After making the final table of the Fifth Anniversary PokerStars Sunday Million tournament last weekend, one of the finishers will allegedly not be paid due to a violation of the Terms of Service of the site.
According to several reports, including the Netherlands’ second largest newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, the website Make Poker Legal, and the TwoPlusTwo forums, the sixth place finisher in Sunday’s historic tournament, “zeurrr,” will not receive the $518,402.33 he earned due to a dispute over who actually played the account.
The Dutch newspaper opened up the issue after seeking an interview with “zeurrr” following last weekend’s historic event.
A reporter from the newspaper apparently tried to contact Jimmy Jonker, who was supposed to be the man behind the “zeurrr” moniker, earlier this week by phone. When the reporter reached Jos Jonker, however, he claimed to be the player who took down the sixth place prize. After further investigation, it was learned by the newspaper that the 47-year-old Jos Jonker was the father of Jimmy, whose account listed him as being 19; in actuality, he was just 17.
The Terms of Service of PokerStars clearly address this issue. Under Clause 1.2, it states, “The Software is licensed to you by PokerStars for your private personal use. Please note that the Software is not for use by (i) individuals under 18 years of age, (ii) individuals under the legal age of majority in their jurisdiction, and (iii) individuals connecting to the Site from jurisdictions from which it is illegal to do so.”
Furthermore, the Terms of Service state what actions PokerStars can take if it finds that a player on the site is in violation. Under Clause 5.9, which addresses what PokerStars calls “fraudulent behavior,” it states, “PokerStars shall be entitled to take such action as it sees fit, including, but not limited to: immediately blocking a User’s access to the Service; terminating a User’s account with PokerStars; seizing the funds within a User’s account; disclosing such information (including the identity of the User) to financial institutions, relevant authorities, and/or any person or entity that has the legal right to such information; and/or taking legal action against a User.”
At the website Make Poker Legal, it is reported that a representative of PokerStars for the Netherlands appeared on a national television program to discuss the situation. The website reports that, during the interview, PokerStars rep Simon Keijzer stated, “Jimmy Jonker is registered as a 19-year-old, while he is 17-years-old at the moment… An underage person shouldn’t have played the tournament and he will not be entitled to the prize money.”
TwoPlusTwo posters have been discussing the incident fervently, as whoever was playing the “zeurrr” account was posting about it on the forum and Tweeting heavily on Sunday. By press time, a 700-post thread regarding the situation had emerged. Throughout the thread, there seemed to be a division of opinion as to whether the account should be paid the windfall.
Poster “Moximal” seemed to have a solid grasp of the situation when he posted, “He shouldn’t have been in the tournament to start with. He made the decision to play underage and took the risk. He should absolutely not be paid. The right thing for them to do is to keep the money and lock the account until he’s 18.”
Another poster, “pkz,” agreed: “PokerStars obviously has to act once this became public, otherwise there would be no point in having the TOS at all. I assume they would be able to lose their gaming license as well.”
Although it is believed that PokerStars has withheld the sixth place money “zeurrr” was able to negotiate in the nine-way chop, this is not confirmed. Attempts by Poker News Daily to obtain confirmation of PokerStars’ official decision have gone unanswered as of press time.