Brian Townsend Admits Multiple Accounts
Brian Townsend
A few days ago, Brian Townsend admitted to using multiple accounts to get an unfair edge in his poker games. Since so many players were used to his style of play under his main accounts: aba20 (PokerStars.com) and Brian Townsend (FullTiltPoker.com), he decided to create 2 new accounts so that nobody would know who he was.
Brian has since admitted what he did was wrong in a recent apology posted in his blog. Brian wrote:
“For the past 6 months I have been playing under the 2nd aliases Stellarnebula on FTP and makersmark66 on PokerStars. I have not used the aba20 account on Stars since I began playing on the Makersmark66 account. I have since gone back to using the aba20 account and will play only that account. During this time I played the 25/50 and 100/200 PLO games. I played under the Stellarnebula account from February until the end of June at which time Lee Jones and I had a discussion and we came to an agreement that I needed to close it. During this time I was playing under the Brian Townsend account, never at the same table with the Stellarnebula. Under the Stellarnebula account I played 25/50, 50/100, and 100/200 PLO. During this time I played a very small amount of 50/100 PLO and primarily 200/400 PLO under the Brian Townsend account.
I wanted to have come forward and make this public sooner, but unfortunately because of certain business relationships I could not do that. What I did was wrong and I am going to be punished by FullTilt poker by having my red pro status revoked for 6 months. I am unsure what action, if any, PokerStars will take.
I have also hurt those that I work closely with primarily at CardRunners but also at FullTilt. To compensate those that were hurt by my actions I am going to be donating 25,000 dollars to a charity to be determined in the future. This money will be removed from my CardRunners distributions. This is by no means me making my actions correct but I hope that it shows some good faith towards those that I work closely with. I am very proud of CardRunners; we are doing something very special.”
Brian has also opened a thread on 2+2 where he has been taking questions from players. He seems to be avoiding all the questions about how much money he made from these accounts, but in an admission of guilt, Brian has decided to donate $25k to a charity for his actions. Full Tilt Poker will also be suspending Brian’s Red Pro status for 6 months as a penalty for this.
The real question though is, was he so wrong to do this? I don’t really see this as cheating as online poker is supposed to be anonymous. Using software to study your opponents’ patterns and taking notes is part of the game, but why not allow players to keep their identity private also? If he is THAT GOOD, then he deserves to keep winning no matter what account. But hey, I guess the sites have these rules in place for a reason, so though I don’t really think he was right, I don’t think he deserves to be crucified for this also.
What do you think? Was Brian wrong for doing what he did? What should happen to him?
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JJProdigy is back – Does Anyone Care? said
am September 16 2008 @ 2:04 pm
[...] is pretty much a universally reviled villain in the world of online poker. Long before Brian Townsend was railed for multi-accounting Josh “JJProdigy” Field was banned from multiple sites for doing just that. He’s [...]
Candida Memory said
am September 18 2008 @ 8:37 am
My husband is a keen poker player and of your site. He has been following Mr Townsend’s in particular. I would very much like to speak to someone regarding coaching and advise and was wondering if there was any way I could get an email to one of the pro’s? If I can’t do this with you can you give me advice on how I can get an email through to someone?
Yours Hopfully
Candi M