At the start of February 2024, some activity on the 2+2 poker forum (which was deleted a little while later) caught the poker world's attention.
Sometime around February 6th, a 2+2 user named Exodus944 posted to the platform's News, Views, and Gossip forum. Apparently, after playing a $100 Spin and securing the top prize, partypoker has decided to withhold the remaining $700,000. The user spoke about winning the $1,000,000 Spin and Go on partypoker, but only withdrawing $300,000 of the prize money.
The remaining $700,000 was confiscated, but how did this happen?
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Here's What Happened (Allegedly)
The poster detailed that the funds were removed after he won a million dollars on a $100 Spin on October 22nd. “Exodus944” claimed that the funds were arbitrarily withdrawn after the company claimed that the user violated conditions by using allegedly false documents. On February 14th, his account was locked.
“Exodus944” said he lived in an accepted country, as described on partypoker's site, and only later learned that the documents were considered invalid. The player claimed that despite his inquiries, he was not given any specific solutions from partypoker.
The Romanian player said he now lives in Ireland. However, after moving to the country to play in 2021, the player “presented an electricity bill from a friend's house, albeit, in his own name”.
After winning, he withdrew $300,000 and left the remaining $700,000 in his partypoker account. These leftover funds were later seized following a re-analysis of the document.
Exodus944 wrote, "At this stage in my life I decided I wanted to slow down my online poker playing for a while and focus on traveling and playing live poker. I wanted to return to online poker at some point, so I decided to withdraw my winnings in “small” increments. As of February 14, 2023, I had withdrawn $300,000 and had approximately $707,000 remaining in my partypoker account that I intended to cash out at some point."
“Exodus944” said partypoker indicated it would release the remaining funds if new documentation was provided. He claims he sent the document but did not receive the funds.
What Did the Poker Community Think?
Some 2+2 users expressed support for the player's cause, while others expressed suspicions that “Exodus944” may not have told the whole story and that he was perhaps using a VPN to play in a restricted location. This is fairly common among regs and recreational players. Still, when you win a major jackpot, you'll be under the microscope more than the average player.
Others believed that partypoker accepted the document initially and should not withhold the funds now after discovering the error after the fact.
This is something that players have been echoing for years now. Almost all poker sites allow deposits with little or no documentation, which is rarely the case when you withdraw. Actually, it makes more sense than you'd think. A deposit is lower risk to the user, since the money is going to partypoker. However, a withdrawal could send that money to the wrong person, if there aren't strict security checks in place. That's why its often easier to put funds on sites than to take them off.
Online gaming operators regularly confiscate funds from players they suspect are not playing in a legal jurisdiction.
Partypoker has not publicly responded to the controversy yet, but we'll update you when they do.
What's the Key Takeaway Here?
It appears that the user Exodus944 has wiped their 2+2 account clean, with no remaining posts or replies.
What does that mean?
Well, it doesn't look very hopeful for Exodus944. This could mean that they realize they violated the rules in some way and are withdrawing their claims and accusations. There are other reasons that Exodus944 may have wiped their profile, but those are more speculative.
The incident demonstrated a truth we all need to remember about online poker.
If you win a large amount online, it's very likely that your documentation will be re-examined.
False Documents Can Lose Big Money for Online Players
In online poker, it is not uncommon for account seizures to occur weeks or even months after a player lands a life-changing cash win. A recent story involved former WSOP November Niner Gordon Vayo, who lost an almost identical amount because of – you guessed it – false documentation.
Vayo sued PokerStars in 2018 for nearly $700,000, alleging that the site had frozen most of its winnings from a SCOOP event several months earlier. PokerStars, in doing due diligence regarding large payouts, determined that Vayo submitted falsified housing documents in Montreal, Canada during the 2018 SCOOP event, when in fact he was playing from Los Angeles.
Vayo's lawyer dropped him as a client after receiving evidence of that, and Vayo was quickly forced to drop his lawsuit against PokerStars. Last year, a user also complained about $500,000 missing from his GGPoker account , but in a completely different situation.
