With online poker now legal and regulated in New Jersey, you’d think that famed online pro Stephen ‘sizzlinbetta’ Reynolds would be as happy as ever. This is especially the case when you consider that he recently won the WSOP.com Online Championships Main Event and $63,750, the largest payout in NJ internet poker’s short history. However, the truth is… he’s anything but happy.
Speaking with NJ.com’s Steve Ruddock, Reynolds recently opened up about his thoughts on the Garden State’s poker operation and how he used VPN’s (Virtual Private Network) to play at the world’s largest poker sites. That said, let’s cut right to the chase and cover what sizzlinbetta had to say about these subjects and more.
Using VPN’s to play at Stars
When Black Friday (April 15th, 2011) struck and players could no longer play at some of the world’s bigger sites, some pros moved out of the country. Reynolds was one of these players since he divided five months between living in Mexico and Canada. Tired of living abroad, he returned to New Jersey. This is when he began using VPN’s to play at PokerStars and “euro sites.” As some people know, a VPN hides a user’s internet location and makes the poker site think that the player is in another location/country.
This enabled him to play on a number of sites that don’t serve US players, such Titan, Goalwin and Ladbrokes. After numerous disconnection issues with his VPN’s, Reynolds started using his cell phone as an internet signal. Although it provided much slower service and made multi-tabling SNG’s extremely difficult, the cell phone was at least stable.
He began using his cell phone internet as a means of playing on PokerStars too. Unfortunately, he only got to play on Stars for three days before receiving a message that said he was permanently banned for violating terms and conditions. After going back to the euro sites, sizzlinbetta realized that there’d never be a reliable situation where he could use PokerTracker software and also multi-table.
Reynolds’ Problem with OnGame, NJ Licensing
As sizzlinbetta told Ruddock, Goalwin was one of the rooms that he played at through a VPN. He still has $10,000 trapped on that site since they haven’t been processing cashouts for almost a year now. Seeing as how Goalwin is on the OnGame network (Amaya Gaming), which was licensed by New Jersey gaming authorities, he is outraged. “Forget the $10,000 plus owed to me; think about the millions that are owed to other people,” he said.
Why he thinks PartyPoker owes him money
Geolocation issues have caused some big problems in the New Jersey internet poker market, and Reynolds is understanding of this. He even finished out his big WSOP.com tournament victory on his phone due to lag-out problems, and he didn’t complain much either. However, Reynolds hasn’t forgiven PartyPoker for four tournaments that he busted out of due to a disconnection issue.
“I was sitting in my house playing on my desktop when I was disconnected from the site,” he said. “This happens all the time, so I just close out the software and open everything back up no problem. Only there was a big problem. The four tournaments I was in – each of which I had a lot of chips in – I was suddenly all out of.”
After thoroughly explaining the situation to Party Borgata’s customer support, Reynolds said that all they offered him was $215 for $700 worth of value. Since then, he’s boycotted the PartyPoker NJ site because he said it’s already hard enough to beat poker without getting booted from tournaments.
What’s Next for Reynolds?
Despite earning well over $2 million in online poker tournaments and another $372k in live events, Reynolds is thinking of moving on from poker. He’s been working on designing video games and learning the process of 3D modeling. Unfortunately, he has a very grim outlook on poker these days and finished his NJ.com interview with the following:
“In any situation where I have to rely upon poor software, bloated companies with no support, or shell companies that can’t pay out I know I’m doomed. Any situation in which I have to rely upon my governor, politicians, and especially the president to pull his proverbial head out of his ass, I know I’m screwed. Tell Mr. Obama I hope he enjoys his open and highly illegal weekly poker game.”