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Players Who Got Banned By PokerStars

Poker players have often been in the limelight for the wrong reasons, with some of them committing online poker fraud. Be it RTA (real-time assistance), multi-accounting, bots or any other means, online poker platforms have a strict policy against fraud. One of the most well-known poker platforms, PokerStars, saw famous poker professionals who have earned millions in profits also face the wrath.

While someone committed the crime in their youth, some players have fallen for greed despite already being successful players, resulting in being banned on big poker sites. We have compiled a list of 5 biggest poker players who have been banned at PokerStars.

Poker Players Who Got Banned By PokerStars

Justin Bonomo

Justin Bonomo, aka ‘ZeeJustin’, was once banned by the platform for a long time. During the SCOOP 2016, Bonomo won the $2 100 SCOOP-25-H 8-Game ($95 680) while finishing second to pocket the SCOOP-40-H: $10 300 PLO [6-Max, High Roller] ($266 455).

However, he made a mistake, which led to PokerStars banning him for a long time at the beginning of his career. In 2005, when Bonomo was 19 years old, he declared winning hundreds of thousands of dollars by playing poker online at PartyPoker and PokerStars without being an adult, according to US laws. This resulted in Bonomo getting banned from both poker rooms. However, this had nothing to do with his age.

The poker community later found out that Bonomo had several accounts on PartyPoker as well as on PokerStars. Despite denying this fact in 2006, he later confessed and regretted the incident. However, his excellent performances at the poker table helped him regain his former glory as PokerStars unfroze the “ZeeJustin” account in April 2009. 

Daniel Colman

Daniel Colman, who went by the username “mrgr33n13”, is another poker professional who faced similar ‘youthful indiscretions’. Just like Bonomo, this guy was also accused of multi-counting. He admitted to committing the reckless mistake at the age of 18 before being caught and punished. 

The player, however, learned his lesson and is a changed man now who plays poker with a completely different attitude. PokerStars unblocked Colman’s account in 2013, and since then, he has been a regular poker player who plays online as well as offline events. 

Sorel Mizzi

Sorel Mizzi is known to be among the most successful tournament players worldwide. In 2007, Sorel bought a Full Tilt Poker account from a player who managed to make a deep run while playing an event with a million-dollar guarantee. 

Mizzi continued the game instead of that player and was able to ship the tournament. However, the security service found out about it, and Mizzi, who played ‘”Imper1um” on Full Tilt Poker, got a life-long ban. His total winnings, which exceeded $580,000, were taken away from him and shared among all the event’s participants. 

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Sorel was also accused of multi-accounting at PokerStars, with his account “Zangbezan24” banned for three months. While Mizzi was a model poker player, he tried participating in the WCOOP using someone else’s account and a VPN in September 2015. The Canadian was caught and again banned at PokerStars for a few years. 

Brian Hastings

Brian Hastings was caught using a VPN in 2015. The poker professional later tried to play in the SCOOP tournaments using a new account but was detected by PokerStars. The poker room blocked the account and banned him from playing on the platform. While it’s unknown for what period PokerStars blocked Hastings’ account, the player revealed his intentions of leaving poker to work on his own project in 2016. 

Mike McDonald​

PokerStars mistakenly banned Mike MacDonald’s account for a few hours in 2014 during the WSOP. Also known as ‘Timex’, the Canadian high roller shared a screenshot on Twitter (now X) to PokerStars and stated that he decided to take a break and play 6-max online. 

Twitter users suggested that Mike was playing at the WSOP online in a poker room from the USA, which is forbidden, which resulted in his account being frozen after someone reported the violation. It was later revealed that McDonald was not in Las Vegas but rather playing in the poker room from Canada. His account was immediately unblocked, and explained the situation on social media platforms.

Feruell

Feruell was unexpectedly blocked at PokerStars in 2013 and got a lifetime ban for allegedly buttoning on the platform. The Russian high roller player immediately wrote about the situation on 2 + 2 (English poker forum) and gipsyteam (Russian poker forum) looking to justify himself citing the dispute with PokerStars. Following brief proceedings, PokerStars unlocked the “jama-dharma” account, and he continued to play on the poker site.

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