WPN ''Steals'' more than 50k in rewards
Hello my name is Frederico Nizzato da Silva, I have played poker professionally since 2018. Playing cash games since 2020, I have been active on zoom500 on stars for 2-3 years and on reg tables as well under the nickname fred_high. Nowadays I play for a stable called Metagame in wich I have done some coaching in the past. I decided to write this post seeking some help from the community about something that happened to me on WPN network this year.
Last year I was fallowing a regular from Portugal on Instagram that was doing the rake back challenge on WPN during 2023. He was playing 150-200k hands monthly on blitz200 to achieve the top rake back status on WPN. I really like that idea, since I was already playing high volume on other networks and always enjoyed playing zoom games. I then went further on studying their rake back system and noticed that I could make 144k +- (leaderboards+ revenue share + Rewards point system) yearly on rake back alone if break even at the tables. I showed this study to the stable I am part of and showed my desire to try doing that in 2024. They were on board. I also came to know that other regulars of the stable that were used to play high volume wanted to pursue the rake back status as well.
So at January 7, 2024, I started this challenge playing around 10k hands daily at blitz 200. Needless to say how stressful it was right away, even being used to play high volume, this was above my avg and was very demanding since the start . Also, I had to play on a tight schedule since the beginning, games started usually at 4pm BRT, and usually it takes at least 9 hours to finish the daily volume I had too. Besides that, I decided to move on expecting a very good reward at the end of the year.
After some time playing those games me and the other regulars of the stable that was doing the challenge (UrsoBranco Biluzin) noticed some suspicious players, playing very non intuitive lines constantly and playing high volume. Some of them were already on some lists here on two plus two being acused of being bots. One of them for example, acquition, was banned after making a deep run on The venom mtt , he played on a daily bases on blitz200 games. https://gyazo.com/c886802019cc04da3244d7...
There is a bunch of other nicknames I suspected some of them stop playing at some point but some were still active till the date I was playing there. Some examples CkaNNonBaLL , KimkardashFan , Impermanente , hamipuhyle. By this time, I had already played around 500k hands or more and decided to keep doing it since I was running close to 0ev bb at that point.
On the day 20 of July I received this e-mail. https://gyazo.com/96d01712875e73f289ad96...
I was surprised since I was clearly playing of unfair pool and they never banned some players. But I proceed to send all the files they asked for.
After this I sent all the videos, they asked for doing more than 1hour of gameplay going though all the though process behind the plays. I Also explained that I knew biluzin and urso branco , but didn’t have any type of collusion of profit share with them. I have been playing for the same stable for 4 years already and never had any profit share with any players this is also against the stable police. Here is the print Hero vs Vilan of biluzin vs all regs: https://gyazo.com/cba484e2e56900260c80a0...
Its looks almost like a joke ! The regular biluzin won the most money from Urso branco , winning almost double of the amount of the second reg. How Could be possible that we were soft playing this way? we have also sent lots of hand examples with insane bluffs one vs another and even crazier hero calls.
After that the investigation went on for more than 1 month with my acc being restricted. I could keep playing but couldn’t make any transfer or withdraw. Then on august 22 I received this final e-mail with their decision: https://gyazo.com/2c392fcbe1c32c7fc87ce8...
Note that the final argument for banning me was this : The accounts: NIZZA, URSOBRANCO and BILUZIN had been intentionally working together towards a common goal to reach the highest loyalty rewards possible while sharing nearly 50% of your blitz gameplay which we have deemed as soft play, Non-aggression external agreements, and bonus clearance fraud.
Now how come sharing 50% of the volume of the pool being illegal? Is kind of obvious that if you are trying to reach the highest rb status you would have to play almost every day and most of the time that those blitz200 games were running. Like I said in the beginning, most days the pool started at 4pm, so I had no choice of schedule. I had to start playing at that time if I want to have a somewhat decent sleep routine (remembering that counting breaks I would have to play for 9-10 hours straight). Also, the argument of working together to reach the max rb status makes no sense as well. That promotion is offered by the site, is almost like they let you start the promotion work almost the whole year for it and when they realized you would reach it, they find a way to take the promotion away. Besides that, RB is never more than 100% so even if we reach the highest rb status the room is making money from us still, and not the other way around.
1.5.7 Permanent ban allowing to withdraw their funds: This penalty describes a termination of an account where WPN determines in its sole discretion the right of the offending player to withdraw his or her remaining funds excluding unclaimed promotions, bonuses or loyalty rewards, plus provided that any affected players have been compensated in the amounts determined by WPN.
We will proceed with manually withdrawing any remaining balance from your account. Please provide a valid BTC address for this transaction.
This final sanction is a clear sign of their bad faith in the matter. Why they let me withdraw my funds but not the rewards ? When they banned. I had all the rewards that I had accumulated over the year still there, I wasn’t withdrawing it before because the way their loyalty system works if u accumulate your points till u reach last level you get better odds when exchanging those points. I had at that point more than 50k USD accumulated on rewards (part of the rewards were automatically withdrawn in the form of leaderboards + revenue share). So in my view is super clear their intention to ``steal`` my rewards accumulated there since the beginning of the year.
So that’s even nastier by their side. They have a loyalty system that incentivizes accumulating points. And then they ban you when you are close to reaching that goal claiming only that part of the money back.
I try to answer that e-mail saying exposing my arguments with no success. Here is their answer: https://gyazo.com/fb3a7ec7b3b5337cf723be...
Here are some hands, out of thousands, prints against Biluzin and Ursobranco : https://gyazo.com/601ddf179a2c911a20fbe6...
https://gyazo.com/19b4474efe353014209faa...
You might wonder why it took me so long to speak up about this situation. After the initial decision, the CEO of Metagame reached out directly to WPN, and we managed to get a response from their team. They requested a significant amount of information—most of which we had already provided—along with additional details specifically related to the stable we play for. We promptly gathered and submitted everything they asked for, but the entire process dragged on for over a month.
In the end, they started sending automated replies, stating that they do not discuss their decisions with third parties and would only communicate directly with the players involved. This response is ironic since they had been requesting all the information from the stable throughout the process.
Given this situation, we decided the best course of action was to go public and share our story.
Any help would be great to make this thread reach max number of players. So everybody can know WPN is super shady with their players and polices. And hopefully they reevaluate my situation. I don't even mind if they keep me aways from their games, I don't plan to play there anymore anyway. Getting my money back would be great already
You guys clearly had some tools open you played better than 98% of the HS regs that doesnt make any sense. All the high volume regs Spakuta Igla Pyjamasparty etc were sure you guys were bots or using tools how you play.
Hey men. One thing i want to make it super clear. This possibility is already investigated and denied by the game integrity of ACR itself. They already saw all our database looking for RTA or bot patters and they didn't find anything. Don't know if u read the emails but the banning wasn't for that reason. I send all video and information they asked for, playing 5 tables of zoom while describing all my though process on every hand. After they saw we were legit in that they went on to find other reason to ban (and unfair) us.
Not to mention, you think it would be possible to use RTA playing 5 tables of zoom 10 hours a day ? is virtually impossible to do that, think about it. Not to mention i am -1ev bb at blitz 200.
I understand why you guys might be with that feeling, since we battled a lot on the tables and in some sense the pool was tougher with us. But honestly you guys are fighting the wrong enemy, there are a lot of very sus bot acc still operating there and u are focusing your ``anger`` on 3 legit players.
I just want my money back men. Money that i work like crazy to get it in super stressful conditions. I don`t plan to ever play ACR anymore even if they unban me. So instead of accusing of RTA , put yourself on my shoes, how u would feel to work honestly for 6 months 10 hours a day and get banned like this.
Matt Marinelli who is a HS crusher, already commented saying he saw my database, he found lots of leaks, and he would for sure confirm that is impossible i was using any helping toll.
All that being said. I am totally open to provide any further information or Data to show i was legit if that helps getting my money back .
Did you guys had any conversations with ACR about us ? I imagine maybe u were the ones that accused us
Me and another Spanish player were also banned our nicknames were MrEmpiriko and KaitoKiddo. While they did not give any specific reason, I suspect that is because they think we are doing some kind of **** like this. Say gl to your account. I ha e tried to send tons of mails. I spoke to the WPN security chief which is clueless. All they know is that they have a security problem and they ban every single account they think it is suspicious. At least I managed to get the rewards but I was not a rb
I know you guys from stats. Yeah they are supper shady with those banning's. What is worst is that they don`t ban the actually bots. Super sus. The idea is that with this post we maybe can unite forces with more ppl in that same spot. If we show a lot of cases like this at same point i imagine they can`t ignore it anymore.
Matt Marinelli here. I did some coaching for both Frederico and Pedro in the middle of the year as a part of a brief stint I did for Metagame.
These guys are both totally legitimate sicko grinders, and I find WPN's decision to ban them appalling. It was inspiring to see how much volume these guys played, and I know it was devastating for them to each get banned for collusion when I never saw any evidence of that.
I reviewed each of their databases multiple times and talked hands with them, and I
Thanks Matt !
Obv they have financal interest in sharing their action??? Second of all they started everytime the same and quittet the same. And all regs i spoke to all agreed these guys/bots play really unhuman in everyway and using some rta Al stuff most likely.
No we have no financial interest at all at sharing action. As i said numerous times , each player has their own deal. There is no such thing on our stable. I didn't even know the guys that well before. And even during the challenge the max we would do were studying together couple of times per week.
Also how this start at the same time ends the same time can be an argument ? WTF ?! Remember i had to play 10k hands a day , i started when the game starts , and ended after i complete the 10k hands. I had no schedule choice.
Let me start by saying that I am affiliated with ACR, and so will have (somewhat conscious) bias. I have played on ACR for years, and played long before I had any affiliation with the site. I also sent in a video report to security regarding the 200NL Blitz pools and potential collusion / bot like behaviour around the time you were playing. Whilst I have a contact for the head of security, they cannot discuss any investigations, even with those working for or affiliated with ACR / WPN
These accou
They have access to all our DTB and spent more than 2 months going though it, u don`t think that if we were squeezing player out of multiway pots they would have spot ? and that would be a much better argument for banning us.
We were 100% legit men. Each one playing their our game , in the same way when u spot someone you know at the table. 100% std .
This argument of juicing the pot for more rake back makes no sense as well. Remember RB is never more than 100% , u always paying for the site at least some percentage of the rake. Makes no sense to force paying more rake on any spot. Also there is a CAP on the rake.
Let me start by saying that I am affiliated with ACR, and so will have (somewhat conscious) bias. I have played on ACR for years, and played long before I had any affiliation with the site. I also sent in a video report to security regarding the 200NL Blitz pools and potential collusion / bot like behaviour around the time you were playing. Whilst I have a contact for the head of security, they cannot discuss any investigations, even with those working for or affiliated with ACR / WPN
These accou
This post is obnoxious.
1st: They ban suspicious accounts, Ckanonballn was playing last time I played before thry decided to ban my account.
2nd: They are not refusing service. They are confiscating 50K in funds!. I recovered my cashier because I have access to highstakes players that vouched me and a guy I sent my db to. It was stolen otherwise.
ACR has a big problem with the security. As we say in spanish: "estan dando palos de ciego". Which basically means they are like a blindfolded man waving a stick.
PS: I know you work for them but they should consider some changes in the security department.
From my understanding of it all, ACR are effectively using their right to refusal of service, hence why you were allowed to withdraw whatever funds you had in your accounts)
This is a pathetic cop out “well at least you got to withdraw your money”
Are you daft?
They were playing for the rewards, OP was 0EV bb but the accumulated rewards of 50k were 250BIs. That is literally the entire money he had made this year up to that point.
They let him withdraw his on site balance which would have amounted more or less to his starting bankroll!
Obv they have financal interest in sharing their action??? Second of all they started everytime the same and quittet the same. And all regs i spoke to all agreed these guys/bots play really unhuman in everyway and using some rta Al stuff most likely.
They don't. Each person in the stable is still there to increase their own bottom line. It's like being a car salesman in that regard. It sounds like they were playing most of their waking hours. If they are from the same part of the world, of course they're going to be playing relatively the same hours if they're grinding 12+ hours a day.
Is almost like a company , they offer you coaching , you play with their money and have a share of the profits depending on your deal.
Is way more std than you think
You're all funded by the same "Daddy" and you're saying you don't collude? The daddy fund wouldn't benefit from stable mates going to war. (Unless you're juicing rakeback.)
You leaked enough so that the "blindfolded man waiving a stick" could turn around and exploit you.
Shouldn't have associated yourself with anyone. You basically planted the seed for ACR to target.
No sympathy from me, really. Stables/teams are a cancer, especially those colluding and exploiting the rakeback system.
wow that Biluzin looks like a clicker
its Zinhao still acting like a spoil brat btw?
You're all funded by the same "Daddy" and you're saying you don't collude? The daddy fund wouldn't benefit from stable mates going to war. (Unless you're juicing rakeback.)
You leaked enough so that the "blindfolded man waiving a stick" could turn around and exploit you.
Shouldn't have associated yourself with anyone. You basically planted the seed for ACR to target.
No sympathy from me, really. Stables/teams are a cancer, especially those colluding and exploiting the rakeback system.
This is such a stupid take. Do you have the same issue when Negreanu, Fedor and Elky register to the same MTT? Just because you are sponsored by the same group doesn't mean you automatically cheat or collude. I dont have any relationship to these guys nor their CFP but they all seem like great players from my experience, 99% not guilty.
How is that similar to a stable populating 2-3 seats of every zoom hand for 9 hours a day?
Collusion is always lurking, down to the friendly regs soft playing at the casino.
I'm sure it is a problem in the small field hsmtts, if you aren't part of a team, but that's another topic.
How is that similar to a stable populating 2-3 seats of every zoom hand for 9 hours a day?
Collusion is always lurking, down to the friendly regs soft playing at the casino.
I'm sure it is a problem in the small field hsmtts, if you aren't part of a team, but that's another topic.
It sounds a lot harsher than it is when you say it like that. But I do agree that acr could/should interfere, it's super reasonable for them to fix the seat algo so they don't end up on the same table. I have played with all of these 3 guys and they seem like good players. I have played Biluzin up to 5k nl, call me naive if you want but im not going to accept it that easily that a guy that seemingly think / play very well at games as high as 5k would waste his life cheating at 200 blitz.
Algo them to 1 table max. I don't doubt they're good players, when you have 5x the HH's and Daddy support.
Lol . Online poker 2024. The best cheating wins 100% of the time .
Played a good amount with all 3 at 200blitz. They definitely weren't using RTA or preflop/postflop squeeze strategies. I did have one sketchy hand that worried me about card sharing but that was it.
And, yeah, I don't understand the argument of juicing up the rewards given the rake is more than the rake back.
how does "right of refusal" allow them to not get the 50k in rakeback bonus. again the clueless retired recs on this forum say dumb things.
But also thats kind of what you get for trusting your year on acr desperation I assume. I think the best outcome for guys is some big names cry and you get your equity paid out but I don't feel like we have any one like that in the poker community currently.
A few regs have defended you here. that's all I really need to know.
I played exactly 57729 hands on the site, I played exactly 1493 hands with the guys they also banned, considering we live in the same city how are we supposed to be doing some kind of cheat like that.
They do not care, they do not have security any security processes. They are dumb as **** and they have your money, I am sorry.
@Weazel if you work for them, instead of trying to cover up their mistakes you should try to help us.
how does "right of refusal" allow them to not get the 50k in rakeback bonus. again the clueless retired recs on this forum say dumb things.
But also thats kind of what you get for trusting your year on acr desperation I assume. I think the best outcome for guys is some big names cry and you get your equity paid out but I don't feel like we have any one like that in the poker community currently.
A few regs have defended you here. that's all I really need to know.
Any thread that gets posted these days is legitimately littered with these brainless ******s that are so opinionated on subjects they are absolutely clueless in.
Did Metagame teach you to call cold 4b OOP with T8s ?
O erro de vcs foi terem falado que jogam pra um mesmo time, e como o time tem participacao nos lucros, inclusive de rakeback, eh o mesmo dinheiro que paga vcs de acordo com o deal de cada um..
Pelo lado dos donos do Site de poker.. vcs estao errados mesmo..
Pelo lado de vcs.. vcs estao certos.. pq cada um sabe o esforco que fez..
Infelizmente o elo dessa corrente vai quebrar pro lado mais fraco.. que eh o de vcs..
Eh uma situacao MUITO complicada.. nao eh tao simples de resolver..
Eu particularmente nao vejo solucao pra esse problema.. pq o site tbm estah com a razao..
Eh muito triste e desanimador.. e eu soh posso imaginar como eh estar nessa situacao..
Espero que consigam reverter..
I am one of the players mentioned, my nickname was ‘’UrsoBranco’’. My real name is Danilo Jientara, I played mostly NL500 at GG in 2023 (‘’Cristo Rei’’ and ‘’Jientara’’😉.
To avoid repetition, since what happened to Nizza was exactly the same as what happened to me, I came to expose some facts for the members who are defending the WPN or wanting to insinuate that I was participating in some collusion/RTA.
I was -2.8bb/100 in almost 1.3 million hands!! The regular who won the most money from me at the tables was the same one who they are trying to say that I did some kind of “collusion” (‘’Biluzin’’ won 12k USD over me at the tables).
It is worth mentioning that after sending the documents requested by the WPN (driver's license, proof of address, photo of my face, photo holding the document) and answering a bunch of questions asked by the site, they still blocked my account again and demanded that I send a video recording myself playing and another video recording my screen simultaneously, playing for 1:30H and explaining each action taken at the tables (I played approximately 11-13 tables mixing reg+blitz). In other words, after sending everything they asked me, it was clear that I was a legitimate player and that I had solid knowledge of poker (only a crazy person would think that I would be using RTA playing 1000-1200 hands per hour and losing -2.8bb/100).
I would also like to highlight my deep disgust for the player and streamer “paSHens’’, known on PS as Ceegee. There was a player I followed live while he was playing and he even accused me during the broadcast that I was a bot, but at first I didn't care because since I was new to the field and there were really a lot of bots on the site, I didn't care, because I knew that eventually he would see that I was a legitimate player. However, after noticing that I wasn't a bot, he started insisting during his broadcasts that he suspected that I was colluding with the other Brazilians in the field (this without any proof, no showdown, just in his head). His argument was that we started playing reg tables together. Of course he didn't stop to think for a minute, because all he had to do was look at the lobby and see that the blitz field wasn't forming/forming later, and I had to increase my volume, the only option was reg tables (I really think it's hard for him to have noticed since he's a "player" who plays 5-9K hands per month). Furthermore, during the period when my account was blocked and they asked me for my documents, he said on live that Bliuzin, Nizza and I were banned for investigation. I wonder how he knew about this? Does the WPN openly tell him about the investigations and nicknames?
I may be wrong, but I believe that the reason for all this started because of “paSHens”, since he said on live that he would report the Brazilians and kept insisting on this for months (and obviously I didn't care, since I was playing honestly).
So, after almost 1.3 million hands played, going to bed at 4-5 am, playing against bots, facing huge swings and absurd stress, the WPN banned me for no reason at all, stole approximately 40K USD in rewards from me and since I was -2.8bb/100, I was left with a loss greater than 50K negative for the year, since the site's reward would only alleviate the downfall I was in.
Those who are defending the WPN, I want you to think a little if this had happened to you, because I am a player with very solid economic reserves, otherwise my career as a poker player would be destroyed and I would most likely have to give up poker. In other words, this injustice that was committed against me could very well have been committed against any other player and could have destroyed someone's career/life.
NOTE: I apologize for any spelling mistakes, as I do not speak English and am using Google Translate.
First of all, if you played honestly, then this is, of course, a disaster, and every player in your position would be just as outraged—there's no question about that. And if you've never cheated or colluded (which I still find hard to believe), then I apologize. In that case, ACR should definitely pay out the money. However, we all know that ACR is very shady.
Yea I'm pretty reluctant to come out with pitchforks since I was temporarily banned while being completely innocent, so I can relate somewhat. However given your specific circumstances with the stable, it definitely muddies the waters. I'm not exactly sure how you would go about clearing your name other than having someone from ACR review your hhs and vouch for your play. Testimonials from people who aren't affiliated with ACR mean very little unfortunately.
