Just received an email from P.S. security and it looks like I was cheated and
actually received a refund. I only played for an hour as my glasses were dirty and I had to be up early as per normal.
"You played in an event in which two players played "as a team" in order to try and gain an unfair advantage over the other players.
This is against our Card Room Rules and Terms of Service. Specifically Card Room Rule 7 which states:
"Collusion, by which two or more players work together in the games or share knowledge to gain an unfair advantage over other players, is strictly prohibited."
and Term 5.4 of our Terms Of Service which states:
"Collusion between Users by sharing hole cards or by any other methods is strictly forbidden. PokerStars reserves the right, in addition to other measures, to restrict seating and/or to prohibit Users from playing at a particular poker table or in a tournament, including restricting two or more Users from playing together at the same table or in the same tournament. In addition, PokerStars reserves the right to consider any collusion or attempt at collusion between players (including Users) as a material breach of this Agreement and accordingly PokerStars shall have the right to terminate a User's account if a User engages or attempts to engage in any such activity, regardless of the outcome of such attempt."
The players that affected the event in which you have played have been removed from the site and security measures have been implemented to help prevent their return.
We work hard to police our games and prevent people colluding. When we find people behaving in such a way, we take action on their accounts and compensate those that they have affected through their unfair play. We are not able to recognise or prevent this breach of our Terms Of Service until it has occurred. This means that, beyond not playing online poker, neither us or yourself can take action that guarantees you are not affected by people playing as a team.
We find that the vast majority of players who use our software do so ethically and with respect to our Rules and Terms Of Service. Regrettably, there will always be a few "bad eggs" but as previously mentioned we work hard to identify these players and protect honest players by closing their accounts and reimbursing those that they have harmed.
Unfortunately, we are not at liberty to release the dates on which these infractions occurred. We recently obtained legal advice on this very issue, and this is due to the fact that our privacy policy applies even to players who breach our Terms of Service. If we were to release this information, it could be used to identify these players.
Please let us know if you have any other queries or concerns.
(Warm) Regards,"
As mentioned my playing time was limited so my refund was under 5 figures, but still.
Not to open another can or worms but, PokerStars has been the one site I can say I have trust in. As in other business, there are those who uphold a standard, because it's the right thing to do, and others not so much.
Government regulation will perhaps ensure the safety of it's members but they fuck up just about everything else they're involved with so I see more of the same if they get into poker.