cheated at pokerstars
I was just cheated at stars. We were down to 3 players [names deleted] and myself. They would not bet each other and always chipped up low stack. They made it so obvious it was sickening. Sent email to stars reporting there cheating. I'll let u know how it turns out. So if u play there [names deleted] cheat. Just a helpful warning
Comments
I could imagine non-cheaters playing the way you described. In fact, more than just imagining it, I would think that this would be good strategy.
ScottyZ
This is probably a sensible idea. Whether you actually have been cheated or not, feeling that you have been is probably a good enough reason to play elsewhere.
ScottyZ
Just for the record, it wasn't stars that 'cheated' you but the players. You can potentially run into that anywhere.. It's not like Lee Jones personally opened your account and stole 20 bucks..
Stars will not allow 2 computers sharing the same ip to connect to their network either, just like party. That said they could also be linked together in so many ways, IRC, Chat Client, etc. Which could also be used on party if they were so inclinded.
If as you feel the two player were coluding, A phone call between the two of them would actually be the easiest way.
I would actually like to know their names. If you don't mind could you please PM with their handles.
Thanks
Umm... No. Party doesnt do anything like that.
It happend to me lastnight on PS. Playing the $36 6 players. Was down to 3 players. Everytime I folded the other 2 would check out the rest of the cards (some of hands were huge too ie. Flush and boats). So I sat around.. and went in with Q9 suited for the heck of it.. and floped a flush with AK onboard. Took both of them out within in minutes of going heads up. Both of them ragged me out telling me how I didnt know how to play and etc.. Best part was when they kept making fun of Canadians and I busted both the goofs out! my last comment was Go Leafs Go!! LOL
People who are cheating (if they are doing so with a reasonable amount of skill) sure do have an edge over equal-skilled players who are not cheating.
In fact, whether or not they were actually cheating, they seemed to have gotten an edge over you by causing you to alter your strategy. Waiting for premium hands is generally not an optimal way to play the 3-way portion of a tournament. (But, it depends.) While actually being cheated is obviously to your detriment, this is another good example of how even *thinking* you are being cheated can throw you off your game.
If you honestly suspect you have encountered cheating, why not send a quick message to the support at the online site about it?
ScottyZ
..and there lies the reason why its not as big a deal as it could be.. Most people who are engaged in this form of collusion aren't very skillful and HE is more about the flop (than say Omaha collusion) anyway..
Agreed. At the very least if you suspect collusion, fire off an email to support.
There is no doubt that forms of internet collusion exist. It seems inconceivable to NoT exist. I play on Pokerstars, as do many of my friends. I have several of the top players on that site on my msn, and I know for a fact that 2/3rds of the top 25 on the tlb have each other on MSN/AOL etc.
One particular top ten TLB friend has at least 60 stars people on instant chat.
These people however, do not collude. They just don't. They make deals yes, and split many %'s, but when it comes to playing hands they generally play them straight up. This is due to a couple of things... 1)fear derived from the sites policies on collusion, but mainly because 2)many of the top players like to win themselves, and can. These people all have bankrolls, and risking getting caught cheating doesn't seem worth it to them.
I think the majority of wanna be scammers are lousy players.
Overall Stars' policies on colluders seem very weak. I am not a cheater, but I will admit to have trying to see how far I could push stars cheating policies with other accounts. A year ago, I played in an omaha hi multi from an internet cafe. With 4 screens, at one point I had 3 on the same table. Stars didnt detect it. Trying to sit in a S&G though, stars says I couldnt because of IP. All one would have to do is have several IPs (hello wireless). I have many times sat in at various internet pros office's wherein there are several computers going with people playing in the same tourneys. I am speaking for MTT's here. I have never seen anything in sit and gos or cash game personally.
Recently, I busted the most obvious colluders of all time at a shorthanded cash game. I emailed stars with some very obvious proof. In the past I have reported people, and stars has always sent a long email about the players and so forth with a lenghty argument on how they are not cheating.
With this new claim I made, I have never heard back from stars about the colluders. When I email them (which i have 5 times) and ask them whats up, they send an email saying investigation is still under way. It sounds to me like they caught these guys cheating, and are sweeping it under the rug. These players, whom were regulars (one was on tlb top 150), I have never seen since (1 month now). Makes me wonder many things....
As far as cash games and collusion, as beforementioned, I don't know much about that. I know there is a clique in the 100/200, but I think they still play each other hard. Being "friends," and being on IM together is more of a professional courtesy than an attempt to collude.
Personally, I have been debating going to an internet cafe to see if it is possible to play in some micro limit cash games with numerous accounts.. I do not wish to do this to cheat/benefit monetarily for myself, but as an experiment to see how possible it is, to better try to help players avoid cheats.
ONline poker collusion is a tough subject in todays poker world, and most of the time its arguments are surrounded in an annoying rhetoric :frown: . It is something that needs to be brought into the spotlight much stronger by the sites IMO.
hg :canada:
I completely agree with you that online sites could do much better in promoting (maybe not quite the right word) their collusion enforcement.
This is a bit of a double-edged sword though. One of the main concerns is probably the following. What if PokerSiteX comes out with big news like "We've successfully caught a bunch of people cheating on our poker site"?
This might endear them to the odd deep-thinking poker nerd, but make the other 99.999999% of the world avoid that site like it was a hot potato which was infected with anthrax. Why? "Der's cheatin' goin' on at dat site's why."
Although I don't necessarily agree, I can certainly see why poker sites may generally want to keep discussion of collusion on their own site under wraps.
ScottyZ
> >>
> >> Recently, PokerStars became aware of a group of players playing as a
team
> >in Sit and Go tournaments. You were involved in at least one event with
> >members of this group, and as such you were adversely affected.
> >>
> >> The players' accounts were closed and their funds frozen pending a
> >> thorough investigation, which is now complete. The accounts of all of
> >these team members have been permanently closed. The funds in their
> >accounts were seized, and PokerStars has added additional funds from our
> own
> >pocket in order to return to all affected players every penny gained by
the
> >cheaters.
> >>
> >> PokerStars has restored your share of this money to your account, which
> >you will find as a transfer from 'Acct. Credit' in the cashier section.
> >>
> >> I regret that we will not be able to answer any inquiries about exactly
> >who the "team players" were or which events were affected. Suffice to
say
> >that they have been barred from PokerStars and that if they attempt to
> >return they will be "blocked at the door" by our security measures.
> >>
> >> The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to
> us,
> >and we will not abide cheating or collusion in our games. We work hard
to
> >police our games and prevent such instances. In the rare cases where
> >collusion has actually occurred, we make sure that any players affected
are
> >"made whole" again.
> >>
> >> Thank you for your continued play here on PokerStars. Please do not
> >> hesitate to let us know any time you need anything.
> >>
> >> Best Regards,
> >>
> >> Jeff
> >> PokerStars Support Supervisor
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
How much did you get back?
ScottyZ
of
> I
> >got my whole entry fee back?
> every single person's entry fee. If the amount needed to refund everyone
> is far in excess of what we are able to confiscate from the players, then
> we will not simply make up thousands of dollars. In such cases, players
> are offered refunds in proportion to what they would have received had
> there been funds confiscated for full compensation.
>
> In this case, the factor of compensation was only about fifteen cents on
> the dollar. I do wish we had been able to offer a greater degree of
> compensation in this case, but in this case the amount confiscated from
> the cheaters did not come close to covering 100% refunds.
>
> PokerStars will often "kick in" funds in cases like this, but in this case
> it was deemed too extensive a case to allow for that level of "added"
> funds.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Jeff
> PokerStars Support Supervisor
This whole claim and how it was handled by the non last name "Jeff" from Pokerstars has a lot of difficulty passing the common sense test.