Chinese Player Used Real-Time Assistance of Ren Lin to Win $10K GGMIllion$

The Whistleblower of the GGMillion$ Controversy: Buzzcut

On October 17th, 2025 the third place winner of the $10K GGMIllion$ nicknamed Buzzcut shared on X (ex-Twitter) information about a potential breach of GGPoker rules during the final table of that event.

His information seemed to be solid because it was received from the source — the poker community chat that he was personally invited to by Ren Lin.

According to evidence Buzzcut published, the winner RealOA shared his final table in real time in the group chat and was (at least partially) coached by Ren Lin during the game. He later even thanked Lin by message: “Thanks Tony for the coaching”.

It is worth noting that all messages shared by Buzzcut are in Chinese, including screenshots of the RealOA stream from this group.

However, Tony is the only person directly called out by name and thanked by the winner in these messages that made Lin the only confirmed person involved in real-time assistance from this chat. 

While Buzzcut continued to collect more information about this situation, Ren Lin messaged him to apologize and discuss the issue — but somehow managed to make situation look worse:

However, Lin swore “to never ever give real-time advice to other players in the future”. Buzzcut decided to go public anyway and inform the other finalists and the entire community of what went down and the fact that it wasn’t okay, no matter who you are and how you excuse it for yourself.

Was Ren Lin’s Assistance a Ghosting

While a lot of poker players and media labeled this situation as a textbook example of ghosting, Buzzcut himself hasn’t used this term in his post even once.

Instead he embedded screenshots of GGPoker Online Poker Security Ecology Policy (SEP)  into the text, explaining what rules he considered to have broken by Lin and RealOA:

If we read GGPoker rules closely, it becomes clear that even according to them, Lin advising another player is not the case of ghosting.

GGPoker defines ghosting as a practice when “a player allows another player, usually a player of much higher skill, to take control of their account”.

There are no accusations or proof that Ren ever had an access to a RealOA account and played through it — only that he assisted his friend during at least a portion of the final table.

Merit Poker and WSOP Punished Ren Lin Instantly

As we mentioned, during the $10,300 GGMIllion$ final table Ren Lin was simultaneoulsly playing the WSOP Circuit on Cyprus. As you can remember, WSOP as a brand is now owned by GGPoker — so, the consequences came from where you’d least expect them.

On October 18th, 2025 WSOP Tournament Director Andy Tillman made a decision to disqualify Ren Lin from the Main Event of WSOPC and remove his stack from the tournament. Ren was escorted from the venue by security without a chance to return.

Interestingly, even two days after his DQ, GGPoker remained silent about the whole situation: no public statement on X, Reddit or Discord, no termination of Lin’s ambassadorship, no comments at all. But poker players rushed to discuss everything. 

While the general consensus was that Lin is punished fairly, not all players saw the TD’s decision as a just or even logical one.

For example, Todd Witteles stated that banning people for cheating is an undoubtedly correct action but not like that:

Chris Hunichen named the mid-tourney ban “def ridiculous”, and Patrick Leonard shared that he is against this practice in these circumstances:

“To me disqualification during the tournament should generally not happen, especially in case like this where that offence can’t impact this tournament and time for a sufficient investigation has been less than 24 hours.

I feel online/live should cross over to some point, but mid tournament DQ like this I’m against.

Maybe I’m biased because Ren is so likeable, but I’d like to think I’d have the same stance if it was somebody else.”

However, there was one question all the commentators agreed on: Okay, sure, Ren Lin was punished live for breaching GGPoker rules — but what about RealOA who literally won the GGMIllion$ tournament?

The answer (and punishment) came from an unexpected source — Ren Lin himself. 

Rel Lin Took Measures to Set Record Straight

On October 19th, 2025 Ren Lin issued a public statement with an apology and his side of this story:

“I must state unequivocally that I gained no form of profit from this incident. I held no stake in any player’s entry, received no payment, and derived no benefit whatsoever. My actions were purely an instinctive reaction in an inappropriate setting—one that contradicted the principles of fair competition I have always strived to uphold.

On the day of the incident, I was competing in a WSOP event in Cyprus. During a ten-minute break, I clicked a Tencent Meeting link shared by RealOA. Upon joining, I saw he was playing the GG10300 Final Table. When he asked for my opinion on a hand, I responded instinctively, offering my personal advice simply out of a desire to help a friend. The entire interaction lasted only a few minutes, after which I left the call and returned to my live tournament. As it was my first time entering such a live session, I failed to recognize it as a rule violation at that moment, mistakenly equating it with post-tournament hand discussions common in our chat groups.

Later, I learned in our poker group that RealOA had won the event. He sent a $100 red packet in our 500-member group, tagged me, and thanked me for the advice. I did not accept the red packet. It was only when another player, Yl3i, posted about his third-place finish that I realized Buzzcut was his in-game ID, and I congratulated him accordingly.”

Finally, Ren shared that his friend RealOA “has returned the majority of the prize money last night” and that Lin himself will cover the remaining portion. All the money returned to GGPoker will be fairly distributed among the other finalists.

Lin also confessed to being deeply ashamed of this situation, feeling remorse “for failing to live up to the standards” he advocates, and being ready to take any further penalties for his actions.

Poker Community Reaction to Ren Lin’s Public Statement

While Ren’s assistance was widely condemned by the poker community, his public statement gave him back a couple of points in the eyes of other players.

For example, fellow GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu praised Lin for accepting consequences:

“This all rings very true to me knowing Ren for several years and his character in regards to poker and his passion for it. 

He made a mistake trying to help a friend he was excited for and I think this apology owns it appropriately. 

He accepts his consequences responsibly IMO.”

Aarone Barone joined this opinion by stating:

However, Lin’s post also got a few raised eyebrows. In particular, Sam Greenwood shared his surprise with Ren deciding what to do with the winner’s prize:

This question is fair because Lin’s statement implied that GG didn’t confiscate money from RealOA for breaching the SEP. Rather, he and Lin returned the money voluntarily without any additional punishment for Ren or his friend.

While we’re all waiting for the GGPoker comments, we’ll refrain from speculating about what this brand will do with ambassadors breaking rules. Mostly because it is actually hard to predict something after what happened with Nacho Barbero on ACR Poker.