Quick turnaround
WPT Global has announced the signing of Tony “Ren” Lin as its newest ambassador. And the poker community has been absolutely dragging the poker site for it.
Lin ranks third on China’s live tournament earnings list and has been a very popular player, but was also “indefinitely” suspended from GGPoker – for which he was an ambassador – and the World Series of Poker in October 2025 for his role in an online poker tournament cheating scandal.
Less than three months later, he has been welcomed with open arms by WPT Global, raising the ire of many in the poker world.
Should have known better
Last fall, player “RealOA” won the $10,000 GGMillion$ on GGPoker. But, as it turned out, he had some help. Third-place finisher “Buzzcut” publicly accused RealOA of receiving real-time assistance from Lin during the final table. He allegedly shared his screen with Lin and Lin provided advice on the hand. It all might have remained “alleged,” but Buzzcut produced screenshots of text messages to prove it.
Those messages were of conversations between RealOA, Lin, Buzzcut, and others, in which RealOA thanked Lin for his help. Buzzcut also posted screenshots of Lin apologizing to him for aiding RealOA.
After the evidence came out, Lin was disqualified from the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Super Circuit Cyprus Main Event at the beginning of Day 2, though at the time, nobody understood why (he probably did). Merit Poker only posted on social media that Lin had violated GGPoker’s Poker Integrity Policy.
Upon concluding its quick investigation, GGPoker permanently banned RealOA from the site and from the WSOP, while it “indefinitely” suspended Lin from the same.
Lin followed up with an apology, saying he was trying to help a friend and didn’t realize in the moment that RealOA was currently in the hand.
WPT Global do-over
While Lin wasn’t permanently suspended, the phrase “indefinitely suspended” does tend to mean “a long time” to most people. Now, whether or not you consider less than two months a long time is your business, but he was back at the WSOP felt, playing in the WSOP Paradise in December.
And now he’s with WPT Global.
The site first announced Lin’s ambassadorship over the weekend and the poker community came out in force to register its disapproval. Not that anyone thinks he is a terrible person or anything – he had a very good reputation before the cheating scandal – but most saw it as a bad decision, considering it was just in October that he was suspended from GGPoker.
WPT Global didn’t know how to handle the flak, so it took down the announcement post. But it put it back up Monday morning, along with a PR statement to try to calm the criticism.
“Tony has openly addressed past controversies, taken full responsibility for his actions, and accepted the consequences with humility,” WPT Global wrote. “His willingness to learn, improve, and move forward demonstrates a maturity that aligns with our values. His journey reflects resilience—a quality we admire and wish to highlight.”
Image credit: World Poker Tour
