Question on cheating

[Meatmaw]

Hi,
I'd like to get some input from the veterans here. How often do you see tables with people from the same town? For instance on Pokerstars, you can see what town the person registered as being from. I've already been in an SNG where I noticed two were from the same town, and they turned out to be colluding and eventually won 1st and 2nd, got investigated, then (one of them) got disqualified for chip dumping.

I just experienced the same thing again. Two people from the same town take 1st and 2nd. 3 hands after HU play, they go all in with 56s and 27.

My question is centered around asking how often you see two people from the same town and how often you noticed cheating, i.e. how suspicious should I be? With 4 players left, I witnessed these two go headsup 9 times with the small stack winning 8 of them after betting into a folding large stack. The one time they didn't was when both had KJ.

Well, I'm just hoping some people can spread some insight and knowledge about this and what I should think about it. Thanks.

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[sin808]

I pretty much won't play at a table where I see two (or more) ppl from the same town. Not that they may necessarily even know each other, but it certainly won't hurt me at all to find another table on that off chance that they do know each other. They may or may not be cheating, but at least that way it doesn't matter to me if they are or not.

[CORed]

I think it's pretty silly to attach much significance to the "town" displayed regarding collusion. Are you going to be afraid of collusion if two players from New York City are on the same table? Los Angeles? Chicago? London? Springfield?

Furthermore, on most sites, you can type anything you want into this field. If two people are going to collude, don't you think one or both of them might lie about were they're from? Besides, with instant messaging, cell phones, etc. two players don't have to be in the same country to collude, let alone the same town. If you're concerned about collusion (and it's someting you should look out for, but not be paranoid about), watch the way people play. If the same two players are in a hand togeter a lot, and raising back and forth, especially if one ends up folding before the river, they might be colluding (or they might both be maniacs). If they are doing this nearly every hand, just trying to buy pots, they may be colluding, but are doing it so stupidly that they reperesent a significant money-making opportunity. If they are doing it only when one of them has a good hand, get out and report them.

[J.A.Sucker]

This is not the most effective method of cheating. Whipsawing is bush-league and easily seen. Excellent scammers (who are also top players) can control the action by slowing it down. This is easier to see in stud than hold em, since the edge of many hands winning falls more rapidly than the increased number of players entering a pot increases the pot odds.

[Meatmaw]

I certainly agree that the best we can do is watch the behavior, not cursory attributes like the value of the City field. It's amazing, though. The first time another player brought to my attention that two players were cheating (by cursing them out while we were still 4-handed of course), I wasn't even sure he had a case. I mean, the big stack had bet a huge amount to make the mad guy fold, after which the small stack went all-in for a raise of about 1/100 of the pot. This followed with a fold by the large stack, claiming he bluffed and knew he was beat (so why not save the $T53 in the $T5000 pot)?

Anyhow, despite very angry accusations, the game continued, and upon reaching headsup between the two (from "Nebraska City" I believe), the proceeded to immediately go all-in on every single hand, lasting a good 3 or 4 hands before the leader won the all-in.

After investigation, Stars disqualified the original chip leader for chip-dumping. I was always a little confused why they didn't both get disqualified. Seemed pretty blatant to me.