VPNs from the United States: Top Tournament Player "Sizzlinbetta" Tells All VPNs from the United States: Top Tournament Player "Sizzlinbetta" Tells All
Key Takeaways
  • According to the interview, Reynolds paid two unnamed individuals $12,000 to get access to an account registered in a foreign country.
  • PokerStars has taken a hardline stance on players trying to circumvent its geographical blocks since its settlement with the US Department of Justice and agreement to withdraw from the US market.

Stephen Reynolds, best known online as “sizzlinbetta,” and considered one of the best online SNG players pre-Black Friday, has spoken candidly about his involvement with playing on dot-com sites from the United States.

In an interview with Steve Ruddock on NJ.com, Reynolds discusses how, post-Black Friday, he used a VPN service—a “virtual private network,” which routes your internet connection through another server and can mask your geographical location—to play on European dot-com sites, including PokerStars.

“At the beginning of 2012 I started to play on primarily 'eurosites’ via VPN which simply means I would sign on to a site that would relay my IP address making it appear I was somewhere else,” he is quoted as saying.

He goes on to say that he also tried the same at PokerStars, but was banned three days later. PokerStars has taken a hardline stance on players trying to circumvent its geographical blocks since its settlement with the US Department of Justice and agreement to withdraw from the US market. Deposits in seized accounts were ultimately refunded, but profits made were confiscated.

This did not stop Reynolds. According to the interview, he paid two unnamed individuals who provided a special service to keep playing on PokerStars: an account registered under the name of someone else, registered and verified in a foreign country, and financial services to withdraw the money.

“There’s a couple of guys currently who charge you a fee, most of which equate to about $12,000 a year plus you end up paying a percentage to turn the money back into cash,” Reynolds said.

“Long story short, I played under the name 'Celtik112’ for a period in 2013 and another active Pokerstars Account Name I can’t reveal because I know for a fact it’s still active and being used by someone else,” he added.

According to public tracking databases, the Celtik112 name on PokerStars has been active since 2008. The last activity was in May 2013. In the last ten days before the account was apparently left dormant—or closed by PokerStars—the player or players won approximately $20,000.