Back in 2019, Ivan Deyra became a household name in the world of poker after winning his first WSOP bracelet. He enjoyed playing the game and felt that the win was a step in the right direction to boost his career. However, now his dreams of a solid poker career may come to an end, after he was caught multi-accounting at Winamax. This is a big no-no and could be detrimental to his professional poker career.
Caught in the Act
Deyra was able to win a recent Super High Roller event during the latest Winamax Series. The win provided him with $101,000 in prize money. However, the glory was short lived after it was discovered that Deyra had been eliminated and used his father’s account to continue in the event.
So, how did the action of the poker player come to light? Well, first, it was a forum at Club Poker where a thread started and grew to 30 pages within a 48 hour time frame discussing the matter. Players who took part in the event reported they received refunds. One player was given thousands in refund cash. This alerted everyone that something was up.
Other players then noted that Deyra had not been online playing with his personal account since early January, just two days after the event took place. After a little digging, poker players investigating the matter revealed that the winning account from the event was MATIVANAO which is the first names of Deyra’s brothers and sisters combined.
Confessing
With so much evidence against him, Deyra finally confessed to the incident. He released a statement saying that he competed in the Super High Roller event with two accounts and won with his father’s. Winamax decided to ban both accounts after the incident.
The win as well as prize money from two other events that Deyra cashed out in at the time were taken and provided to the affected players. Deyra also had a contract with Winamax but it was terminated. He was supposed to stay on with them until June when the contract expired but the company decided to go ahead and part ways after this incident.
In the statement, Deyra said that his punishment was heavy but logical and understandable. The poker player says he realized the cheating aspect of multi-accounting now in hindsight. He said he could not believe he was so oblivious or naïve and has been trying to find it within himself to discover reasons for the action he took.
Deyra also used the statement to apologize to Winamax and Team Pros along with other players in the event in which the incident occurred. He also apologized to the poker community as his action could tarnish the reputation of the game.
As far as a reason for the cheating, Deyra said that he realized that at Winamax he was not making money playing online as a pro. He felt like it was because he was playing under his own name and the same name for a long period of time. Many players change nicknames every few months which he thinks helps. Basically, he wanted to see how he could fare under another nickname instead of his real name, if players would react differently.
