“Oooops, I Did It Again…” - Brian Townsend Edition.

Online Poker Pro Brian Townsend Admits to Multi-Accounting.

In the wonderful world of online poker news today, it looks as if another popular professional player has admitted to using multiple accounts…

The most recent epic failure that we are now able to add to a list that already includes Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo and “JJProdigy” is Full Tilt Red Pro Brian Townsend. The CardRunners instructor and high stakes cash game extraordinaire made the announcement earlier this week on his personal blog explaining a little bit of the situation (excerpt below).

For the past 6 months I have been playing under the 2nd aliases Stellarnebula on FTP and makersmark66 on PokerStars. I have not used the aba20 account on Stars since I began playing on the Makersmark66 account. I have since gone back to using the aba20 account and will play only that account. During this time I played the 25/50 and 100/200 PLO games. I played under the Stellarnebula account from February until the end of June at which time Lee Jones and I had a discussion and we came to an agreement that I needed to close it. During this time I was playing under the Brian Townsend account, never at the same table with the Stellarnebula. Under the Stellarnebula account I played 25/50, 50/100, and 100/200 PLO. During this time I played a very small amount of 50/100 PLO and primarily 200/400 PLO under the Brian Townsend account.

I don’t know whether to take this public admission as a surprise or something I pretty much expected from someone in Townsend’s shoes. He was a hero to the No Limit grinders who dreamed of starting out at $.25/$.50 (which Brian did) and moving up the ranks to playing the biggest stakes in the world. But on the same token, his persona would become so well-known that other high-profile players would either refuse to sit down with him at the tables - or willingly try to find action elsewhere. This undoubtedly led him to seek alternative means to get more high stakes games going - a means that will now haunt his reputation for a lifetime…

His subsequent revelation and apology on his blog has come off very sincere - and weirdly enough, was actually embraced by MANY of the online community. However, as a poker player and grinder myself back in the day, it still upsets me that such behavior could be tolerated and even seemingly be accepted by the gambling fraternity. Hell. the punishment Townsend will receive is nothing short of a slap on the wrist in my eyes. To only have his Full Tilt Pro status taken away from him for the next 6 months and basically be stripped of his rakeback seems a bit soft considering many other online pros have been completely banished from sites and had all their winnings confiscated!

I truly hope he learns something out of this, and becomes an advocate for the use of SINGLE ACCOUNTS only. He has a long way to go in regards to making amends with the very people that looked up to him and/or played with him on the virtual felt…but at least for now it’s out there and he’s doing his best to try and do damage control on his character rep.