Josh "JJProdigy" Field is a name that many people recognize in online poker. He first made headlines in August 2005; during a famous prop bet that focused on a monthly PokerStars Tournament Leaderboard race. That prop bet, dubbed "Gigabet vs. the world," challenged any online poker player to outperform Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken in the August '05 TLB Standings on PokerStars.
After two weeks of play, a controversy between high profile players Brett "gank" Jungblut and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken broke out, revolving around the use of one account by multiple players. The controversy surrounding this prop bet was a major influence in new policies by many sites regarding the "multi-accounting" issue. When the dust had settled on August 31st, "JJProdigy" handily won the Monthly TLB Race - easily defeating "Gigabet."
For months, "JJProdigy" was generally regarded as a top-tier online poker superstar. However, on February 12, 2006, Josh Field was caught playing two accounts in one tournament when he won the Party Poker $500k Guaranteed for $140,000 under the account "ABlackCar." One of Josh's friends, Nick "gbmantis" Niergarth created a thread in the PocketFives.com Poker Discussion Forum that led to other members of the community discovering the two accounts.
After PartyPoker discovered that Josh's main account had also played in the same tournament, they disqualified him from the tournament, took away his prize money, and banned him from their site. The online poker community subsequently discovered that Josh Field was only 16 years old, and ineligible to play online poker at all. Major sites quickly moved to revoke his account privileges. (The "ZeeJustin" multi-accounting scandal would break less than two weeks later, on February 24th, when PartyPoker discovered he was logging onto six accounts from the same IP address and playing them simultaneously).
Months later, rumors that "JJProdigy" was taking over for players late in tournaments and backing several tournament players were common on the boards. In 2007, when one of Josh's staked players, Matt "Plattsburgh" Vengrin, won the $300 rebuy FTOPS event, many players, including Top 10 phenom Isaac "mr. menlo" Baron, accused "Plattsburgh" of allowing "JJProdigy" to make decisions at the final table. In a subsequent forum response, "Plattsburgh" denied the accusations.
For over a year, Josh Field has generally been regarded as a world class poker player and an online poker cheat, as many high profile players contest they have lost money due to continued multi-accounting and account buyouts by "JJProdigy" and others. Before the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Josh created a thread that offered an apology to the online poker community. However, many people in the community felt that it was a half-hearted attempt at reconciliation prior to Josh attending his first major live poker tournament upon turning 18 years of age. (Josh was subsequently banned from entering the 2008 PCA).
In September 2008, it was announced that high profile player Nick "gbmantis" Niergarth and others were banned from certain poker sites for helping Josh Field cheat others out of money by allowing him to use their accounts to move funds around. A day later, "JJProdigy" created another thread titled
Finally Coming Clean where he claimed that his prior apologies were "failed apologies."
Fed up and disgusted with the negative impact that Josh Field has had on the game of poker, many posters viewed the thread as simply another non-sincere attempt at making amends. As of early '09, many posters still question the motives of "JJProdigy" and appropriately note that Josh has yet to provide the online poker community or poker sites with anything more than false denials of past activity and generic promises that he won't continue to steal money from his colleagues by creating even more accounts.