Two More Poker Cheats Busted

I'm not one to believe that online poker is rigged and that everyone is cheating, but cheating does occur from time to time. Mainly through the form of collusion.

Collusion is when one or two players work together to help one or both of them win. They will let each other know what their hole cards are and use that to their advantage as well as work together to build big pots when they think one is ahead, or help keep pots small against each other.

Collusion can be hard to spot but online poker rooms have advanced detection methods to help find signs of foul play. They also have staff that review players when allegations arise.

This isn't something limited to online poker by any means. Heck, cheating isn't limited to poker. You could get ripped off buying groceries or paying for lunch. I've played thousands of games and have only seen suspicious activity less than a dozen times and only twice did a thorough review reveal cheating. The poker rooms and observant players are out to keep the games fair.

A few months ago I was playing in a sit and go where I was pretty sure two players were working together.  I also noticed that they were playing multiple tables together. After sending a report to PokerStars support they conducted an investigation which resulted in both players being banned and 'disqualified from events in which their unfair play affected the outcome' and players that were affected were compensated at the expense of the colluders. Neither time did I get anything because I won both of the games I spotted cheaters at.

I play mainly small stakes games so we're not talking about millions of dollars but the first two had profits in or around $1k. Even for such a small figure PokerStars took the matter seriously.

These last two were a strange bunch. They apparently hadn't been at it long and didn't seem very good at it or good at not being so obvious.

At the time I submitted my suspicions, neither was a profitable player but checking their stats now it seems they must have found the game in which they could profitably cheat at. Still small time and I'm not sure they ever saw a profit but they have been banned. I almost didn't report it because I just thought they were bad poker players but they were both from the same city, and I'm pretty sure one guy was in the other's avatar picture which I thought was hilarious.

If you think you noticed some suspicious activity at your table, don't mention anything in chat. You don't want to tip off the cheaters that you're on to them. More importantly, you might be wrong and you don't want to accuse someone unjustly. Instead send an email to the support address for your poker room. Provide them with the players names, the hands which you thought were suspicious (game #) and why, as well as the tournament ID or cash game table you were playing at.

Online poker rooms (most anyway) value their reputations. Without it they're going to lose a lot of business so they take these matters very seriously.