German poker player Tobias Duthweiler called out GGPoker in a post on TwoPlusTwo forum, saying the site banned him and confiscated his money after going on a winning streak. His post created a lot of controversy for GGPoker.
Duthweiler said GGPoker terminated his account after finding out that he had been previously banned from Natural8 which is GGPoker’s sister site.
This ban was unjust in his view because he had been playing on the GGPoker network for about a year-and-a-half, paying massive rake and even losing tens of thousands of dollars on two skins.
The player claimed he began playing at GGPoker with a $50K deposit, and had incurred a $20K loss before regaining it and boosting his roll to $180K in less than two weeks. Duthweiler said the site initially ordered him and other high-stakes players to stop using aliases or nicknames and switch to their real names instead.
When GGPoker’s security team was going through its verification process, the German pro’s account suddenly got locked. It was followed by an email from the site, informing him that his funds had been seized because he was not allowed to play on GGPoker or any other GGPoker network skin, owing to his previous ban on Natural8.
The German poker pro has cried foul over the fact that GGPoker had allowed him to load his GGPoker account for over a year, only to have his account banned and his funds confiscated when he was finally able to recoup his losses and earn a profit. He questioned GGPoker’s integrity, saying if he had continued to lose, the site would have not imposed a ban on him.
A number of high stakes pros defended Tobias Duthweiler, branding the move as unfair. GGpoker later offered to return the German pro’s deposit, but not his winnings, leading him to believe that the online platform just took a “cheap shot” at his money.
Fedor Holz Defends GGPoker
Fellow German poker pro Fedor Holz, who is part of GGPoker’s Team Pro alongside fellow poker elites Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand Grospellier and Bryn Kenney, took to Twitter to give GGPoker’s side of the story. As it turned out, Duthweiler had already been warned not to play on any GGPoker skin after being banned from Natural8. He was informed that doing so would result in his funds confiscated.
Dudd1 has been banned initially 2016 from Natural8 with a warning to not attempt to play at “GGNetwork” again. GGs standard procedure after this initial warning is to confiscate funds to disincentivize banned players to return, otherwise there would be no effect.
— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) August 11, 2020
The player knew this but still went on to create a new account within the GGPoker Network and went on to provide information that prevented him from being caught. However when an international verification was conducted, the truth was revealed. Holz said the money confiscated was redistributed to players so there’s no reason to think it was a money-making scheme on GGPoker’s end.
