JJprodigy recently came forward in what appeared to be a sincere and humble apology to the community of players he once cheated from.

He expressed remorse in his own moment of solitude and took the opportunity to come clean in his recent shortcomings. Poker Stars doesn't care and will not allow him to play in the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure.

For those who need a recap, JJprodigy was caught cheating at multiple sites including Party Poker back in 2006 where he took down an incredible win in the Party Poker $500K netting a prize of $140,000. In this particular tournament not only was he very much underage to play online but he was caught multi accounting. He claimed that he backed his grandmother in a $215 tournament, and then took over when she was deep. His accounts at both Party Poker and Poker Stars have since been closed.

In his post he claims that he was forced underground in order to continue his online efforts for the love of the game. He said he didn’t understand the implications of his actions nor did he feel empathy towards the players he stole from. Over the course of the last year, JJ has continued to play online using complete discretion in his identity. 

He confesses his actions to the 2+2 posting, “I continued to back players and continued meeting more people. This wasn't easy for me, since I knew I had to watch who I trusted. I couldn't leave the game, there was just no way. I had to be playing, I had to be involved. I don't think you could call it an obsession, as much as a passion.” 

He then continues with, “Accounts were getting closed, people were trying to take money from me, but I kept playing full force. I regret it, but I understand my position. I still don't fully understand myself, but I didn't care about the money, the drama, anything really. I just wanted to keep playing the game.”

“It shames me to think about it. I did it for so long, and I never had the courage to quit and admit what I was doing was wrong. So, I write this to officially apologize to the community. I apologize to the people that have been close to me and have been given a negative name due to my actions. I apologize to all the players I played with under unknown names and gave myself an unfair advantage. I give my word that I will never multi-account again, and I will not play online until I am 18.”

It appears to be sincere till you break it down a bit. In 2006 he was banned for multi-accounting and the obvious underage. He comes forward almost 16 months later to apologize for his past and expresses remorse for actions, then claims he will no longer multi account, cheat players, nor will he play online till he is 18. Well for those who don’t know, JJ is less than a week away from turning 18, and was still seen multi accounting less than 3 weeks ago. He has been asked to disclose all information about his cheating but refuses to release his screenames or those of the players who helped him. He did however reveal how he was able to multi-account under the radar over the past year on such sites as Poker Stars.

“To pull it off, it is quite simple. Sites can detect two things: ip addresses and the computer used. As long as you have different ip addresses and different computers, it is an easy stunt to pull off. For the different ip addresses, I simply used Verizon Wiresless cards. One of the problems I soon began to realize was getting money into accounts. Inter account transfers are the easiest and most logical decision, but that makes links to your accounts which is one of the first suspicions. Near the end, I tried to get different deposit methods with each account, whether it be Visa check cards or ePassporte.”

Over the last few months we have read more stories about online players who at the top of their game have come forward and admitted that they cheated in more ways than one. Players are multi accounting and the very familiar phrase of “ghosting” is becoming more relevant in today’s game than ever before. The question concerning this is how a “community” of players along with the network involved handle a situation like this and to what degree should they be policing their own? 

Since this post from JJ, players at the P5 forums have emailed Poker Stars to complain of the soon to be legal player entering the Poker Stars PCA tournament. In the end Poker Stars confirmed through email that JJProdigy also known as Josh Fields will not be welcomed at the PCA and is banned from this live event as well as the poker room. Enforcing a permanent ban could force Josh Fields underground. The only solution is for poker rooms to prevent this from happening in the first place.

Author:  Cheryle Kaus