Online Poker Collusion Tips
This article aims to compile a list of online-specific tips to help you improve your tournament game. In addition to the study of tournament strategy, use these concept tips to help supplement your tournament strategy and allow you to continue to stay afloat in today’s games. Good luck at the felts! Creating multiple accounts can be considered collusion in online poker. A player can enter into a poker tournament from multiple accounts and increase the chances of winning and cashing in on the big fat pot of an online tournament. This form of cheating is also pretty easy for online poker rooms to crack down, and they usually nip it in the bud. The New Player Online Poker Collusion Tips Welcome Bonus is only available to players who create an account and make their first deposit Online Poker Collusion Tips at Genesis Casino. To be eligible to claim the New Player Online Poker Collusion Tips Welcome Bonus, players must deposit Online Poker Collusion Tips a minimum of £10 in one instance. Many online poker rooms use sophisticated reports to detect collusion. If the poker room has any reason to believe two or more players maybe colluding, they have the right to freeze the suspect’s accounts until a full and thorough investigation is completed. How you get cheated in Online Poker. Collusion, Multiaccounting, Bots, Real Time Solver, HUDs.In this video I will show you most cheats in online Poker.
On Oct. 21, a TwoPlusTwo forum poster named 'FarseerFinland' posted a thread titled 'Huge collusion ring in High Stakes MTTs at PartyPoker' that unveiled suspected collusion within high-stakes tournaments at partypoker, prompting response and action from the online poker site.
According to the thread, the original poster (OP) has played online poker for 13 years and now plays under the screen name 'DukeOfSuffolk' at partypoker, where they have been 'grinding their highstakes leaderboards' for the past year and a half, playing $109 and higher buy-ins.
The poster detailed two specific situations that came up during play in which collusion was suspected, which then prompted this player to do some investigation of his own. A partypoker spokesperson later confirmed the collusion following an investigation, leading to bans of those involved and repayments to those affected.
First Incident
The first situation explained in the thread referred to a Wednesday Turbo Highroller final table that 'DukeOfSuffolk' played on Oct. 18. The poster explained some suspicious behavior among his opponents, including the fact that in 48 hands 'with somewhat short stacks,' none of his opponents were all in and called by each other, while he busted three players. The poster also gave a specific hand example that seemed curious, and noted that the tournament finished in three minutes once he busted.
Suspecting collusion, 'DukeOfSuffolk' did some investigating and found some suggestive concurrences. These included that six of the top seven started playing on the site this year, mostly in May. They also all play tournaments primarily $109 and higher, and in August, the suspected six players participated almost exclusively in tournaments together which consisted mostly of tournaments called Clubber IIs.
The six suspected players were identified by the screen names 'Sorcian', 'domingo661', 'SciorXxx', 'dimitriax', 'GASSGUSS' and 'PowerCarl'. The poster mentioned alerting 'Party_Rep', the intermediary between the forum and partypoker staff, who assured him on Friday, Oct. 20 that the site's security department was conducting a full investigation.
Part Two
On Oct. 20, two days after the first incident, 'DukeOfSuffolk' noticed four of the aforementioned players enrolled in an early high roller event, with the other two joining before registration closed. He noted that four of the players had not played another tournament since the Wednesday Turbo high roller, while two had played high rollers on Thursday.
'DukeOfSuffolk' discovered eight more players with similar tournament histories as the other six-- playing mostly since May 2017 with some minor variation and having played mostly or only multiple Clubber II tournaments. He added these names to the suspected collusion ring: 'pesnokviv', 'ven.pax.soy', 'fausfalser' (started July 2017), 'diabolicox900' (19 tournaments pre-May 2017 in January and February 2017), 'coccopaga090', 'cheflol' (16 tournaments pre-May 2017 in January and February 2017), 'A10cooming' (started playing July 2017), 'PR3PEzzz' (started playing July 2017).
While 'DukeOfSuffolk' did not notice any specific instances that would hint at collusion, he noted that four of the suspected colluders finished in the top four of the Turbo Highroller.
Proof of Collusion?
The OP provided links to each suspected players' tournament history to show which ones they have played, as well as a text file with hand histories from the Turbo Highroller final table where collusion was suspected. A video from the two-table bubble play from that same tournament was posted in a subsequent post on Oct. 22 within the same thread.
In another thread on Oct. 22, the OP posted an update, saying he found 12 more players likely involved based on players who cashed in Clubber II tournaments in August, which he reported to 'Party_Rep' and posted those screen names the following day.
Closing Offender Accounts
On Oct. 22, 'FarseerFinland' wrote a post saying that while he was told by 'Poker_Rep' that 'accounts mentioned in the OP were suspended and under investigation,' he provided a screenshot that showed 'PowerCarl' in a $215 multi-phase tournament.
In an Oct. 24 post on the thread, 'Party_Rep' provided a response, saying the information is being investigated by the relevant teams. Also, 'The OP and myself have been in discussion and all details have been shared with the Risk team management for review. We treat the accusations of collusion very seriously and will ensure relevant action is taken pending investigation.'
partypoker Managing Director Tom Waters talked to CalvinAyre.com about the collusion case and he confirmed, 'A group of accounts were found to be playing in teams in order to collude against other players.'
Waters also explained the process for investigating collusion accusations and the account blocking process that ensued after the TwoPlusTwo Forum post.
'It depends on the case, every case is different. In this case, the security department reviewed the initial complaint from the player and began a full investigation to 1) Verify that collusion was taking place and 2) That ensure all accounts involved were successfully identified and blocked.'
While he admitted to CalvinAyre that some accounts may have remained active for a time by mistake, Waters assured that all accounts identified with the collusion ring have been shut down. He added the importance of conducting detailed investigation before closing accounts due to a high rate of false accusations when it comes to collusion.
'It's also important to note that 99% of collusion accusations are proved to be false. A lot of people get suspicious based on the emotion of losing pots, running under EV in general and against specific players. It is important that our security team is as informed as possible to be able to quickly identify if it is indeed collusion or not. We cannot simply close every account that is emailed to us as being suspicious of collusion.'
Fraud Protection at partypoker
While partypoker and other online poker sites have fraud protection mechanisms in place, this collusion ring seemed to go undetected until it was brought to light by 'FarseerFinland'.
Waters explained, 'We always welcome proactive feedback from our players as it often helps us to identify issues faster.
'Sometimes players are able to identify suspicious activity faster, depending on what they have experienced at the tables.'
'BOT and collusion detection techniques can require a large number of hands in order to accurately analyse the information and identify rogue accounts. Therefore sometimes players are able to identify suspicious activity faster, depending on what they have experienced at the tables. We have sophisticated fraud control mechanisms in place that are continually being updated to counter new and more advanced fraudulent techniques.'
In addition to the fraud control already in place, Waters described further efforts going into effect to deal with the current group of offenders and moving forward to help detect instances of cheating and collusion like this one.
'We have set up a new email address, [email protected], where players can send their suspicions directly to an expert team who will review the case immediately. We have also formed a player panel of elite online players who will review hand histories in difficult cases and make a fair and impartial decision.
'We are already working closely with a number of players for certain matters. Over the coming months we will be rolling out some highly advanced detection techniques that we are building with the help of some of our players.'
Punishment and Reparations
While the exact number of offenders and affected players in the collusion case in question is yet unclear, Waters assures that partypoker will do what it can to reimburse players who were victims of the collusion, saying, 'All seized funds will be redistributed to the affected players.'
Though in an ideal world, partypoker would be able to share these online perpetrators' real identities with both the poker community and with other online poker sites to prevent further occurrences, Waters explained that it's not so easy in practice.
'Although, in concept, this is a good idea, in reality, it's very difficult due to the Data Protection Act amongst other issues.
'We cannot comment on legal matters, although all players will be permanently banned from playing on our site.'
Protect Yourself
For the time being, the online poker playing community may have to settle with that, and hope that the online poker sites we entrust our money to and the authorities that regulate online gaming put practices in place to help protect innocent players. But all players can also follow the example set by the proactive 'FarseerFinland', who brought this issue to partypoker's attention, prompted action and also urged fellow players to remain vigilant.
In the thread, he tells readers, 'If you've been playing small field $22-$55 MTTs I would keep my eyes open. If you see anything that looks like probable collusion (not just in tables but their game history etc.) you should contact Party_Rep imo.'
He also provided a link to Official Poker Rankings where players can check to see which tournaments other players have registered in case of suspected collusion.
It seems that if the great many parties who seek to make online poker safe for innocent players work together for that common cause, these instances will become more sparse. Or at least we can hope.
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Poker is a highly competitive game where the winners stand to win large amounts of cash for beating their opponents. Online poker is no different. As such, player cheating is an issue. Some players will do anything they can to gain an edge and increase their chances of winning, even if it means resorting to cheating. The relative anonymity of internet poker facilitates this.
The good news is that online poker rooms are well aware of player cheating and the tricky schemes that people invent. Here’s a rundown of some of the common methods employed by online poker cheats, and how the online poker rooms have responded to them.
All-in Abuse
This is a method of cheating by abusing a featured called “all-in protection” or “disconnect protection”, which was designed to help online poker players. Basically, it works as such – when a poker player times out or disconnects from an online poker room (a rather common occurrence, given the fickle nature of many internet connections), any money that the player has invested in the pot will be protected. When the player logs back in, they’ll be entitled to receive the money they invested, since it apparently wasn’t their own fault that they were disconnected. If the disconnected poker player wins, he wins the part of the pot that he bet on, and the player with the next best hand wins any side pots that happened after the disconnect.
Some poker players try to exploit this feature. They intentionally disconnect their internet connection when they’re afraid to make a poker decision, in order to hold onto their invested money instead of folding and losing it. This is a clear-cut example of cheating and online poker rooms are well aware of this exploit and have responded. This type of cheating is nowhere near as much of a problem as it was in the past.
There was a time when virtually all online poker sites had a feature called “disconnect protection”. Many online poker rooms have completely stopped offering disconnect protection. Full Tilt and Poker Stars will give players adequate time to reconnect, should there be a legitimate disconnection problem. But if they fail to get back to the action within the allocated time, their hand is folded if further betting actions occur. This completely eliminates the all-in abuse cheats from these online poker rooms.
Other online poker sites that still offer disconnect protection nearly always have more tables that don’t offer it. These are listed as “no all-in” or “no DP (disconnect protection)” tables, which turn off the disconnect protection feature for players who are concerned about the exploit. If you ever notice what you deem to be all-in abuse at your online card room, contact support staff immediately.
Online Poker Collusion Tips Free
In addition, all poker rooms prevent this type of cheating by monitoring disconnects. Online poker players that are suspected of this type of abuse will have their account banned and players victim to this type of cheating are often eligible for monetary compensation.
Collusion
Collusion is basically defined as two players covertly working together in order to increase one player’s chances of winning. To get an idea of how this works, imagine two or more friends logged into the same online poker room, playing at the same table. They share information about their cards in order to get an idea of what cards aren’t remaining in the deck. Worse still, they work together to increase the pot size or to squeeze other players out of a hand. Presumably, they’ll share their profits when the game is over.
Collusion is often difficult to spot because it’s often hard to tell if players are working together or simply making decisions on their own based on their individual poker strategies. A player folding AQ before the flop might be doing it because his friend has AK, or he might simply be a very tight player who is only willing to pursue absolute premium hands.
Player cheating of this nature, however, is actually easier to detect than you might think. Online poker sites have a complete hand history database for all of their poker players. They know if certain players have a history of playing on the same tables. Their databases are automatically scanned with complex algorithms that search for any signs of collusion. When something fishy is spotted the staff will manually review the action.
Online poker rooms take multiple steps against collusion and, accept on the rarest of occasion, it is not an issue when playing online poker. Having said that, online poker rooms take reports of suspected collusion very seriously. Poker Stars is widely considered one of the best sites when it comes to reviewing these situations thoroughly. Regardless of which online poker room you play at, be sure to contact customer service immediately if you suspect player cheating, including collusion, at your table.
Multi-Accounting
It is against the terms of most online poker rooms to sign up under more than one player account. However, this doesn’t stop people doing so – and in many ways the online poker rooms only have themselves to blame for this. Most of the cases where players have create additional accounts are usually because the player wasn’t receiving rakeback on their existing account, and therefore paying more than other players. But there’s a big difference between creating a new player account and the true definition of multi-accounting, which can be a form of collusion.
Multi-accounting is when an online poker player who plays under more than one account at the same time on the same site. A player might enter an online poker tournament under several different accounts in order to increase their chances of cashing. In some rare cases they could even end up on the same table, which would obviously be a huge advantage (see collusion, above) and unfair on the other players. The good news is that this form of cheating is fairly easy for the online poker rooms to spot, and players who attempt to cheat in this way will face serious consequences.
Online Poker Bots
Poker bots are software programs that have been designed to analyze a poker game, particularly starting hands and community cards, and make decisions for the player. A poker bot can be set up to play poker for real money while the actual player sleeps, goes to work, or just generally doesn’t pay any attention to the game himself. The simple fact is that online poker sites disapprove of bots, and that you should consider them to be a form of player cheating.
Poker bots are not really as big of a problem as some angry poker forum posters (that may have simply been beaten fairly) would like people to believe, and get far more attention that they deserve. In the rare event that a poker bot has been identified in the past, it has been shown to be a quite unsuccessful technique. Bot algorithms are no match for even the amateur poker player and sites found guilty of using poker bots (however ineffective they may be) have always failed or been forced out of the online poker market.
Conclusion
There’s no denying that cheating occurs. It happens in live poker games, and it happens in online poker games. There will always be cheaters trying to scam people when there’s money involved. But it isn’t nearly as bad as you might think. Online poker rooms know that dishonest players will try and cheat given the opportunity, and they put a lot of time and resources into making the games fair. If you truly suspect foul play at an online card room, simply cash out and take your money elsewhere.
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By Tim Ryerson
Tim is from London, England and has been playing poker since the late 1990’s. He is the ‘Editor-in-Chief’ at Pokerology.com and is responsible for all the content on the website.
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