Online Poker Pro, Dan Martin, Banned From Pokerstars

Injured innocence is not an appropriate response to double accounting

Online poker pro Dan 'Wretchy' Martin's reported air of injured innocence at being banned by PokerStars.com is surprising. The poker pro apparently admits that he was aware of the strictly applied "no multiple accounts" rule - who isn't, given the considerable publicity which attends cases of those who are caught in the practice - yet seems to feel it is not a seriously dishonest offence.

Martin was banned when he was allegedly caught using more than one account whilst playing in the same tournaments as his girlfriend, and from the same location. But instead of being embarrassed and contrite, he equated double accounting to “smoking weed”, claiming that "everyone does it" even though it is against the very clearly expressed rules.

He also claimed that few are perturbed by the knowledge that the "one account per player" rule has been transgressed, which is an arguable statement if ever there was one.

Martin's protests were in vain - his ban is for three months.