Sorel Mizzi Joins Betfair Poker

Ollieboy

Personally know Sorel and like the guy and believe he will be a great poker champion, but is it right and fair for a online site to be link with him after his multi-accounts online and buyin of accounts.

I think not and its rewarding cheating, instead of banning him from all sites, they reward him. Also, Sorel is more of a American players, which is a market betfair cant enter.

I would say Annette15 had some involvement in him getting this deal.

views?

Ste05

Terrible IMO. The multi accounting and buying accounts should have tainted him. Even in his interview announcing the deal he talks about how JJProdigy was his mentor. What'll be next signing JJProdigy??

Jesus Wept

I think it's a crying shame tbh.

phantom_lord

The-Rigger wrote: »

I think it's a crying shame tbh.

no doubt about it.

Jesus Wept

Wtf are Betfair thinking? Idiots.
I think I'll let them know.

phantom_lord

puts me off playing there anyho!

HoLLLLLaments

Ste05 wrote: »

Even in his interview announcing the deal he talks about how JJProdigy was his mentor.

link?

Ollieboy

should honest players make there feelings know by email support or marketing etc.

I think the guy deserved it for everything he achieved in poker, but cheating is cheating and its are money he took.

I feel a line should be drawn in the sand to allow players that this is not acceptable.

I would like to see players here take a oath, so than if there got cheating at a later stage against another player etc from boards, we can prove that they lied. Bit childish I know, but honesty is important in a game about money, or is it?

HoLLLLLaments

Ste05 wrote: »

The multi accounting

not to nitpick but he didnt mulltiaccount. thats a much worse crime than buying an account imo. both are unacceptable though.

poorbarman

Reward the cheats.Thats really good for Betfair.An e mail is called for...........

Ste05

HoLLLLLaments wrote: »

link?

http://www.pokernyhederne.com/poker-nyheder/7/2180/poker-tv-sorel-mizzi-betfair/poker-tv-sorel-mizzi.html

Ollieboy

poorbarman wrote: »

Reward the cheats.Thats really good for Betfair.An e mail is called for...........

and its only a few weeks ago that they were accusing people of theft in relation to the STT scandal, where the F up....

I'll be closing my account with them, not that I played there to often. Was just interest to see if people thought this was a overraction

Grafter

phantom_lord wrote: »

puts me off playing there anyho!

The software does that for me.

strewelpeter

WTF? Maybe they'll hire Keiren Fallon as their sponsored jockey and make Miley Rodgers their head of security.

I suppose from a marketing pov Mizzi is going to get them a lot of attention!

dannydiamond

Wow I thought his chance of ever getting sponsorship from an online cardroom had well and truly gone.

nicnicnic

he said in the press conference announcing the betfair deal something the lines of " well I was never going to get a deal with fulltilt now was I". A really stupid thing to say I think

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

Goodluck2me

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

But from an ethical and marketing standpoint?

since when did they go together?

I don`t have a problem with it to be honest, its great publicity and he`s a top class pro.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Great player but sending out a wrong message me thinks

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

strewelpeter

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Kudos to them for providing a non - template response within a short timeframe (though that response may become the template).

It is a form letter. LOL

Requiem4adream

There is a big parallel with this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/7239962.stm

It's human to err. Distinctly human to make mistakes. In both cases, Dwain Chambers and Sorel Mizzi, both have broken the rules , both have been punished. It's a sad life imo if you cant make a mistake, take the punishment on the chin and move on without it being held against you ad-infinitum. I dont condone drug taking in athletics, i dont condone multi-accounting/buying people tournaments in poker - both are underhanded and plain cheating. IMO there should be harsher penalties for the cheats in both respects. But double-punishment does not sit well with me, Chambers served his ban and if he's now clean from drugs let him compete, Sorel got some punishment im sure ... let him move on.

strewelpeter

Requiem4adream wrote: »

... let him move on.

Not yet.

Requiem4adream

strewelpeter wrote: »

Not yet.

Heh. Matter of personality i suppose. Wayne O'Donoghue served the time recommended by the legal system yet there are many who will never forgive/let him move on. That's a more emotive debate though and Sorel Mizzi and Dwain Chambers didnt kill anyone, be nice to retain a healthy perspective on what was actually done. The publicity cant be bad for Betfair either :rolleyes:

peterpancake

Requiem4adream wrote: »

Heh. Matter of personality i suppose. Wayne O'Donoghue served the time recommended by the legal system yet there are many who will never forgive/let him move on. That's a more emotive debate though and Sorel Mizzi and Dwain Chambers didnt kill anyone, be nice to retain a healthy perspective on what was actually done. The publicity cant be bad for Betfair either :rolleyes:

lets just kick his ass at poker,best way.Bring him on!!!!

strewelpeter

Yep. Sounds like Betfair are going to get a huge amount of bang for their buck.

FWIW I think hes a sound lad and a fine poker player, I think that he handled himself very well through all the hassle that he got himself into. I just don't think its anywhere near far enough in the past for him to be able to take on the role of being a representative for any poker site without bringing a whole lot of attention to the problems he has had.

Ollieboy

Requiem4adream wrote: »

There is a big parallel with this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/7239962.stm

It's human to err. Distinctly human to make mistakes. In both cases, Dwain Chambers and Sorel Mizzi, both have broken the rules , both have been punished. It's a sad life imo if you cant make a mistake, take the punishment on the chin and move on without it being held against you ad-infinitum. I dont condone drug taking in athletics, i dont condone multi-accounting/buying people tournaments in poker - both are underhanded and plain cheating. IMO there should be harsher penalties for the cheats in both respects. But double-punishment does not sit well with me, Chambers served his ban and if he's now clean from drugs let him compete, Sorel got some punishment im sure ... let him move on.

Dan your totally wrong here. He was kick of a site that also held back the funds he won illegally. I dont believe the site ever publish is name and it was leak by other players later. He was not punish for his crime, for the very simple reason there is no crime. But he was dishonest in the eyes of his peers and serve no punishment besides people not wanting to deal with him in the future.

A couple of months later a site rewards his now new reputation with professional contract, which the players will also pay for out of higher rake and less RB. I think this is a terrible move by betfair, a site that is currently taken court action against players from similar dishonesty.

Lets be exact about this, mulit-accounts and buying of accounts is cheating. Its similar to someone not paying the correct income tax, its theft from the weak and poor. Using the excuse the you'll not do it again, report others for this cheating etc does not wash with me and most people. I'm sure if he wants to be honest, he could lists all the accounts he purchase before and all the players that he know's that are under age and using multi-accounts, but he wont do this, so this proves the point that he as not learnt.

Betfair should be issueing a statement saying that players like Sorel are not welcome to there site.

And do you really believe a runner will never use drugs again.... I think your been very silly if you believe that. He promises not to get caught again and be more careful, thats all. History is full of example this behavour

Requiem4adream

Ollieboy wrote: »

Lets be exact about this, mulit-accounts and buying of accounts is cheating. Its similar to someone not paying the correct income tax, its theft from the weak and poor. Using the excuse the you'll not do it again, report others for this cheating etc does not wash with me and most people. I'm sure if he wants to be honest, he could lists all the accounts he purchase before and all the players that he know's that are under age and using multi-accounts, but he wont do this, so this proves the point that he as not learnt.

Betfair should be issueing a statement saying that players like Sorel are not welcome to there site.

And do you really believe a runner will never use drugs again.... I think your been very silly if you believe that. He promises not to get caught again and be more careful, thats all. History is full of example this behavour

But if that's the case why would we ever let anyone out of prison? "ah sure they'll all re-offend anyway!!". Everyone in life deserves a chance at redemption and to make amends for mistakes. You cant keep a convicted thief in prison his whole life on the basis if you let him out he'll just rob again.

Sorel's mistake was playing a tournament, getting knocked out and then buying the tournament late on so he could use his ability to win $$$. It's downright underhanded and against T&C on every site. But in degrees of crime it's not exactly master-criminal stuff. I talk with players everyday on msn and aim and sometimes they ask me advice on hands while they are in the tournament, that's common practise. You could argue that's them getting me to play it for them more or less!

Ollieboy

Requiem4adream wrote: »

talk with players everyday on msn and aim and sometimes they ask me advice on hands while they are in the tournament, that's common practise. You could argue that's them getting me to play it for them more or less!

This is also cheating, 1 hand 1 player. You have a very naive attitude about this and its not the first time you've comment on Sorel. Lets take a example:

I touch a child, should I ever be allowed to have children or work with children again.... NO
I rob a bank, should I ever be allowed to work in a bank or handle cash again.... no.

I'm not really into given muppets or crooks 2nd chance, I would rather a lot of these thugs loss a limp and teach them a lession. You must have never been robbed or had any wrong done against you. But if you live in the real world and not at home and I dont mean that in a insulting away as your young and take it while its going, but when you have a **** in your house threaten your family, well there is only 1 solution.

In this topic, Sorel cheated, knows other cheats, as cheaten before but never been caught. Comes out and says sorry and were all to move on. **** him, fool once, but will not be fool a 2nd time.

He than gets a contract from a online site. This is disgraceful and its the only word for it.

I find it really hard to understand how a professional player can accept this as been right, unless you feel the professional players have the right to take the fishs money in whatever means it takes, which I would be very disappoint to hear....

sorry about the lenght of post, but this really pisses me off and puts be off playing online when I see it happening so much.

Society doesn't want to stand up for the weak or the abuse and its a shame on society in general.

Goodluck2me

Requiem4adream wrote: »

But if that's the case why would we ever let anyone out of prison? "ah sure they'll all re-offend anyway!!". Everyone in life deserves a chance at redemption and to make amends for mistakes. You cant keep a convicted thief in prison his whole life on the basis if you let him out he'll just rob again.

Sorel's mistake was playing a tournament, getting knocked out and then buying the tournament late on so he could use his ability to win $$$. It's downright underhanded and against T&C on every site. But in degrees of crime it's not exactly master-criminal stuff. I talk with players everyday on msn and aim and sometimes they ask me advice on hands while they are in the tournament, that's common practise. You could argue that's them getting me to play it for them more or less!

I agree, once you have served your punishment live and let live. You`re going way OTT here Ollie imho.

Ollieboy

goodluck2me wrote: »

I agree, once you have served your punishment live and let live. You`re going way OTT here Ollie imho.

of course I'm been OTT, but I think you and Dan miss the point, he rob from his fellow players and fellow professional friends and he still gets reward and represents a online site, what siginal is that to give to other players. Make it big online and a site will reward you with a professional contract. I know the examples are extreme, but after seen this I know its worthwhile to cheat online become a big name and let the sponsorship role in.

As I said in my op, I met this guy spent time with him and talked to him online, he actually credit me with him coming to the IO last year and winning 600k. I've spent a lot of time playing against this guy and I know how good he his. I believe he will be one of the games true great MTT players if not already

Jesus Wept

It's a load of sh1te, he didn't serve any time.

There is no governing body for poker, there is no FIFA or equivilent.
If there were he should of served his time, he should of been given a ban from online and a ban from live poker for 'x' amount of time.

Then you could say he 'served his time'.

Even then, no one should be offering him/be allowed to offer him sponsorship.

The ambivalence shown because of the nature of his thievery is frustrating.
If he took 50e out of your wallet instead of your poker earnings you'd likely think differently.

But sure, maybe it didn't cost you anything, maybe it didn't cost me anything?
It's hard to quantify so we should just feel wishy washy about it?
Bollix.


It's not 'stealing' or 'thieving' or being a cheating knacker, it was -ev for a few people it affected. :rolleyes:
Loadahbollix.

He is an opportunist who will likely always shoot the angles, and should be treated accordingly, not rewarded.

hotspur

What an appalling decision by Betfair Poker. I would say it's close to 100% that this wasn't authorised by the heads of Betfair in full knowledge of the situation. It is currently a tumultuous time for Betfair in relation to media perception of gambling corruption in sport. I mean the French tennis federation is going to court to stop Betfair from offering bets on the French Open this year. Laptops were banned from the Aussie Open.

Only last week I watched 30 minutes of the head of Betfair being interviewed on BBC World about the role of Betfair and Internet gambling in corrupting sporting events. He provided a very confident and eloquent, albeit disingenuous (and at time outright lying about facts) defence of the culpability of Betfair and online gambling.

Then a few days later they sign up one of the most famous online poker cheats in the world as a face of their poker site!!! Huge owngoal.

Requiem4adream

Ollieboy wrote: »

This is also cheating, 1 hand 1 player. You have a very naive attitude about this and its not the first time you've comment on Sorel. Lets take a example:

I touch a child, should I ever be allowed to have children or work with children again.... NO
I rob a bank, should I ever be allowed to work in a bank or handle cash again.... no.

I'm not really into given muppets or crooks 2nd chance, I would rather a lot of these thugs loss a limp and teach them a lession. You must have never been robbed or had any wrong done against you. But if you live in the real world and not at home and I dont mean that in a insulting away as your young and take it while its going, but when you have a **** in your house threaten your family, well there is only 1 solution.

In this topic, Sorel cheated, knows other cheats, as cheaten before but never been caught. Comes out and says sorry and were all to move on. **** him, fool once, but will not be fool a 2nd time.

He than gets a contract from a online site. This is disgraceful and its the only word for it.

I find it really hard to understand how a professional player can accept this as been right, unless you feel the professional players have the right to take the fishs money in whatever means it takes, which I would be very disappoint to hear....

I've 8 stitches in my head from being attacked with a crow bar for literally no reason 18 months ago, thought i was going to die blood everywhere.....constant headaches to remind me of it! Gave statements to the Guards etc, 2 witnesses etc but they said they had the guys on a different charge so wouldnt be pressing charges. What im saying is this - if they had have been sent down for it (and they should have been), once they served their time then i'm all for their release into society. Of course i think they're absolute scum and i hate them for what they did to me....but they done their time for the crime, move on. (even if the time served doesnt please me, that's the legal systems fault, not the scumbags.)

Let me ask you a question ollie and be honest - you're deep in the warm-up (this obv is a realistic example already hehe), there's 12 left you're a massive chip leader and there's a family emergency and you absolutely have to leave, what would you do? Do you sit out and let them blind you out and come 12th or would you ask a friend or someone on Boards to take over for you to finish the tournament? As a rule i dont let anyone touch my account but in the above described scenario if it were me i'd absolutely get someone off Boards to finish it for me. Ethically it's completely different to what Sorel did but bottom line it would be the same thing - 2 different people playing 1 account in 1 tournament. (a slight difference would be if the Boardsie to take over wasnt originally in the same tourny, but bottom line remains the same).

I dont know how many times i have to say it, what he did was wrong, violated T&C's, underhanded, sneaky, duplicitous..... he got his $ frozen and claims to have learned his lesson over it. There's no harm in keeping a sense of perspective over things, and imo the guy deserves a second chance. I'm all for Dwain Chambers representing UK in the Worlds too.

Edit - Just to hammer this home for ya, i play mtt's probably more than anyone on boards.ie. If this sort of cheating were widespread i'd be appalled and very pissed off, especially if it were good players doing it. It's not fair to play 5 hours against an opponent, have a good read on them and then they play in a completely different style for the end of the tournament (after someone buying it). It's wrong, -ev for me , -ev for everyone else. But you have to maintain a healthy sense of perspective over things like this. His punishment was having $ withheld. He's apologised for it and said it wont happen again, good enough for me. Might not be good enough for others. Betfair signing him up would neither persuade or dissuade me from opening an account with them, i'd be much more interested in their mtt structures, player base, player traffic etc etc than the presence of a "reformed" cheat.

dannydiamond

What exactly is this "punishment" some of you speak of?
There's alot of waffle along the lines of serving your time and taking and accepting your punishment,this is total and utter bollox,he got away scot free and is now laughing in the face of Full Tilt and the other players he cheated.

Shouldn't be surprised by who Betfair choose to sponsor though,Ben Grundy anyone?

Requiem4adream

dannydiamond wrote: »

What exactly is this "punishment" some of you speak of?
There's alot of waffle along the lines of serving your time and taking and accepting your punishment,this is total and utter bollox,he got away scot free and is now laughing in the face of Full Tilt and the other players he cheated.

Shouldn't be surprised by who Betfair choose to sponsor though,Ben Grundy anyone?

Is Ben Grundy the milky bar kid? Heard the name before!

Punishment = $ frozen. If Full Tilt wanted to throw the book at him im all for it, but you cant hold it against him that they didnt. As for Betfair, if Sorel is gonna represent them in live tournys then they've made a good signing, he's a quality player and highly controversial, will get people talking and get people's emotions up.

dannydiamond

Requiem4adream wrote: »

Is Ben Grundy the milky bar kid? Heard the name before!

Punishment = $ frozen. If Full Tilt wanted to throw the book at him im all for it, but you cant hold it against him that they didnt. As for Betfair, if Sorel is gonna represent them in live tournys then they've made a good signing, he's a quality player and highly controversial, will get people talking and get people's emotions up.

Aye Ben Grundy is indeed the milkybarkid,he plays like a 10 year old boy too...

Having his account frozen is hardly punishment.To use your own analogy,a guy robs a bank,obviously his ill gotten cash is confiscated,that's a given.Is that then the end of the matter?

Requiem4adream

dannydiamond wrote: »

Aye Ben Grundy is indeed the milkybarkid,he plays like a 10 year old boy too...

Having his account frozen is hardly punishment.To use your own analogy,a guy robs a bank,obviously his ill gotten cash is confiscated,that's a given.Is that then the end of the matter?

No, he should be sent down for it. My point is *if he isnt sent down for it*, for whatever reason, legal loophole or whatever, then that's the legal systems fault not his. So in this case - Sorel cheats, sorel is caught, sorel is punished (insufficient bs punishment in most peoples eyes but still a punishment), sorel apologises , says it wont happen again. For me that's the end of it. Move on. 2nd chance. If he is caught again then i've no time for him. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake. This is all IMO obviously!

dannydiamond

I do agree with you though that it might actually turn out well for Betfair in the long run though,high profile,get people talking,no such thing as bad publicity,and all that.

RoundTower

the point is there is no law, the only punishment anyone can get for cheating at poker is being barred by poker organizers. It's not as if he spent the last six months in a chain gang breaking rocks.

I don't know why anyone even bothers with you any more though.

Requiem4adream

RoundTower wrote: »

the point is there is no law, the only punishment anyone can get for cheating at poker is being barred by poker organizers. It's not as if he spent the last six months in a chain gang breaking rocks.

I don't know why anyone even bothers with you any more though.

EDIT : i love you too x. Edit #2: Btw your sole input in this thread has been to antagonise me again. wp. and goodnight.

eagle eye

This is ridiculous, an online poker site sponsoring an online poker cheat.

Does anyone know of any toy company that has hired a convicted paedophile to advertise for them?

Its the same thing imo.

He should never be sponsored by any poker company EVER!

I also wrote to Betfair, which i use for sports betting and occasionally for poker, and have told them i will not be using any part of their site again unless they get rid of Mizzi.

Ollieboy

Requiem4adream wrote: »

Let me ask you a question ollie and be honest - you're deep in the warm-up (this obv is a realistic example already hehe), there's 12 left you're a massive chip leader and there's a family emergency and you absolutely have to leave, what would you do? Do you sit out and let them blind you out and come 12th or would you ask a friend or someone on Boards to take over for you to finish the tournament? As a rule i dont let anyone touch my account but in the above described scenario if it were me i'd absolutely get someone off Boards to finish it for me. Ethically it's completely different to what Sorel did but bottom line it would be the same thing - 2 different people playing 1 account in 1 tournament. (a slight difference would be if the Boardsie to take over wasnt originally in the same tourny, but bottom line remains the same).

I dont know how many times i have to say it, what he did was wrong, violated T&C's, underhanded, sneaky, duplicitous..... he got his $ frozen and claims to have learned his lesson over it. There's no harm in keeping a sense of perspective over things, and imo the guy deserves a second chance. I'm all for Dwain Chambers representing UK in the Worlds too.

Edit - Just to hammer this home for ya, i play mtt's probably more than anyone on boards.ie. If this sort of cheating were widespread i'd be appalled and very pissed off, especially if it were good players doing it. It's not fair to play 5 hours against an opponent, have a good read on them and then they play in a completely different style for the end of the tournament (after someone buying it). It's wrong, -ev for me , -ev for everyone else. But you have to maintain a healthy sense of perspective over things like this. His punishment was having $ withheld. He's apologised for it and said it wont happen again, good enough for me. Might not be good enough for others. Betfair signing him up would neither persuade or dissuade me from opening an account with them, i'd be much more interested in their mtt structures, player base, player traffic etc etc than the presence of a "reformed" cheat.

Ok, lets make this simple for you, because your missing the point.

1. I've no problem with given people second chances, if we had that atitude we would never have agreed to the good Friday agreement and people would never be allowed out of prison etc. But because people agree to this, doesn't make it right. If anyone does me harm or robs from me, well I'll be looking fro my pound of flesh and wont be worry about the garda's. If someone breaks into my house, than thats there choice and there putting there life on the line. A couple of years ago 2 small time drug dealers where found dead, there family came on national TV crying, poor guys... how many lives did they ruin. Or a drug take robs a shop, kills someone and gets off because of his drug problem.. madness.

2. If I'm deep in the warm up and the partner goes into labour, I get up and leave the game, as its against the rules of the site to allow another player take over my game. Thats it. I dont let someone else login and play it for me. I might get someone to play the game under my direction over a phone, but I doubt this would be possible. From your response above you think it is acceptable and your wrong here. This is the reason I'm moving to cash games at the moment and why I'm losing money left, right and centre.

3. Sorel got punished? How! he loss the money he never won!!!! It wasn't his money, so he never had it. He got ban from a site, big deal. He should be ban from all site and have his name listed.

4. Did he come clean? No. He as done this before, knows players that do it. Your example in the warm up is relevant, as I know I could have sold that account at anytime, but I also simiar to Sorel like playing the big games for big money. He could name other players that cheat, example underage players, multi-account players, other players buying accounts, etc etc.

5. Cheating online, I'm amazed you think its not widespread. Its a well know fact the scandies play together online. It's not as bad in MTT, but how many example have we had in the last 12 months of players using multi-accounts and losing 6 figure scores! Even the main event on stars this year was won by a cheat. again I think your been very navie.

As already said, Sorel was foolish and I agree with that and he should get a 2nd chance to rebuild his reputation, but that takes time. He should stick to playing stars and live events and not cheat again and owe up to other instants of cheating and other players that cheat. If he done this, it would be a start. The way he market a interview to come out was stupid, I thought he handle it well in general, but taking a professional contract so soon after, is really stupid and I wont be using betfair.

luckylucky

Ollieboy wrote: »

, I get up and leave the game, as its against the rules of the site to allow another player take over my game. Thats it. I dont let someone else login and play it for me.

You are clearly a very honest person if you got problems with this. This imo is taking honesty to extreme. After all being a recognised excellent mtt player it is hardly advantageous for you to have someone else play in your stead. I think I recall many instances of players coming on here, saying they won some tournie ticket, seeing if someone else can play for them, never dawned on me that this was wrong. I really don't see this as a big deal at all if it was a genuine emergency scenario.

I'm not even sure if this is against the terms of some of the sites at least. I acually think I read in some clause on some site, that another player can takeover in such an emergency type case.

I have never been in such an emergengy type scenario myself that I had to let another player takeover but it's not something I'd feel guilty about if I did.

Anyway I more or less agree with everything else you said.

Btw what exactly did Sorel Mizzi do again?

old news... but I also saw for the first time a couple of days ago that Justin Bonomo(a well known multi-accounting cheat) was signed up by Bodog. I was thinking wtf. I've never played on Bodog and I'm certainly not doing so now. If they think it's ok to be associated with a famous online cheat, then what else do they think it's ok to do, they obviously don't have many scruples as an organisation.

Ollieboy

luckylucky wrote: »

You are clearly a very honest person if you got problems with this. This imo is taking honesty to extreme.


Btw what exactly did Sorel Mizzi do again?

QUOTE]


Its against the T&C on most sites. The above example that Dan gives would never happen as I wouldn't play a game unless I can finish it. I would have to take very ill or something, so it should never happen and I'm sure if it did happen, the last thing I would be worrying about is someone else finishing the game for me.

Sorel played in one of the big online events on starts, I think 1st place was about 400k or something mad, he was knock out early. One of the reporters for Poker News, was also playing and made it to the last 3 tables. This guy decide to sell the account while playing the tourney to Sorel. Sorel than took over the account and won the event. FTP checks all big wins and they notice the change of IP address source during the game from Germany to Canada. They suspend the account, re-award the money to 2nd place. This was the only time he was caught and they both went to the media afterwards to release there version of the story with all the window dressing of saying they didn't realise it was wrong.

P.S. he never gave me commission for his big score in the IO last year so thats my reason...lol

Ste05

The thing is, it's different for Sorel to have bought the account when compared to a once off emergency when someone else takes over the account.

In the latter case, it's a once off and unavoidable, what different people do in that situation is up to them, if they want to break the T&C's that's up to them, but it is wrong and the money should be taken off them.

In the former case, if Sorel Mizzi or JJProdigy or whoever do it with every major they see a donk getting deep and know how to contact them, then it becomes a major issue. These people can't be allowed to do this over and over. He may have only been caught once, but I doubt this is the only time he has bought an account.

The major issue for me in this whole thing is that whatever people say, multi-accounting, buying accounts and the likes is rampant in online MTT's and it needs to be cut out.

If the only punishment for people being caught is that they lose what they won in that tournament then it's no deterrent at all, expecially if the likes of Sorel Mizzi can get sponsored, it actually makes the buying of accounts and multi-accounting alot more appealing, make a name for yourself and then get a sponsorship deal.

He hasn't served any time at all. If he had been banned from all sites, took his banning and didn't play for the duration (like Justin Bonamo) then he should be forgiven and welcomed back (again like what happened to Justin Bonamo), however if they get caught and don't repent at all and continue to play and cheat (like Josh Fields - jjprodigy) they should not be welcomed back and forgiven.

Now Sorel Mizzi is in between these 2 extremes, Bonamo took his punishment, didn't play again and over the last 2 or 3 years has re-built his reputation somewhat, JJPRodigy, kept playing and hasn't been repentant at all. Sorel Mizzi wasn't punished the same way either of these were (albeit the crimes he was caught for were not quite as bad) but he shouldn't be rewarded. The most telling thing about him is that jjprodigy (probably the biggest cheat in online poker history) was his mentor, he obviously picked up on jjprodigy's skills and learnt how to play MTT's from him, but what else did he learn?? To me there's no smoke without fire, he was caught buying accounts, he knows ALOT of information to help stop all the cheating, he would know how JJProdigy multi-accounts (even if he doesn't do it himself) he knows the names of his other accounts, he knows the names of other multi-accounters and people buying accounts, yet he hasn't divulged any of this information. If he came clean and helped to clean up on-line MTT's then he would be worthy of Sponsorship, now he has done nothing to show he is repentant and yet still still gets sponsored and is a representative of Betfair on the World stage. If I owned a company he is the Last person I'd want representing me.

nicnicnic

A distinction should be made between a mate taking over for you when your connection drops or something and one of the top online mtt players buying out accounts at the business end of a major tournament. In my mind this is every bit as bad as multiaccounting and for betfair to sponsor him is really sending out the wrong message.

connie147

Dan, I'm in full agreement that people deserve a 2nd chance in life after fcuking up 1st time round. But......

1)-Mizzi never got punished for his actions. (the money he won was frozen but he should never have won the money in the 1st place)

2)-He served no time out away from the game which should have been something like a 2 year ban both live and online.

3) He has admitted to this not being his 1st time cheating, and knowing others that do so. He rufused to name names.

4) To reward him with a sponsorship contract from the sponsors of the World Series of Poker Europe (Betfair) is an absolutely shocking decision and flys in the face of anything decent. I can't believe a company like betfair could condone online cheating in this way.

Someone else made the point earlier that if I robbed the AIB of €500,000 but I was caught and the money was recovered for the bank,does that mean I should not be punished for it. And then after not being punished for it, the Bank of Ireland appointed me head of security a few weeks later? Its just plain stupid and I hope Betfair pay the ultimate price for their foolishness as in a loss of players on their site.

As it looks now, it seems it was a good move by Mizzi to buy that account.
Connie

luckylucky

Ok well what he did was clearly wrong but not heinously wrong then. He certainly deserved losing his prize money but I don't think his misdemeanour was in the same league as some of the big multi scandals ala Justin Bonomo. Still I agree that Betfair shouldn't be signing up someone like this, a few years down the line maybe.

Ste05

connie147 wrote: »

Someone else made the point earlier that if I robbed the AIB of €500,000 but I was caught and the money was recovered for the bank,does that mean I should not be punished for it. And then after not being punished for it, the Bank of Ireland appointed me head of security a few weeks later?

Very nice analogy... also if the punishment for robbing a bank and getting caught was as outlined above. I'd begin my bank robbing career tomorrow. This is the problem with what Betfair have done. I don't think AIB or the likes would be encouraging Bank Robbing as a decent career, and once you don't get caught and do a bit of planning you could make a pretty decent living from it, there'll obviously be variance attached by having a breakeven or losing month when a heist goes bad, but overall, it would be a hugely +EV career choice.