Winamax Pro Ivan Deyra has been dismissed as an ambassador and forced to pay back winnings after being exposed as a multi-accounting cheat.
As reported by PokerNews today, French player Deyra, who won a World Series of Poker bracelet back in 2019, the year Hossein Ensan took the Main Event trophy, won over €83,000 in the recent Winamax Series by dishonest means.
Deyra’s duplicity was exactly that. As discovered by French poker forum Club Poker in the aftermath of the event, Deyra busted from the tournament only to then use an account registered to his own father’s name to seal victory.
So what was the clue that gave his game away? Well, given he’s a talented poker player, it’s not exactly a trick that Moriarty would be proud of and didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out. Having not played his Day 2 until using the account name ‘MATIVANAO’ to do so, forum members discovered that this pseudonym was put together using the Christian names of Deyra’s brothers and sisters.
Busted… in every sense.
With the money having to be paid back and distributed around the duped players, Deyra confessed to his crimes in a statement included (but wasn’t limited to) the following:
“Today, with hindsight I recognize the cheating aspect of multi-accounting,” Deyra said. “In the past, I realized when doing my finances that on Winamax I hadn’t been making money for three years, since I became a Team Pro. After asking myself several questions about my game. I came up with a theory. Players change nicknames every six months. All the information that I collect on their play disappears at this time, but the reverse is not true since I keep the same nickname.”
If that sounds like justification rather than a genuine apology of a conciliary nature, then Deyra goes further.
“Neither [Winamax] nor I would have wanted this, but it is so. How could I have been so naive or oblivious? For the days and nights that follow, I am searching within myself to dig into the reasons for this unforgivable and serious act. I have given all my energy and passion for poker, through blogs, strategy videos, deep runs, my dreams, my [setbacks] and team spirit, ever since my first day as a pro. I will continue to share this with you until the end.”
With an apology to his former employers Winamax themselves, other players and the poker community as a whole, Deyra has fallen on his extremely sharp sword. He does, however, pledge to carry on in a poker career and learn from the experience.
With $1.4 million in live tournament earnings in his career, Ivan Deyra will be hoping that the damage he has done to his reputation in the game is not irretrievable. As players such as Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates have learned, forgiveness for his actions might be a difficult raise to get through. He’ll have some big callers for some considerable time, on and off the felt.
With his Winamax contract ripped up well ahead of its June deadline for expiration or renewal, Deyra will need to start from the ground up to rebuild if not his bankroll, then his reputation in the game.
