"Who … are you?"
This is an open letter to the high-profile young guns of the online poker world. You know who you are: You have your own website, and the forums are filled with reports of your exploits. You may have reached that pinnacle of being better known by your online name than the one your parents gave you. Some of you have even made the transition to the brick-and-mortar poker world and are TV personalities, too.
Do you recognize yourself in the preceding paragraph? If so, please read the rest of this column carefully.
If you all are not careful, you're going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
Most of you are delightful folks. I've met many of you and have enjoyed those meetings immensely. You're bright, interesting, and fun. A lot of you have been kind enough to say that you got your start in poker by reading my book, even though you could play rings around me now.
But you know what? A
few of you are playing fast and loose with the rules of online poker. You seem to think that the regulations don't apply to you and you can just pick and choose which ones you want to follow. This is somewhat understandable. After all, you are young, and young people often think that even the rules of mortality don't apply to them, much less those put in place by human institutions and enterprises.
But your cavalier attitude toward those rules could erode the confidence that the average player has in online poker. Online poker is not live poker. Some rules violations, such as collusion, are easier to detect (hand histories make it hard to get away with collusion for very long). But other violations, such as playing multiple accounts in a single tournament, are more difficult to detect.
But just because it's a bit more difficult to spot doesn't make it any less wrong. And when you talk nonchalantly about doing it, what do you think the average player thinks?
Let's talk about that average player for a moment. He isn't interested in playing three different accounts in a tournament. And even if he were, he probably couldn't afford three buy-ins into a large weekly or monthly tournament. He wants to put in his $200 and have a fair shot against you and your $200.
In fact, he's probably tickled that he gets to play against a famous player such as you. He tells the guys in his Thursday night poker game that he was at the same table with HotShot45 (fictitious name) in the $200 Sunday tournament. He may even come up and ask for your autograph at the
World Series of Poker.
So, back to my question: What does this average player think when he sees you writing in some blog or poker forum about breaking the rules like it's no big deal - or, watches you doing it right there in person? He thinks, "Well, wait - why is there a different set of rules for HotShot45 than there is for me?"
Look, he doesn't expect to beat you most of the time; he knows you're a better player than he is. But he wants a fair chance for his money. And if a few of you young guns behave as if the rules don't apply to you, Joe and Jane Average Player will believe that they're not playing on a level field. And if that happens, do you know what's next? They stop playing online.
Whoa! Read that again:
They stop playing online.
These are the people who fill the online tournaments in which you're cashing, day in and day out, week in and week out. They are the ones who are creating record fields in the
WSOP and other major tournaments via online satellites. Did you know that there are some estimates that 50 percent of the field in last year's
WSOP main event was online satellite qualifiers? Many of those people never had played a single hand of live casino poker, but they didn't care. They were living the dream of playing in the
WSOP, and heck, they'd invested only $135 and now were sitting at the same table with Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, and HotShot45. But their $10,000 was in the prize pool, just like everybody else's.
If you scare these players away from online poker by acting as if it's your own private sandbox with your own private rules, you'll have only yourselves to blame.
Now, lest you get the wrong impression, the online poker sites are not waiting for you to clean up your act. They are putting tools in place to spot your shenanigans. And when you get caught, you're gone; no more juicy online tournaments, no more making your living sitting poolside with a Wi-Fi laptop. Some high-profile names already are gone, and if you don't straighten up, you will be next.
But please, don't let it get that far. You are a businessman, and the huge masses of eager amateurs are your
customers. Act accordingly. Follow the rules. You're good enough to win by playing on the square; do so.
Poker is enjoying an unprecedented and almost unimaginable renaissance, in great part due to online poker. You, the
glitterati of the new poker age, have the opportunity to enhance and prolong this renaissance, or push us back toward the Dark Ages of pre-Moneymaker, pre-
World Poker Tour, and pre-PokerStars poker. I was there; believe me, you don't want to go back.
By the way, there's another reason to play ethically and follow the rules: It's better for your karma. As far as I'm concerned, Hank Aaron, the epitome of skill, class, and integrity, will be the home run leader of baseball as long as I'm alive; I don't care how many homers Barry Bonds hits. Winning is very important, but it's not as important as being the kind of person you want to be. Do not let your ethical compass get misdirected by the gravitational pull of your bankroll.
So, follow the rules - even the ones that you think you might be able to skirt (for now). Let's keep this goose happy and well-fed, and your karma in full bloom.
"Tell me who are you" 
Lee Jones is a well-known poker author (Winning Low Limit Hold'em), analyst, and commentator. He works for the European Poker Tour.
