[Blarg]

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I don't really get this one bit. I guess it's all about personality types, but good grief, we KNOW Justin is a world-class player, and his 'ZeeJustin' account results prove it. I mean honestly, the ZeeJustin account has had big wins on both Stars and Party. His ROI is ridiculously high, and he is making thousands of dollars a month, maybe more, playing poker, and he's what 19? 20?

If this isn't enough for him then that's really quite sad. Justin, you are prestigious, have your whole life ahead of you, are in the top 5 percentile of incomes for your age, such a bright future in poker, and you still feel the need to cheat. I think this says a lot about you.

Justin, your priorities are definitely in the wrong place. I mean, I can't say I looked up to you per se, but I was really impressed with your skills and your dedication to playing such fantastic poker so consistently. You've shown yourself to have an ego in different posts, but I would imagine I'd have an ego if I was as good as you too.

If we as poker players start caring about money more than the game, we become more than just poker players... we become a slave to the money, and I guess it makes us do things like this.

I do feel bad for those who feel that they have to cheat to get ahead in life, because it's those whose lives are actually quite empty.

Brad

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First off, ZeeJustin is not a world-class player. He's a great online player, and that by virtue of his talent in one specific area of online play (STTs and MTTs).

I agree, though, that it's a shame that the raw pursuit of money causes people to act unethically, but I think that's what it comes down to.

When the El Capitano scandal broke several months back, I felt I had to consider the nature of multi-playering and decide that either a) it's cheating or b) something i need to start doing myself.

I talked to many players about the practice of multiplayering and was quite surprised that most people didn't consider it blatant cheating, but rather some ambiguous ethical issue, where the people who were doing the multiple-accounting weren't perceived to be doing anything too wrong. For months, people told me that it's all normal, that the brave new world of online poker is one without ethics or boundaries. Although I never would try to regulate anyone else's sense of ethics, and I'd never drop a dime on anyone, I am secretly relieved that multiplayering has been clearly identified as a non-ambiguous method of cheating.

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There was never any doubt. What you are talking about was transparent self-justification.