Why GGPoker Banned Final Table Chip Leader with $300k Going to the Winner
Two players were permanently banned from GGPoker, including the chip leader entering the GGMillion$ final table on Tuesday, for an alleged ghosting incident.
Adrian Mateos, Spain's top tournament player ever, would go on to win the tournament for $306,251. He'd entered the final table as the smallest stack out of nine players with just 20 big blinds. But he'd spin it up like he's done many times online and live over the past decade.
Mateos' win, however, has been overshadowed by an incident that occurred before the final table began, and it involved the chip leader, a player who competes on GGPoker under the screen name "Hindaru."
Why Did Online Poker Player Get Banned from GGPoker?
Hindaru, whose real name is unknown, entered play with 69 big blinds. But he wouldn't play a single hand at the final table, and the online poker giant explained why the player was not only removed from the tournament, but also permanently banned from the site.
"GGPoker has permanently banned two players following an account-sharing violation detected during the GGMillion$ tournament. Our security team identified the breach before the final table on November 11, 2025, and took immediate action to protect the integrity of the competition," a statement from GGPoker reads.
Jeff Gross, one of the commentators for the final table livestream, also issued a brief statement before play began. The longtime poker pro from Michigan told viewers that "the chip leader today is being blinded out. That is due to Game Integrity and they are looking into it and sorting that out."
Gross told his co-host, Alexandros Theologis, that he'd never seen a chip leader get blinded out at a final table. There was reason for GGPoker to ban Hindaru, and that reason was the online poker player allegedly allowed another player to play under their account. That player, unidentified by real name, was also banned from the poker site.
"During Day 1 of the GGMillion$ tournament on November 9, 2025, our security team identified that the account 'Hinaru' was being played by someone other than the registered account holder. The investigation confirmed that another player had been using Hinaru’s account throughout the tournament, a practice known as 'ghosting.' This constitutes a clear violation of GGPoker’s Security and Ecology Policy, which prohibits account sharing under any circumstances. Every player must compete on their own account—no exceptions," GGPoker wrote.
It's unclear how GGPoker was able to identify that ghosting had occurred. Hinaru's stack was blinded down to zero chips until the account busted in fifth place for $115,752. That money, however, was not added to the alleged cheater's online poker account. It was instead resdistrubted to affected players.
GGPoker recently gave previously banned players an opportunity to apply for reinstatement. The online poker site with the largest player base in the world also launched a new Online Poker Millionaires docuseries, and the first episode featured Theologis.
