Good things come to those who wait
The long, international nightmare is over. Ezequiel “eze88888” Waigel has become the self-proclaimed “World default champ of online poker 2018.” This past weekend, PokerStars stripped “wann2play” of his 2018 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title, giving it to Waigel. wann2play was disqualified for unspecified (publicly, that is) violations of PokerStars’ terms and conditions.
PokerStars was evidently suspicious about wann2play’s play immediately, as his (we’re assuming he’s a male – nothing is known about him, so we’ll just go with that) winnings were frozen after he won. That was in September 2018. After an investigation – a long investigation, apparently – PokerStars disqualified wann2play.
During the tournament, wann2play and Waigel struck a deal. wann2play received $1.153 million of the combined first and second place prize money, while Waigel got $1.257 million. They left $200,000 plus the Platinum Pass on the table as an incentive to play on. Wann2play won the WCOOP Main Event and $1.353 million.
Waigel knew something wasn’t right
As a result of the disqualification, Waigel now gets $1.529 million, the original first place money before the deal. The second place prize money was “redistributed” down the pay ladder. Not exactly sure how that was done, but regardless, other players got wann2play’s winnings.
Waigel told PocketFives that he thought something was weird with wann2play as the 2018 WCOOP Main Event drew to a close. He did not say what, exactly, he suspected. He did say that after reviewing the hands himself and discussing it with other poker players, he suspicions got stronger. Waigel kept in touch with PokerStars for months via e-mail.
The only thing really known about wann2play is that he is from the Netherlands. In July 2019, someone tweeted that he is a “known pro” who was playing on a second account. While there was speculation about who that might be, any talk was just talk.
This has happened before
Interestingly, this was not the first time that the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker winning was disqualified. Back in 2007, a player named “TheV0id” won $1.22 million in the tournament. As it turned out, though, while the account was registered to Natalie Teltscher, PokerStars figured out that it wasn’t Natalie who was playing on the account during the WCOOP.
She actually sued PokerStars to try to claim her prize money, but PokerStars came armed with receipts.
“Ms. Teltscher initially claimed that she had played the account,” PokerStars said at the time. “However, when faced with the results from PokerStars’ investigation she eventually admitted she hadn’t played.”
Teltscher not only had her prize money confiscated, but she also had to PokerStars’ legal fees.
Everyone else in the tournament was moved up one place and Teltscher’s prize money was redistributed.