FTP suspends sbrugby's pro status for one month

<img align="right" src=http://www.liquidpoker.net/user_pictures/a979a.townesen.jpg style="margin:5px; border: 0px solid black;">Full Tilt Poker took a very controversial decision this week: they suspended Brian Townsend's red pro status for a month. Why? Because his colleague, Brian Hastings, said in an interview he discussed strategies for facing Isildur1 with Townsend and Cole South, using a huge hand database. Based on that interview, FTP took action. Just to refresh your memory, both Brian Towsend and Brian Hastings had big winning days against the mysterious Swede, with Hastings scoring arguably the best winning day ever in online poker history, taking $4.2 millions from Isildur1.

According to Brian Hastings, Townsend worked on a database and decided what to do against Isildur1 based on a large sample of hand histories:
"Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here. I mean, Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker,” Hastings told ESPN. “He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots. The three of us discussed a ton of hands and the reports that Brian made, so I'm very thankful to him and to Cole as well."

Townsend talked about what occurred from his point of view on his personal blog. "In fact the only person to break the T&C of FullTilt Poker was myself. I had about 20k hands of play on Isildur and I acquired another 30k hands. This is against the T&C of FullTilt Poker and because of this violation I am going to have my red pro status suspended for one month," he said.

What Townsend did clearly breaches the rules of FTP:
“Full Tilt Poker defines an unfair advantage as a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play” (from item #8 of the Full Tilt T&C).

There is no doubt their action infringed FTP's terms and conditions, as stated above. However, the discussion on internet boards goes on wether the whole thing is ethical or not. Some defend the idea that what CardRunners members did is no different than posting hand histories on an internet forum and asking for advice. Others say the fact that they shared hand histories and, together, worked on a big hand database specifically to beat Isildur1 characterizes cheating.

It's not the first time Brian Townsed is penalized by Full Tilt Poker, as back in 2008 he was banned for six months for multi accounting under the name "Stellarnebula".

So far, Townsend is the only one punished by Full Tilt Poker. It remains to be seen if his colleagues Brian Hastings and Cole South will suffer any kind of consequences for teaming up with Townsend and discussing the best strategy for facing Isildur1.

i bet he want to kill hastings

so what happens when your pro status is suspended

No moar 100% RB =D.

I want to see the report Brian T. made that sounds pretty sick.

On December 22 2009 20:48 HeRoS)eNGagE wrote: i bet he want to kill hastings

...+83

On December 22 2009 21:01 Into Infinity wrote: so what happens when your pro status is suspended

u cant see hole cards anymore

1 month suspension. justice is served. big fucking deal. lol

1 month suspension, oh no!
I hope he has to pay 50% back to Isildur1...

On December 22 2009 21:05 TheHuHu3 wrote: No moar 100% RB =D.

+ $35 and hour or sumthing when u play on FTP :D

such a joke of a punishment lol... who knows what share he got of that 4M but that cant be compared to the redpro status...

islidurr doesnt deserve anything brian hastings meticulously studied put in the work and pwned him plain and simple.also who seriously didnt see islidurr going busto? comeon he 6 tabled ivey durrr and antonius nobody is that damn good.

that's a slap in the wrist, but at least they did do something. It's not going to change anything though b/c next time CR is just going to keep their mouth shut and we won't know if they "cheated". Giving away thousands of hands to another player is against the rules on FTP so he did cheat. BT and BH.

On December 23 2009 00:29 mcjinzo wrote: islidurr doesnt deserve anything brian hastings meticulously studied put in the work and pwned him plain and simple.also who seriously didnt see islidurr going busto? comeon he 6 tabled ivey durrr and antonius nobody is that damn good.

you have no clue at all - better just stfu

he should be banned that 1month suspend is joke

Haha he's just going to take a vacation for 1 month and spend some of that money. Big deal.

Month of 'red status suspension' ( its not a ban on account, just pro status removal for a month ) for literally cheating someone out of $4,000,000.

lol.

On December 23 2009 04:32 aseq wrote: Haha he's just going to take a vacation for 1 month and spend some of that money. Big deal.

pretty ridiculous but i guess they just wanted to show that they didnt accept this but with a minimum penalty

theyre retarded.
Basically they admitted their wrongdoings but informed us they're not gonna take any actions.
Time to get a new PR manager over thur.

You might suspect that BT, BH, CTS, OMGClayAiken, those 2 asian guys are all friends and they softplay vs each others in ring games, figure out new players together and share action.

1 month of suspension for 4.1 Million .... what a fcking joke.

you people are retarded

On December 23 2009 12:12 FrinkX wrote: you people are retarded

On December 23 2009 12:12 FrinkX wrote: you people are retarded

townsend is the fucking man. like we all wouldnt do everything we could to gain every edge....

So sharing a database is cheating??? I dont get it. Table tracker on HEM is that cheating?? I dont believe it is. They werent telling each other there hands during the game. This is ridiculous. If thats cheating then lots of people are in trouble for using table tracking softwares. .....lol.

On December 23 2009 12:12 FrinkX wrote: you people are retarded

CR Team is retarded, if anything.

Admitting in public ( LOL ESPN INTERVIEW ) to breaking FTP rules after a $4mln winning day - almost as bad as getting a Darwin award.

omg how is he going to live without this red colour ?!?!?!?!?

i think he can live off 1 month with 4mi lol

so much level or retardness ITT...

that punishment its a joke seriously

are we retarded? Please answer, Nazgul, Northface etc...

4.1 million dollar holiday bonus . Nice

I don't get it, I'm sure many other HU players did this, maybe to a lesser extend... and I've certainly shared tons of hands 6max.