Originally Posted by s1nnr

i understand that you are coming to the aid of ur friend SCtrojans, but this is ridiculous, the man built a huge bankroll by stealing money, has had alot of sucess playing live, and yes, has made alot of good freinds that can get him perks IE being the first person to get his ban revoked and yes he is a great player, and may indeed be a good guy, but that doesnt change the fact that his roll was built by cheating...

i am sure that there are alot of great players out there that could have had similar sucess if they had been able to start with a huge stolen bankroll...

there are players that are better people than justin, that have been banned for less than MAing/cheating that will never get their shot again...

so, i dont give a shit if i am coming off as a douchebag, he is getting a second chance b/c of politics, and i wholeheartedly disagree with their decision...

i never took a shot at him being a good guy, or whatever..

lol

 

Originally Posted by Johny PoKer

 

Originally Posted by Jennifear

 

Originally Posted by Johny PoKer

 

Originally Posted by Jennifear

Obviously this stems from the Zeejustin poll.

yyyyy, I have no idea how you jump from "okay to let a banned player who has shown sincerity and proven himself over a lengthy time period back onto a poker site" and "okay to cheat"

That's quite a huge leap.

Proven himself to who? To daniel and his other friends. You are supporting a known cheater and thief.

I think it's quite clear from my posts that I don't support his actions in 2006. I don't believe Justin does either. What I'm saying is that I believe Justin's actions in 2009 and beyond will likely be quite different, as evidenced by his behavior since.

If I was one to offer prop bets (I'm not), then I would lay good odds that he stays clean from here on out.

What is clear from your posts is that you "are 100% behind this move" to bring back a known and notorius cheater and thief, and then have the nerve to give props to stars for security. Did you ever consider people don't want to play with the likes of him, I know I don't.

I guess all the "pros" supporting this shows you the ethics of the average professional player. He is cool and has been "good" for a whole 3 years, and we like him, so we will let him back, what a joke stars is for this move.

Okay, so you believe that someone who cheats cannot turn their life around? And if they do, they should never be allowed back? Okay, I understand and respect that, but I disagree. Call me a forgiving person if you'd like and I'll plead guilty to that.

I'll give props to pokerstars security all day. I've played 23000 SNGs and Pokerstars is the only one to ever catch two colluders in one of my games and credit me for that. It seems to me that they catch more colluders and multiaccounters than any other site. As Adam noted, their site is popularly considered the safest site to play at, and that's no accident. I believe that Pokerstars wouldn't make this decision if they believed for one second that Zeejustin was capable of multiaccounting.

One point you bring up is that you are not okay with playing with someone who has cheated in the past. While I can certainly respect that, and it's a great point, I believe that if someone is a banned great player and not a good person, they will be playing on the site no matter what.

I am confident in Pokerstars ability to distinguish between the good eggs and the bad eggs. I'd be happy to play with him (if he wasn't so good at poker).

its not that they will or wont live up to the criteria, its that they wont ever even consider these people for reinstatement...

After 3 years, I would probably let him back under but under specific guidelines he MUST follow.

1) Obviously he can only play under "zeejustin" or whatever his stars user name is.

2) As someone suggested, no player-to-player transfers will be allowed by him. This means no backing arrangements.

3) If he is caught doing any MA'ing, not only will he be "lifetime" banned (and if I was Stars I would explicitly say for the remainder of his life) he would also be lifetime banned from any live events pokerstars sponsors. As someone who makes a great deal of his income from live play, this should deter any thoughts from him to MA again.

4) If he is logged in from a different ISP location, freeze his account (I dont care if he is in the middle of a HS tourny or cash game) until he can explain why he is at a different location. Is this fair? Yes and no, but it's the price he has to pay for his past actions.

Those are the top 4 ideas that come to my mind at the moment but I am sure there are other stipulations that a "reasonable" person could come up with.

I do want to say I do find the timing of his reinstatement a bit "interesting" in that this happens right at the same time SCOOP gets going.

Also, obviously Stars felt he has changed but what I would like to know is why they felt he has changed? Is it because Stars monitors a lot of poker message boards and it has been a long time since any MA allegations have come up regarding Justin?

Did they decide to reinstate him due to his association with Daniel N. and other high stakes MTT and cash game players?

Why did Stars decide to reinstate him right before SCOOP starts? Why not reinstate him after it all events have been played?

Just my 2 cents on this topic.

 

Originally Posted by number1pen

 

Originally Posted by s1nnr

its not that they will or wont live up to the criteria, its that they wont ever even consider these people for reinstatement...

Wait over 3 years, do what justin has done, then ask stars for reinstatement and see what happens... Another thing to keep in mind, Justin and JJ were made examples of at the time, a lot of people MAed and these 2 were the first that received punishment and it was a warning to anyone else that considered doing it, to just stay away from the idea. I remember grinder said flat out that he MAed, not gotten caught and no one looks at him differently, no one considered it as terrible a thing as they do now.

i am not banned, i just dont get why they would reinstate someone that they made an example of...

also, are you saying that people didnt know that MAing was cheating back then?

edit-also, i am not attacking zeejustin as a person, i dont know him, but the people that i know that do know him say he is a good guy, that is not what i am sayin, i am against pokerstars ruling on this one...

congrats to zeejustine i'm pretty sure he'll crush it...happy for him. go team bodog!

I once ask for my account to be deactivated for the remainder of 2006 and it is now 2009...my account should be reactivated by now especially if pokerstars lifted the ban on justine "ZeeJustin" bonomo who was caught cheating. please inform me what i have to reactivate my account. There is no reason why i can't reactivate my account when i got banned for asking to take a break.

pokerstars didn't want to reactivate my account cause they said that i said i had a gambling problem. well what the heck is self-exclusion for...ppl that can't stay away that want to take a break.

now back then when i asked they didn't offer this "selfexclusion" but they do now...and i never asked for it to be permenant just for the remainder of 2006.

i didn't break the rules really...maybe i few nasty e-mails when they said that i had been banned forever...but it kinda hit me by surprise.

what can i do if i'm not a famous big time player?

 

Originally Posted by cmitch

I strongly disagree with them reinstating ZeeJustin.

He got caught cheating and the punishment was a lifetime ban, not a lifetime ban with the possibility of parole if you come off as a good guy that has some good live results, make friends with one of the site's pros, and don't do anything wrong for a few years.

I think it makes PS look very bad. If he was just a regular Joe banned for cheating and asked to be re-instated after a couple of years they would tell him to F off. (It would not matter if the former player was now a priest.)

They should have sent a clear message that cheating is not going to be tolerated no matter how likable of a person you are or how much you have changed. He stole from people and got caught. Yes, he has gone out of his way to do things right now, but that doesn't change the fact that he stole money from other players in the poker community and he was given a lifetime ban from PS.

Also, it makes no sense to compare his case to JJ's. His case should stand alone and their reason for reinstating him shouldn't be that he isn't/wasn't as bad as JJ.

I could not agree more.

my vote, he's paid his dues at this point

he's been the public face of cheating, you can see the shame on his face at live events sometimes.

he doesn't need any more punishment than he's already had, and he's had enough character to stand the test of time and prove himself primarily in the public arena playing live, even in spite of everything, and nothing shady about him was ever suggested ever again

F jjprodigy forever, but this is a good decision

I'm sure he is a great guy and should be forgiven for his actions however I completely disagree with this move. I guess it's good he doesn't have a real 9 to 5 because nowhere else if life do you get fired for stealing from the company and allowed to come back 3 years later. I think it's a 100% the wrong message, but it seems that we are making the no accountability movement in all aspects in this country these days. So I'm not surprised that so many are in support.

If you ask pokerstars about this, you will likely get this joke of an form e-mail like I got. They say they enforce the rules fairly, so are they gonna reinstate the other cheaters and thieves?

I don't know if I want to play on this site anymore.

Hello xxx,

Thank you for your email. Your email was escalated to me as a member of
the PokerStars Game Security Team.

As you note, after serious consideration of the issues involved, the
player 'ZeeJustin' has indeed been allowed to play at PokerStars.

You may be aware that the incident that caused 'ZeeJustin' to be barred
from PokerStars happened three years ago. He has since recognized that what
he did was wrong, and has accepted the consequences of his actions. We have
no reason to believe he has ever tried to circumvent his suspension.

'ZeeJustin' has served a long punishment; he has expressed regret for his
actions to us and to the entire poker community; and he has even become a
crusader for fair play. Consequently, he has earned the respect of many of
his peers.

Though some in the poker world will never forgive him for what he did,
many already have. While we do not condone his actions in the past, we do
accept they are now in the past, so 'ZeeJustin' is now welcome to
play on PokerStars again.

PokerStars enforces its game security rules firmly, but fairly. We
consider every case on its merits, and we believe that the continued
suspension of 'ZeeJustin' is no longer appropriate.

Regards,

Michael J
PokerStars Game Security Team

I personally don't care if JB is allowed back or not. However, Poker stars should now
instruct those who have received a lifetime ban on what they must do to regain
membership. I don't think anyone would think it to be fair, or right if many people
were caught MAing, but only a couple received lifetime bans. The opposite is true as
well, if the rule is you receive a lifetime ban for MAing, then that is the rule for everyone.
Now that JB has been allowed back (and again, I don't care one way or the other)
everyone must be granted the same opportunity to do whatever JB has done to regain
membership.

 

Originally Posted by pokerjamers

lol @ people disagreeing with stars decision. doubt ur opinion matters anyways

This response was really unexpected by the way.

 

Originally Posted by undertheradar

I am curious to hear from Justin as to how he feels about all of this and what, if any, restrictions his account has

[x ] This situation has nothing to do with the JJ situation, considering the fact that JJ admitted to continuing his multi-accounting...and probably still is doing it.

[x] Zee 1000% deserved to be allowed back.

Complete horseshit , the dog on the street (the ones that play pokah) knows that online is rife with MA and other dodgy shit, ok we all still play because that is the nature of the beast.
But in all fairness letting a guy off the hook like that i hope they got him to give up other names who are MA'ing, coz it seems to me a lot of people who are in the know are silenty rejoicing in the fact that is all pretty much ok now coz zee took the fall and there is no more shit about it.