detecting cheating

[Meatmaw]

Hi folks, didn't know if this was better in 1-table because (naturally) MTTs it shouldn't be as suspicious I'd gather. I'd love to hear feedback, and sorry if I shouldn't have posted in this section.

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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. /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Phill S]

it may be, it may not. best thing if you notice something dodgy is to report it.

ive played at tables with 3 of the ten coming from the same town, i just happened to be one when i played it with my mates.

ive also played a stars sit and go with soem guy from the same town ive never met (freaky, he goes to the pub i do, its like majorly coincidental). to bring it to context, i live in england, in a small town of like a few thousand population (on estimate 20-25000)

you see, sometimes mates just wanna challenge each other, sometimes its all coincidence, but if you suspect somthing, do report it.

Phill

[mackthefork]

I played one yesterday on Stars an 18 seater and I got to the bubble in 2nd or 3rd place, it was like playing a team of 4, the BB folded to the small stack so many times it was unbelievable, the worst i saw saw 400/800 blinds 50 ante, the small stack had 1250 left, he goes in from MP, BB folds in a heartbeat 2750 in the pot 450 to call, I nearly e-mailed it to Stars. It was either collusion or an act of extreme stupidity.

Regards ML

[scarr]

I only had a suspicion of this happening once, on UB.

Something happened early on where I said to myself "he just passed that other guy some chips." Then it goes heads up after one of them took me out in third. They both went all in on the next hand.

I added the two names to Ultimate Buddy, and have not seen them play the same table since then (over 2 months).

Sometimes when you play with your mate, you kindof know how they play and can tell when they have you beat. And if you think you are even in skill, do the coin flips when heads up to save some time.

[Vuron00]

I caught 2 guys cheating on Party not soon after I joined. There were a couple callers and a raiser and after the raise, one of the callers types "all in" in the chat box. When it gets around to the other guy on the small blind, he goes all-in and then the chatter goes all-in. The chatter had KK and the other guy had gone all-in with like a J8 or something ridiculous. I looked and they were from the same state but not the same town.

Reported it and they were both gone.

I'm guess that they were talking on IM or something and accidentally typed in the chat box. Damn cheaters.

[McMelchior]

Sorry, but you guys just havent got it right.

There's no way to detect if two players are from the same town, and it doesn't really matter if they are ... at PokerStars you can type any locus of origin as soon as you have finished your financial transactions ... look for players with (Hell) or (Paradise) under their icon.

If anyone wanted to collude, they would be incredibly stupid not to change their apparant origin.

Sorry.

Best, McMelchior (Johan)

[Meatmaw]

Hmm, I think you are overestimating the intelligence of some players. Certainly I could see if cheaters at high levels, like $50 SNGs or something, think their actions through, but it doesn't follow that just because we *can't* verify someone is from the same town, we cannot reasonably *deduce* they are from the same town.

I wasn't kidding about the two guys who were both from the same town and blatantly chip dumped. The big stack was in with his crony and a 3rd guy, and, after a large bet by the outsider, the big stack raised to *just* under the amt his crony had. Crony went all in, the outsider folded, and the large stack followed suit and folded. We're talking about 50 chips he would have needed to call into a pot of about 4000 to call the small stack. As if this wasn't obvious enough, the moment 3rd place was knocked out, they silently and immediately went all in without pause every hand for 3 hands in a row, both showing ridiculous hands. Both had reported home cities of Nebraska City. After investigation, Stars disqualified one of them (why only one, I don't know).

So, I am not disputing that if you or I wanted to cheat, we couldn't at the very least alter our origin. I've seen the home cities of Heaven, Hell, Pokerstars, Hi There, etc. There's no way to know that two people with different origins aren't from the same place (or don't know each other), but it's highly likely that two people who *do* share the same reported origin, *are* indeed from the same place. I'm just saying the people who don't have the first clue of how to cover all their tracks are out there, and you're overestimating their intelligence.

They are, after all, mostly there to gamble.