Home » News » 3-Bet: GDPR Forces Hendon Mob to Open Account Deletion Option, German Mystery Player â€˜nilsefâ€™ Wins 2 WCOOP Events in a Day & 2018 Winamax Poker Open Dublin Schedule Released

3-Bet: GDPR Forces Hendon Mob to Open Account Deletion Option, German Mystery Player ‘nilsef’ Wins 2 WCOOP Events in a Day & 2018 Winamax Poker Open Dublin Schedule Released

The Hendon Mob, World Championship of Online Poker and Winamax Poker Open

PG News September 8, 2018
6 Mins Read

International poker has been a hotbed of big poker action on the felts and attention grabbing developments. Cornered by the tough regulatory diktat of the European Union (EU)’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), Hendon Mob has now provided European players the option of deleting their accounts, correcting information on its database.

While Hendon Mob took to the TwoPlusTwo thread that reported this to clarify their stand, the PokerStars’ 2018 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is well into its first week. More than a dozen online tournaments are in the books and headlining the stellar performances was the German mystery player ‘nilsef’, who won two events in a single day on September 4. This is the first time in the history of WCOOP that a player has won two events within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the 2018 Winamax Poker Open Dublin Schedule is opening at Citywest Hotel in Dublin on September 17 and will feature 40 tournaments to culminate on September 23.

EU GDPR Forces Hendon Mob to Offer Account Deletion Option

A heated discussion erupted on the TwoPlusTwo thread earlier this week regarding the option of account deletion on poker’s most comprehensive results database Hendon Mob. The discussion was a result of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which also states that players can request their existing account be renamed with a nickname.

The thread was stated by the user ‘schmette’ who stated, “After years of abusive Data-collection Hendon Mob is now forced, due to the GDPR, to delete your Accounts if you want to.” He added “Funnily HM response is that, the People abuse their own rights (GDPR) given to damage ‘the industry’ which helped them with their careers in the first place. They offer you to change your Account into a ‘Nickname’ too.”

A representative from Hendon Mob (THM) participated in the thread to defend the company against the allegations of “abusive data collection.”

‘RolandTHM’ wrote, “By publishing the results and pay-outs of major tournaments Hendon Mob is no more guilty of ‘abusive Data-collection’ than the APT or the PGA. The information published on THM has already been released by a Casino or Tour in line with their own T&Cs, which a player agrees to by registering the tournament.”

He further stated “Yes, GPDR has caused some changes to the way we operate, but we will continue to work hard to serve the community, to improve the product we offer to poker fans, players and media and to continue to grow our traffic year on year. We would like to thank those who support Hendon Mob by visiting the site, following us on Social Media and interacting with us via any of our sites or initiatives.”

According to the GDPR rules, which became effective from May 25, European citizens can request for corrections or deletion to their online data. A company failing to adhere to such request can be fined up to €20 million (£16.5 million) or four percent of global annual revenue.

Several players and users reacted to the TwoPlusTwo thread. While many sided with ‘schmette’, many others thought the new development was pointless since Hendon Mob consists of public records.

‘GrimeRat420’ stated: “When you register a tournament in a casino it should be expected for your name to appear in chip counts lists, in blog posts, and possibly in pictures and live streams. I think finding loopholes around this is an unreasonable expectation of privacy in a context where it doesn’t make sense to expect it in any form.”

‘NickMPK’ added: “So do major league baseball players have the right to have their stats removed from ESPN.com if they have a bad season? I don’t understand the specifics of this law. This isn’t personal data, it is all public record. And doesn’t everyone sign a waiver when they enter a poker tournament allowing the casinos to publicize winners?”

One of the most active users on the thread ‘Boss716’ expressed his support for the move. “Because grownups with real jobs might not want it public that they play poker,” he wrote. “Or how much they’ve won / how often they play… People should be allowed to play poker and not have it posted to the Internet for everyone to see. I am a huge fan of this move. I’ve personally been asked by employers about it because all you see when you Google me are poker results. And even though players see poker differently, you have to consider public perception, and that 99% of people don’t consider it a legitimate game of skill or intellect but just gambling, and that doesn’t look good to a lot of people.”

However, numerous players have also expressed concern that the option will allow players to hide results from people who buy their action and also for tax evasion.

Nevertheless, the European players who wish to remove and change their profile on Hendon Mob, can contact their administrators at support@thehendonmob.com.

German Mystery Player ‘nilsef’ Wins 2 WCOOP Events in a Single Day

Many big names are fielding through the ongoing online poker extravaganza, PokerStars’ 2018 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), but it was German mystery player who plays by the moniker ‘nilsef’ who grabbed the headlines after winning two WCOOP tournaments in a single day.

In the early hours on September 4, ‘nilsef’ first took down the ‘Win the Button’ High event and banked an impressive payday of $74,459. He then went on to win the High version of the No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo the same evening and pocketed the top prize of $41,878, after reaching a heads-up deal with ‘sprocketsAA’ from Mexico, who pocketed $37,963 for his runner-up finish.

In the No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, ‘nilsef’ beat many known players to the finish line, including Phil ‘MrSweets28’ Galfond, Jonas ‘donut604’ Mackoff and Jerry ‘Perrymejsen’ Odeen’, all of who were eliminated on the final table.

‘nilsef’ has been a mystery player since 2010 when he took down the $250 PLO Knockout in the 2010 WCOOP to earn a payday of $50,015. While he was eventually tracked down by PokerStars it was discovered that ‘nilsef’ hailed from Germany and was a former chess player who switched to poker in 2005.

The player still maintains anonymity and has $7 Million from more than 12,000 online MTT cashes. He is currently playing the Limit Razz High Championship and has made his way through to the top 12 finalists who will soon be returning to the felts to play down to a winner.

On their Twitter handle, PokerStarsDE announced ‘nilsef’s’ phenomenal run. ‘Nilsef’ is full throttle, already second tournament victory at the WCOOP, the post stated.

‘nilsef’ ðŸ‡©ðŸ‡ªgibt Vollgas! Bereits zweiter Turniersieg bei der #WCOOP Aber auch ‘DaCus3’ ðŸ‡©ðŸ‡ª& ‘TonyYayo5’ ðŸ‡¨ðŸ‡holen ihre ersten Online WM-Titel. Die Ergebnisse vom Dienstag in der Übersicht ðŸ‘‰https://t.co/Zp0fWsoRZ6 pic.twitter.com/88oaJI2ldx

— PokerStarsDE (@PokerStarsDE) September 5, 2018

Meanwhile players are hauling it big in other events at the online series that features a total of 185 tournaments. In its first week of run, WCOOP has already seen more than 100,000 players compete in the events.

Many events have crowned winners. Sweden’s Daniel ‘42ayay’ Erlandsson and Austrian Julian ‘nailuj90’ Stuer won the two biggest Sunday kick-off 2-day events. Austria’s ‘naliuj90’ won the $2,100 NLHE 8-Max PKO event for 92,971, while the $2,100 NLHE event was taken down by Sweden’s ‘42ayay’, who banked $146,384 and the title in a three-way chop.

A major highlight on the 2018 WCOOP roster was the special edition of the Sunday Million and Romanian player ‘jah1923’ took down the event to lock in the first place payday of $193,055.

2018 Winamax Poker Open Dublin Schedule Released

The hugely popular live poker tournament series, the 2018 Winamax Poker Open (WPO) Dublin edition is opening at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin on September 17. Featuring 40 events with buy-ins that range from €10 up to €1,500, the series will culminate on September 23.

The WPO made its inaugural run in 2013 and has been synonymous with a fun atmosphere in the field. While most of the events are hot favorites, headlining the show will be the €1,500 High Roller and the €500 Main Event.

The €1,500 High Roller will kick off on September 18 and run over two days while the €550 Main Event will feature three starting flights, that will begin on September 19, with the finale slated for September 23.