"TheV0id" is a PokerStars screen name that is assumed to be associated with Mark Teltscher, an English online poker player.
In September 2005, Teltscher won the £3,000 No-Limit Texas Hold 'em main event in London during the second season of the European Poker Tour, earning the £280,000 ($495,935) first prize.
A few months later, Teltscher won the $5,000 event at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, earning $374,965. He outlasted a field that included World Poker Tour winners Michael Mizrachi, Gavin Smith and Alan Goehring.
In 2007 he came in 2nd place in the Barcelona Open, earning € 673,000 ($920,015).
In 2008 he came in 2nd place in the Aussie Millions Poker Championship, earning A$ 650,000 ($571,368).
He has 5 WSOP cashes for a total of $82,239 and has cashed in the WPT once.
As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,800,000.
A player named "TheV0id" won the 2007 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) main event on PokerStars for $1,228,330.50. After a while, it was made public that "TheV0id" was an online account set up under the name of Mark Teltscher's sister, Natalie. Teltscher's regular PokerStars account "Play2Kill" was entered into the tournament but busted early in the tourney (Teltscher had been a well-known higher-limit online player at Full Tilt Poker who played under the screen name “play2kill”).
It was then alleged that higher-skilled Mark had taken over for his sister and played under her account since his sister was a completely unknown player but had come out of nowhere to win the WCOOP Main Event - one of the toughest poker tournaments in the world.
Both players denied the allegations while the prize money was frozen by Pokerstars during their investigation of the incident. After the investigation was finished, the Teltschers were found guilty of playing dishonestly and Teltscher was disqualified. All the players in the WCOOP tournament were bumped up one spot on the payout list. The second place finisher “ka$ino” was pushed up to the number one spot and his payout went from $850,782.50 to $1,378,330.50.
Mark and his sister stuck to their story even after their disqualification. Natalie filed a lawsuit against Pokerstars.com in The Isle of Man, where the online site is based out of. It claimed that Mark never played a hand on the account and the first place money belonged to her.
She eventually withdrew the suit and admitted that she had not played, and agreed to pay for PokerStars' legal fees. There were rumors that Teltscher had used up to 5 different accounts in the same tournaments and that “TheV0id” was only one of many accounts that the Teltshcer family used in the WCOOP Main Event. Pokerstars made an official statement regarding the case:
PokerStars™ are pleased to announce that Natalie Teltscher has recently withdrawn her claim in the Isle of Man Courts against PokerStars.
Furthermore, in discontinuing her claim, she has agreed to contribute a sum towards the legal costs incurred by PokerStars in this matter.
Ms. Teltscher brought her claim against PokerStars because she was disqualified from first place of the 2007 WCOOP Main Event after PokerStars internal investigations demonstrated beyond doubt that she had not played on the account. On her disqualification all other players were moved one place higher in the prize table and the money confiscated from her account, TheV0id, was redistributed in full, according to the amended tournament placings.
Ms. Teltscher initially claimed that she had played the account. However, when faced with the results from PokerStars' investigation she eventually admitted she hadn't played.
The decision of Ms Teltscher to withdraw her claim fully vindicates PokerStars' decision to disqualify her from the tournament and subsequently defend the claim, actions which were taken in order to protect the integrity of the games on offer at PokerStars.
Log in to post comments
or Register
HPG ADMIN on February 27, 2013