Cheater Demands Million Dollar Payment from PokerStars

July 3 - One of the world's most popular online poker sites, PokerStars in involved in a bitter court case following its refusal to pay out a player over $1.2 million that she claims is due to her in tournament winnings.

An Isle of Man judge has been asked to rule regarding this complicated case, after PokerStars found that the player had breached her contract by getting a third party (her professional poker playing brother) to play for her in a tournament at the site. As a result, say PokerStars, they are not legally obliged to pay her any winnings.

According to PokerStars, Natalie Teltscher signed up for tournaments at the online poker room under the user name The V0id. On September 30 of last year, the user name was entered into the World Series of Online Poker No Limits Hold 'em Main Event tournament.

A media report says that Teltscher entered into an agreement with an agent who would play on her behalf in the tournament. This was in direct opposition to tournament rules at  PokerStars tournaments, whereby players are prohibited from bringing in third parties to play on their behalf.

The court was told that after twenty two hours of marathon tournament play, the only two left standing in the event were The V0id and another player. The two parties decided to split the pot, each entitled to $1.228 million.

However, after discovering that an agent had played in Teltscher's place, PokerStars decided to withhold payment and disqualify her from the tournament.

The Isle of Man judge was forced to adjourn the case and said in summary: "This, on the face of it, is or should be a fairly simple case. Either the plaintiff is contractually entitled to the monies or she is not. Either the defendant was entitled to disqualify the plaintiff, or it was not."

As soon as the contractual issue has been determined, the case will resume. We're betting that this is a slam dunk win for Poker Stars as the Teltschers engaged in an act of fraud - Mark was also playing in the tournament and when he was knocked out he simply took over his sister's account and played for her. That aint kosher, even on the Isle of Man.