Collusion between players

[purple sneakers]

It seems like there may be a few new players around at the moment so I thought I'd just inform you of a problem I've been having at Party Poker involving players cheating. I've noticed two fairly obvious cases of collusion in the last week and have written to PP and given the relevant players names. Party Poker have not replied to me so I will not be playing there anymore.

Basically two players will team up. They tell each other their hole cards and will soft play each other and chip dump to each other if one of the players is a little low on chips. A big tactic of the cheaters is the raise/reraise move. One of the cheaters will open the pot and the other cheat will reraise making your starting hand requirements much higher. Once they have elimated everyone from the pot they will generally give the chips to the player who has the least chips.

It is fairly obvious to recognise this but very tough to overcome if you get down to three handed and are playing against two people. If you see someone not call a $100 bet into a $2500 pot on the river you can be fairly sure they are chip dumping.

Report them to the relevant site. This sort of thing really gets to me. The guys who did it to me the other day came 1st and 2nd and then both moved up to a higher limit table at exactly the same time. Pretty obvious they are cheating.

 

[Armwarmer]

I have experienced this once before in a SitNGo on Paradise.

I was a huge chip leader with 2 others left, and they employed some of the plays you outlined. Raising + reraising when I am last to act. Then pretty much checking it all the way.

It was disgusting. They pretty much reduced me from a huge chipleader to being slightly ahead of both of them. In the end I went all in a few times on marginal hands, eventually got a call, and won the hand, knocking one of them out. I then proceeded to beat the other guy.

Not much you can do about this sort of thing. I'd report them, and also note down their names and not play with them again.

 

[red+black]

I think collusion is an issue with the PokerPro tables at Crown. As there is no queue to get on a table, mates or couples will sit at the same table, even side by side if they can. So sometimes it feels like it's one group of 4 mates, a couple, 3 blokes on their own, and you.

Not sure what can be done about it. But I presume collusion is more of a problem at lower limits.

 

[Armwarmer]

I think collusion is an issue with the PokerPro tables at Crown. As there is no queue to get on a table, mates or couples with sit at the same table, even side by side if they can. So sometimes it feels like it's one group of 4 mates, a couple, 3 blokes on their own, and you.

Not sure what can be done about it. But I presume collusion is more of a problem at lower limits.

I've experienced this too.

I've played before on a table with a guy and his wife, who sat next to eachother, and showed eachother their cards ect, took advice from eachother, and so on. Because you could tell they were just playing for fun and had been drinking quite a bit, I don't think anyone really cared.

On the other side of things, once I was there and there were about 3 people (all mates it looked like) on a 1/2 $50 max table all sitting on around $200. When new people came and sat down, their chips would be eaten within 10 minutes. The guys could afford to make pretty big reraises and chip someone's stack down to $30-40, before knocking them out once one of the 3 people actually gets a good hand. It wasn't so much collusion in the sense that they knew eachothers cards. They just made strong team plays and were taking all the money.

Another aspect of PokerPro I'm uncomfortable with is the ease at which people can see your cards. If they stand behind you, there's not much you can do to stop them from glimpsing your cards. While the vast majority of observers are just there to watch the game and wouldn't think of colluding, all it takes is one or two who can make some sort of signal to their mate on the opposite side of the table (cough if you have top pair, adjust their hat if you're bluffing, ect) to ruin it for you.

I think I'll start playing alot more live sit and go's at crown instead of spending time at pokerpro.

 

[purple sneakers]

The best way to combat collusion is to type something in the chat box indicating that you know what they are doing and tell them that you have reported them.

Also, play your good hands really strong. If you see a raise and re-raise in front of you and have a good hand just go all in. I've had this happen to me before - they both called and checked it down but I won the hand and tripled up.

 

[PAFC2004]

It's all too common. Encountered it on a $5.50 sng on UB. Me and two others left, dumping chips once low stacked. Folding the blinds etc.
It's ok though, I won it in the end.

 

[kolchak]

The best way to combat collusion is to type something in the chat box indicating that you know what they are doing and tell them that you have reported them.

Also, play your good hands really strong. If you see a raise and re-raise in front of you and have a good hand just go all in. I've had this happen to me before - they both called and checked it down but I won the hand and tripled up.

Altho there is nothing wrong with trying to knock people out....checking to the river in a 3 handed game, do that all the time.

 

[dmc333]

Know a bloke who does it (well so he told me) at one of the lesser known sites.
Sits on cash tables with 2 other blokes, tell each other their hole cards on msn. Then when they are finished, they go to an empty table and redistribute to each other.

A while back some kid got busted on pokerstars with 2 accounts, running 2 computers, apparently registering for the same tourn or sit-n-go and if lucky enough to land on the same table, he'd chip dump.
Poker stars took all his winnings.

Apparently Men the Master is quite a fan of doing this live.