WSOP Champ Greg Merson Says He’s No Cheater

July 28th, 2014 | by Greg Shaun

A sponsorship deal with WSOP.com led to Greg Merson's name change.

Former WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson clears up suspicions over his dual identity. (Image: WSOP.com)

Following suspicions that he was multi-accounting on WSOP.com, 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Merson has come clean about his latest sponsorship deal.

Last week the former champion’s reputation came into question after a forum poster announced that Merson had been seen playing with two different screen names on the WSOP’s US site.Â Bolstering the credibility of his post by claiming “multiple” sources had seen the incident, ‘asdfghjkl889’ explained that Merson had been caught playing under the monikers: ‘Toddmcshay” and “GregMerson.”

What’s in a Name?

A series of confused responses followed before Merson stepped in to clarify the situation. Despite hinting that he’d signed a sponsorship deal with WSOP.com early last week, no official announcement had been made at the time ‘asdfghjkl889’ made their post.

Unfortunately, that information wasn’t filtered through to the community in time to stop the rumors from spreading. However, Merson was able to explain himself on the popular forum with the following statement:Â “My name change was due to signing with WSOP.com and I apologize if that wasn’t clearer by my tweets and Instagram. Since the name change I have not played on my other screen as it has been terminated afaik.”

To further solidify Merson’s response, the WSOP’s Bill Rini confirmed that the old account (Toddmcshay) had been deleted.

Sit and Go King

On top of being touted as a possible multi-accounter, Merson was also forced to defend himself from speculation that he uses an illegal poker program to gain an advantage online.Â According to ‘asdfghjkl889’, Merson’s table selection has not only been lightning fast, but deadly accurate over the last few weeks.

Targeting one $200NL player specifically, ‘asdfghjkl889’ questioned whether Merson was using a seating script to exploit someone he deemed to be a weak player.Â Fortunately, it was yet another misunderstanding and one that Merson was also able to easily clear up.

Stating that he’d recently stopped playing on PokerStars because of issues relating to bots and illegal software, the WSOP champ explained that he’d become “very good at watching the lobby” while playing on Full Tilt in 2011, and that his ability to find profitable spots at the table is just a “big strength” of his.

To further clarify his position and explain why someone who banked $9.6 million at the 2012 WSOP would be playing $200NL, Merson stated that he still “loves to play online poker,” regardless of the stakes involved.Â As for Merson’s professional relationship with WSOP.com, the US-facing site is yet to officially confirm partnership’s specific details, but it looks as though he will be moving to New Jersey in the next few weeks to start his official tenure as a WSOP pro.

What is Multi-Accounting?

If there’s one crime in the online poker world that rattles the community more than anything, it’s multi-accounting. Basically a term used to describing the process of playing under more than one identity on a single site, a number of players have profited from this unethical practice in the past.

One of the most famous cases was Josh “JJProdigy” Fields. The American pro, who was good friends with Sorel Mizzi, was caught playing on more than one account in a number of tournaments on PartyPoker and Full Tilt between 2007 and 2009. Estimates state that the young player earned more than $200,000 by multi-accounting before he was banned from playing online poker and shunned by the community.