After winning Lock Poker’s and Bluff Magazine’s Bluff Pro Challenge in April, it has been found by an internal investigation that, during the contest, a second user also played from the Portugese pro’s account, violating the room’s terms and conditions. Macedo has consequently been disqualified: “Jose is young and he has made a big mistake here. We wanted to make sure that regardless of being a Lock Pro he won this fair and square. After doing an audit of his account, we have found that he broke some rules, and that will not be tolerated by Lock,” Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson stated in a press release.
Jose 'Girah' Macedo
‘Girah’ admitted to be at fault, but also provided a sound explanation of what happened: “I’m deeply sorry for having broken the rules, but I truly had no intention of circumventing the rules in any way. Though it is no excuse, I want to be fully transparent at this point to let the poker world know what has happened and why. The computer in question was my backer, who logged into my account to check my balance and ended up playing some $25/$50 PLO while I was asleep and lost some money. Though on the merit of my own legitimate play I had enough winnings to win the Bluff Challenge, in light of the way things appear, I fully support and respect Lock’s decision to disqualify me and hand over the challenge to the second place winner. Once again, I truly regret that all of this has happened the way it has, and I hope that I can win back the generous support and understanding of the players who have believed in me so far. I will be issuing a more comprehensive explanation of what happened on my blog. Thank you.”
Larson, it fortunately seems, is willing to forgive the young prodigy, although that does not alter the decision of the room of Merge Network: “We pride ourselves in standing for trust, legitimacy, and loyalty. The truth is sometimes hard to stand by, but it is the only way we can move forward. Although Jose won enough money from his own IP to have legitimately won the challenge, the unfortunate fact remains that breaking the rules is strictly disallowed. The fact remains Jose is an exceptional player and I firmly believe that mistakes only lead to greatness if learned from."
The Bluff Pro Challenge was about winning a Lock Poker sponsorship for two years, in addition to the participation in a six-month advertising campaign for the site. With the disqualification of ‘Girah,’ second finisher Michael ‘bigguylegend22’ Drummond claims victory with over +$90,000 in winnings in April.
Jose 'Girah' Macedo
‘Girah’ admitted to be at fault, but also provided a sound explanation of what happened: “I’m deeply sorry for having broken the rules, but I truly had no intention of circumventing the rules in any way. Though it is no excuse, I want to be fully transparent at this point to let the poker world know what has happened and why. The computer in question was my backer, who logged into my account to check my balance and ended up playing some $25/$50 PLO while I was asleep and lost some money. Though on the merit of my own legitimate play I had enough winnings to win the Bluff Challenge, in light of the way things appear, I fully support and respect Lock’s decision to disqualify me and hand over the challenge to the second place winner. Once again, I truly regret that all of this has happened the way it has, and I hope that I can win back the generous support and understanding of the players who have believed in me so far. I will be issuing a more comprehensive explanation of what happened on my blog. Thank you.”
Larson, it fortunately seems, is willing to forgive the young prodigy, although that does not alter the decision of the room of Merge Network: “We pride ourselves in standing for trust, legitimacy, and loyalty. The truth is sometimes hard to stand by, but it is the only way we can move forward. Although Jose won enough money from his own IP to have legitimately won the challenge, the unfortunate fact remains that breaking the rules is strictly disallowed. The fact remains Jose is an exceptional player and I firmly believe that mistakes only lead to greatness if learned from."
The Bluff Pro Challenge was about winning a Lock Poker sponsorship for two years, in addition to the participation in a six-month advertising campaign for the site. With the disqualification of ‘Girah,’ second finisher Michael ‘bigguylegend22’ Drummond claims victory with over +$90,000 in winnings in April.
