he will be unable to partake due to his sponsorship arrangement with Betfair, according to Bluff Magazine officials. Mizzi, Annette Obrestad, Peter Jepsen, and John Tabatabai make up Team Betfair.
A Lock Poker Frequent Player Point race is currently ongoing for the final seat in the Bluff Online Poker Challenge. Players have until the end of February to climb their way up the leader board.
