PokerStars Makes a Judgement, Plauzee to Send Back His Share of Winnings

July 11, 2011 - PokerStars has notified Bjoerni89 that he will receive an $8,000 USD refund for games he lost while disconnecting and being blinded down by heads up sng regulars Plauzee and alloman.  "As we consider you a valued player at PokerStars, we have issued [this credit]," said PokerStars senior support specialist Karl in an email to Bjoerni89.  The credit represents 50% of what Bjoerni89 lost while disconnected and blinded down on six total heads up sng matches ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 USD buyin.

PokerStars also clarified that they believed the disconnection was a result of Bjoerni89's connection and not PokerStars servers, a claim backed up by Bjoerni's original account of the incident and a lack of other players disconnecting on PokerStars at the same time.

PokerStars hinted at potential changes to disconnection policies, by adding, "You may argue the ethics in doing what was done by your opponents however our main objective is rather to look into the possibility of improving our features to not enable this kind of behavior moving forward.  [PokerStars] will use this case and other similar cases as feedback and input accordingly."  PokerStars also made it clear that it is not practical for them to refund players in similar cases and suggested Bjoerni use a portion of the refund to improve any backup connection he has.

When reached by HUSNG.com, Plauzee expressed regret for his actions and made clear his intention to immediately send back 25% of the money he received by blinding down Bjoerni89.  Plauzee also clarified that he had 25% of the profit from the incident and that his backers had the other 75% but were unlikely to return it.  Plauzee made it clear that due to the respect and relationship that he has with his backers, he would not reveal them publicly, but has and will continue to ask them to consider refunding Bjoerni89.

Plauzee said he has no plans to relaunch his blog and does not know how or if he will in the future.  He also mentioned that his blog was becoming "way too personal" and that many people were coming up to him during parties in Germany asking him about how much money he made and other personal details.  Plauzee said that the incident with Bjoerni89 was a reason to take the blog down, and that he was going to take it down in the upcoming weeks due to his displeasure with how personal the blog had become.

PHMERC's picture
legit....still, gl sitting

legit....still, gl sitting Plauzee

Isildur's picture
He continues to sit his

He continues to sit his lobbies without a problemI dont people care as much as they say they do.

RyPac13's picture
^ You're probably right, as

^ You're probably right, as many on 2p2 have speculated.I wouldn't doubt guys like PHMERC will go crazy here, or SSS type guys if he sits too high (though I'd imagine those guys would sit him irrespective of this).  We'll see though, if anything crazy happens we'll note it in the news, but likely nothing crazy will happen.

PHMERC's picture
Yea I know Isildur you're

Yea I know Isildur you're right...I am not like those other "most" people though but you are def right. A lot of people talk and don't walk...not me.

Champaz's picture
Well you could always

Well you could always speculate if he's regretful for taking the money or because he got caught and jugded by the community.

RyPac13's picture
I don't know the answer to

I don't know the answer to that question.  If I had enough proof to be comfortable I'd likely have added it in the comments right after posting (or even in the story if appropriate).I don't like that Bjoerni disconnected an hour prior to this incident apparently and came back while Plauzee was blinding him down, yet continued to play.  Why would anybody do this? (In fairness to Bjoerni, who I haven't spoken to, he may have had some reason or freak thing like "backup internet went out twice in 1 hour" but it's probably just being degen, right?).I also don't like that Plauzee didn't give up the name of his backers.  Assuming I got really drunk and pulled this stunt on Bjoerni (maybe someone could convince me the guy is a jerk or rapist or something and I blind him down while really hammered only to wake up and learn they were joking with me and I just screwed Bjoerni), if I wanted to make it good I would tell the backers, "Hey, you pay or you get outted, I'm not taking all this shit alone, and I sure am not going to take the heat for 100% of the money when I only had 25% of the action.  Whether or not you knew beforehand, you know now, so I'm giving you 24 hours to figure this out and let me know what you decide."I do think that Plauzee did not regret his actions initially and his tone and actions have changed quite a bit since then.  But none of that is really private, you can see that in his initial posts in that thread that were kind of saying "yea I did it, no there's nothing more to this, no I'm not sending back and I dont' really care."  You can also see it in his sending back 25% after Stars refunded 50% and an eventual apology to Bjoerni (which Bjoerni seems to have accepted).I guess Plauzee may feel he's a martyr at this point, and just wants to fall on the sword for his backers.

PHMERC's picture
I 100% agree. It is horse

I 100% agree. It is horse shit that Plauzee won't give up his backers. It is also horse shit that he used backers to pull of this amazingly scumbag move in the first place. Please sit a lobby Plauzee, actually, sit mulitple lobbies imho. Please.

RyPac13's picture
By the way, the ~25% (roughly

By the way, the ~25% (roughly $3500) of what Plauzee blinded Bjoerni down for has been confirmed, Plauzee has sent it and Bjoerni received.