Lock Poker Considers Legal Action Against Jose Macedo

It’s been a bad couple of week for Jose “Girah” Macedo, a player once referred to as the “Portuguese Poker Prodigy.” Now Macedo may have to deal with legal action from Lock Poker, the room that formerly sponsored him.

According to a post by Lock Poker’s Cardroom Manager Eric Lynch on the twoplustwo.com forums, Lock Poker is in the process of taking legal action against Macedo, who befriended online professionals to the point where they let him see their cards as they played online – when Macedo would then share their hole card information with their opponents.

“Lock is currently pursuing legal action against Jose so we are unable to make a substantial comment at this time,” Lynch said. “We do realize that ongoing silence can lead to people jumping to conclusions. What happened goes against the very core of our player based philosophy and we intend on exercising our legal rights in the most severe degree. We will keep you updated as things progress."

Lynch further commented that he believed Lock Poker would truly be taking actions against Macedo, in response to complaints that the poker site might choose to simply sweep the matter under the rug rather than admit to any responsibility they might have for the situation.

Along with the card viewing scam, which may have resulted in up to $45,000 in losses, Macedo was also found to have cheated in order to win a challenge sponsored by Lock Poker. While Macedo was disqualified from the competition, questions remained about how he was able to initially win without setting off several red flags – most notably, during a $100,000 chip dump from Haseeb Qureshi to him.

At the moment, the scope or severity of any lawsuits that will be filed by Lock Poker are unknown. No date has been set for further announcements.