GGPoker Offers Second Chance to Banned Pros Amid Controversy

GGPoker has made headlines recently for various reasons, but this week’s news is particularly unexpected. The poker platform has offered a second chance to previously banned professional players, extending an olive branch to those who were once excluded. Currently hosting their portion of the WSOP 2020 Online festival, the site faced significant backlash last week after German high-stakes pro Tobias Duthweiler revealed that his account was closed and $180k was confiscated.

Duthweiler, who had been previously banned from a GGPoker skin, was allowed to re-register and play for over a year and a half. When he recently won a significant amount and attempted to withdraw his funds, GGPoker intervened. Duthweiler claimed that the site was 'freerolling' him, a practice where players are allowed to build up a large bankroll with the intention of confiscating it later. GGPoker refuted these claims, stating that they do not target winning professionals. GGPoker ambassador Fedor Holz took to Twitter to defend the site, asserting 'This is NOT a scheme to steal from players'.

GGPoker defines a 'bad pro' as someone who focuses on manufacturing unfair advantages and exploiting perceived weaknesses. The site's definitions for banning players have left room for interpretation, leading to accusations that players were not given specific reasons for their bans. Despite this, GGPoker has decided to offer players a chance at redemption, although there is no guarantee that all banned pros will be reinstated. The biggest concern for many players is the issue of confiscated funds. In Duthweiler's case, the site claimed to have disbursed the confiscated money back to affected players, although there has been no independent verification of this so far.