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Previous thread on this case was archived so I thought I’d post it with additional information & updates.
This is an ongoing investigation (by private investigators) so I will start with the most important information about Jon as an appeal to anyone who has any information on his disappearance.
Name: Jon Throstur Jonsson
Date Missing: 09/02/2019
Last Seen: Swords Road, Whitehall, North Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Height: 6’3”
Built: Medium Built
Hair Colour: Brown
At the time of his disappearance Jon was wearing black jeans, a black padded jacket, a black T-shirt with a printed white letters and picture on the front, and black sneakers with a white base.
The disappearance
Jon arrived to Dublin, Republic of Ireland on 8th February, 2019 with plans on joining a poker tournament over the weekend and spending the rest of his time holidaying in the country (Independent.ie, 2020). Based on information provided by his family, Jon arrived to the country on his own, checked into the Bonnington Hotel (Whitehall, North Dublin) that hosted the tournament and played poker through the night on the day of his arrival. His fiancé, Jana, arrived to Ireland the following morning (9/02/19) and found Jon in his hotel room’ sleeping, at around 10 AM. After a brief conversation Jana decided to go downstairs to get a coffee. While doing so Jon suddenly left the hotel at around 11.05 AM. Although the reason of him leaving has never been cleared, it is for certain that he left most of his belongings including his phone, passport and wallet behind, having only his hotel room key card in his possession. Despite this fact, his family speculates that he might have had a large amount of cash on him, although this has never been confirmed. After leaving the hotel, Jon was seen on CCTV at 11.07 AM passing a bar and a nursing home before exiting onto Swords Road heading towards Collins Avenue. He was last seen walking past the entrance of Highfield Healthcare Centre.
After her fiancé not returning all day, Jana grew increasingly worried and reported Jon missing to the Gardaí on 10th February, 2019. Members of Jon’s family flew over from Iceland right away and an extended search was carried out by them, civils, Gardaí and the Civil Defence, but they found no trace or lead to what could have happened to Jon.
His family has never given up hope on finding him and after the immediate searches have led them to no information, the family hired an Irish private investigator, Liam Brady, to continue to work on the case. According to the latest updates published shortly after the first anniversary of Jon’s disappearance, it is understood that “Mr Brady and a colleague are now working on a lead involving someone who is currently incarcerated in a European prison and it is believed this person may have some ‘key information’ which could point the investigation in the right direction” (Irish Independent, 2020). There has been no further information elaborating on this lead or any other updates.
Further information:

• This was the first time Jon visited Ireland and had no acquaintances, friends or family in the country.
• According to his family Jon lost about €4000 during the night of playing poker which has played a major part in people’s theories about this case, however it has never been confirmed officially that it had anything to do with his disappearance. In an interview Jon’s sister also assumed that he might have won some money too, but she didn’t elaborate and this has never been confirmed either.
• Jon, who worked as a taxi driver in Iceland, had recently renewed his license and had ‘family arrangements’ for the near future – his family described his disappearance as ‘completely out of character’.
• Jon’s brother who gave a number of interviews to Irish media described him as a ‘nice, caring, reliable and stable’ guy who was healthy and fit both physically and mentally and had no history of making ‘reckless’ decisions or wanting to escape his life. His brother also added that they had a very close relationship and Jon was very open about his finances - if he was in need of money he could have asked for help from any member of his family.
• On the CCTV footage leaving the hotel and walking away, Jon appears to be calm and lights up a cigarette, walking casually as if on a stroll for some fresh air.
• During the investigation carried out straight after his disappearance, Gardaí received many calls regarding sightings of Jon, however he was never officially traced further than Swords Road.

Theories/Personal Opinion:
As mentioned above most theories argue that Jon must have met someone on the night of playing poker, someone spotted him being a foreigner seemingly on his own with a large amount of cash or his disappearance was somehow the result of him losing a lot of money the night before. Even though these theories seem plausible and not at all far-fetched, there are a few factors contradicting these arguments. While it isn’t unlikely that Jon (as the latest updates also indicate) was met with foul play due to the circumstances, I, personally, highly doubt that he was the only foreigner with a lot of cash on him participating on this tournament. Although, I don’t have much information on how secure the hotel or the event was, the advertisement to the festival seems valid and appears to be a professionally organized tournament with a detailed schedule and many ‘games’ going on at once during the weekend. At first it did not strike me as an event where something ‘suspicious’ could happen – but it could be just the fact that I am a very naïve resident of Dublin who hasn’t encountered anything of the sort.
On this point, I don't know how 'dangerous' this neighborhood could be as I am not particularly familiar with Whitehall myself. At a first glance it appears to be a very ‘average’ suburban area with a good few schools, sports fields, bars, shops and housing estates around (fellow Dubliners if you beg to differ, don’t hesitate), not to mention that he disappeared around midday on a Saturday with a lot of pedestrians and traffic in the area. This was also what gave great hope to his loved ones, assuming that many people must have passed by Jon on the street and whatever happened, there has to be eyewitnesses out there.
Another point why an ‘impulsive’ attack seems a bit unlikely to me is the obvious lack of evidence – no crime scene was ever established and no solid proof has ever been recovered that could have traced Jon to any location in the area. If it was foul play, as latest updates indicate, the culprits took great care of making Jon and the crime ‘untraceable' - and invisible to an extent. I also struggle to build a clear connection between his disappearance and his attendance on the poker tournament.
Theories further discuss possibilities such as Jon being invited to an ‘underground’ poker game where he was met with the ‘wrong crowd’, however it wouldn’t explain his sudden departure from the hotel without saying anything to his fiancé. If he planned to play poker somewhere else, he must have assumed he wouldn’t be back before his fiancé returned from the hotel lobby and notice that he was gone. I also found information (comments on Jon’s missing person’s Facebook page) that many of the missing person posters that were put up around Dublin have been ripped and destroyed straight away, some speculating that it was by the people who know what happened to Jon – this however is not a piece of information I would consider very reliable or valid.
Taking all these bits and pieces into consideration, the case remains a tragic, unsolved mystery. I sincerely hope that the latest lead disclosed by the private investigator will bring about an explanation and that his family will find closure and peace.
What are your thoughts on this case? Was Jon lured in by the wrong people who promised him big money and was met with foul play? Or was it a ‘spontaneous’ attack that somehow went unnoticed by many?
Sources I used writing this post:
https://jonjonssonmissing.com/
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/fresh-hope-as-new-lead-is-probed-in-case-of-missing-icelander-jon-jonsson-38946058.html
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/somebody-saw-something-family-of-missing-icelandic-man-jon-jonsson-issue-fresh-appeal-on-crimecall-38247787.html
https://www.thesun.ie/news/4853561/sister-missing-jon-jonsson-dead/
https://uk.pokernews.com/news/2020/01/unibet-dublin-poker-festival-features-55-events-in-18-days-37361.htm
Last CCTV footage of Jon:
https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/cctv-footage-shows-last-movements-15886350

I played for a living from 2002-2004, worked for PokerStars from 2004-2012, including one year off in 2008 playing for a living again, Ladbrokes for a year, and currently Unibet for a year.
At Unibet I designed most of the geeky stuff: rake structure, achievements, missions, the loyalty scheme, the tournament schedule, plus milestones and various other features.
Obviously I'd like to talk about Unibet a lot, but ask me anything about online poker too. As long as it isn't likely to ruin my career (or reveal too much about internal numbers etc) I'll answer.
The online poker industry is in secular decline and almost every operator is shrinking. A large reason for that is because new players are losing faster today than they used to. The aim of Unibet poker is to create a level playing field where there are no HUDs, no trackers, no auto-seating scripts and no table selection. Players can also change alias up to three times per day. We want to keep new players alive for longer, and we want to make poker fun again.
I look after the Unibet thread on 2 + 2 at http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-pokeunibet-official-thread-1452899/ and I'll post there to confirm I'm me. For what it's worth, I'm also "Sciolist" on 2 + 2.
Unibet-ad: We're about to start dealing milestones hands, where we will award ~€100k (maybe > €1m if someone gets unreasonably lucky) from hand 95m to 105m. From Monday we will also be streaming a live cash game from Asper's casino that will featre Viktor Blom, amongst others. We are also about to start the 30th Unibet Open in London at the end of next week.
Edit: Looks like this has died out by itself. I'll check in from time to time if anyone bumps it.

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The official dates for the upcoming World Series of Poker have been announced and a few months from now, quality poker will return to the United States. This doesn't mean that there is nothing to do within borders this month, especially if you reside in Wisconsin. This is the place where the MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship will unfold and the series starts today, while concluding on Sunday. The highlight of this tournament is the main event which will set players back $1100 and has a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000. The gracious host for the competition is Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells and players from all over the country are expected to participate. There are super satellites and qualifiers that start at $65 and enable players to book a seat at the main event table without paying the buy-in. The number of participants has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations, with the last tournament being also immensely popular with the players. A total of 349 players found it worthwhile to participate in September and the winner took home in excess of $90,000. Many of the former champions are expected to return for this February event, so the competition will be fierce and the number of participants higher than ever before. This competition is more than a warm up for upcoming tournaments, because with such guaranteed prize pools, professional players find it worthwhile to attend this event. Many of those who play poker over the Internet at Unibet and other poker rooms are attracted by the prospect of trading online action for the adrenaline rush of the lifestyles. Internet poker rooms are occasionally running qualifiers themselves and the most successful players have a seat reserved at these tables. Those who want to know the complete schedule for the MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship, should check it out below: Thursday, Feb. 19 MSPT Main Event Qualifier $220+30+10 6:30 p.m.Friday, Feb. 20 MSPT Main Event Qualifier $220+30+10 10:30 a.m.Friday, Feb. 20 MSPT Main Event Day 1a $1,000+$100 4 p.m.Saturday, Feb. 21 MSPT Main Event Qualifier $220+30+10 10:30 a.m.Saturday, Feb. 21 MSPT Main Event Day 1b $1,000+$100 4 p.m.Sunday, Feb. 22 MSPT Main Event Day 2 - 10:30 a.m.
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