Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez has been suspended for six months, but the reason for this suspension is still officially unknown, as is common in situations such as this. Rumors about the situation, however, seem to indicate that he has been suspended for sharing his account with another person and PokerStars claims that this kind of behavior would result in any normal player receiving the same suspension from the site for the alleged infraction. PokerStars has also indicated that further action might be taken and it will be interesting to see if Fernandez is welcomed back at the completion of his suspension.
This is not the first run-in with rules for Fernandez, who was sued by Wynn Casinos and Resorts in Las Vegas in 2011, according to CBSnews.com, for allegedly cheating at a craps game by sliding the dice and using other people to help mask this action. The casino sued him and an accomplice for $700,000, but the resolution of the case is still unclear. Further, PokerStars doesn’t seem to have made a comment on this lawsuit and it’s possible that they let it slide, but couldn’t ignore his consistent problem with rules with his latest actions. It’s also important to note that the previous issue was not poker-related, but this one clearly was, and actually is an issue PokerStars has been trying to combat over the years.
Fernandez is an accomplished player with $1.5 million in tournament cashes. He is also ranked 3rd on the all-time money list for Latin America, 2nd all-time for total money won by an Argentinian player, and has been a fixture in the Latin American poker community since 2010. He has won two LAPT events; the LAPT Panama Main Event and the LAPT Grand Final High Roller. What the future holds for Fernandez and his sponsorship by PokerStars is still unknown and as more information becomes available we will pass it along. He clearly has value to the site in Latin America, but his questionable behavior creates an interesting situation that PokerStars is going to have to gauge carefully.
