Lee Jones has quit Pokerstars, and has made a brief statement on 2+2 about it
Lee Jones, longtime cardroom manager of Pokerstars, then briefly of Cake Poker, and then of Pokerstars again, has finally quit.
This was discovered on thie "About" page of his website: https://leejones.com/about
Quote:
My name is Lee and I've been playing poker for 35 years. I wrote a book called Winning Low Limit Hold’em back in the ‘90s. After many wonderful years at PokerStars, I’m happy to report that I am no longer working for the Man. No surprise, my love affair with poker is raging. I’m playing, writing, and coaching, every chance I get. I am excited to see what comes next in this adventure.
Someone posted this on 2+2, and a debate broke out regarding whether Lee was a good or bad guy.
His detractors accused him of being an unethical paid shill of Amaya (current Pokerstars owners), publicly defending any of their unfair/unethical behavior because it paid his bills.
His supporters stated that he is a good, ethical man who loves the game of poker, and was simply a spokesman for the company in the later years. They insisted he didn't make any of the unpopular decisions, nor could he overrule any of them.
Here's what I wrote about him on 2+2:
Quote:
As someone who played very actively on Pokerstars since almost the beginning all the way through Black Friday, I had a lot of visibility into Lee's work.
Back then, he was a mostly beloved figure in poker.
Later on, in the Amaya days, opinions started to change, especially after a series of player-unfriendly decisions by the company.
I don't know Lee personally. I know who he is, and he knows who I am (I'm Dan Druff, in case you weren't aware), but we had little direct contact with one another.
I will say that Lee was part of the poker community way before the Moneymaker boom, and in fact he predates the 2+2 forum. His beginners limit holdem book was actually what got me into poker, and I felt it was a great introductory text on the subject.
Some people I respect are friends with him, and have nothing but good things to say about his character and integrity.
I feel that Lee is a decent guy, loves the poker community, and at no time was doing anything he felt was seriously hurting the game.
That's not to say he didn't make some mistakes. By defending a lot of Pokerstars' unethical actions in the Amaya era, he did lose some of his personal credibility. While it was clear he was acting as a company spokesperson, the bottom line is that he is/was a known name in poker, and his statements end up defining him.
At times, I found some of his explanations evasive and/or infuriating, even though they didn't directly involve me.
I do understand his dilemma, though. He was one of their spokesmen, and his job was to attempt to make Pokerstars look good. He was being paid to show loyalty to them, and to project their message.
We can sit on our high horses and say, "He should have quit", but this was his long-running livelihood, and he had to make the decision whether to end that simply because he disagreed with some of his employer's business practices.
Now, if Stars was outright scamming and cheating people, and he stayed as their mouthpiece, I'd be all aboard the hate train with the rest of you.
However, I would classify some of the recent Stars decisions as "unethical", "unfair", and "pro-unfriendly", but not criminal. There's a huge distinction there.
In short, I don't think Lee deserves any hate. At worst, he was the mouthpiece for some unethical dealings by Stars, but he never had any meaningful input into these decisions, and everything would have occurred whether he was with the company or not.
I wish Lee luck in his future endeavors.
In the next post, I will share Lee's statement he recently made on 2+2.
