Collusion dealt with at Absolute

[Gorgonian]

Well I promised myself if Absolute Poker didn't handle this situation well I would post here to let everyone know. However, they did a satisfactory job of dealing with it, and I think that is at least worth a mention, too. Here's the story.

My wife plays on Absolute Poker because they gave her $10 free or something. She just plays cheap sit and gos there. She places in the money constantly because she plays very tight (and aggressive now, because she is probably tired of hearing me tell her to push harder /images/graemlins/grin.gif ). Anyway she is playing one last night an she has folded bad hands for about an hour. She has about 1280 in chips (start with 1500) and they are down to 4 players.

One player says in the chat "I hope you aren't just sitting out for 3rd place" and then clicks the sit out button himself (obviously, he has more chips by a lot than my wife as she is by far the shortstack). He only sits out for like a hand and then comes back.

A few minutes later someone else says I really don't like ***** (my wife's handle). Then the original sitout person says "Let's just trade blinds between us 3 and make her play for hers." She had called me over to look at this by that time. Now that is obviously against the rules (discussing this teaming strategy, I mean). A few hands later they are obviously dumping chips to anyone that is approaching my wife's level of chips, discussing when they plan to fold to her raises OUT OF TURN in open chat, and even finally started revealing their cards to each other in open chat.

So I told her just play the best you can, and I emailed support with the table # and told them it was happening NOW. Well, it wasn't even two minutes before a manager was at the table and put a stop to it.

I do not know what other sanctions took place against the offenders, but I do know at the very least, they got to the table and stopped the cheating on the spot. This is commendable in my view and shows a big step forward for them from some of my past dealings with them.

By the way, my wife went on to win the sit and go /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Alobar]

they should have done more IMO, either DQed them for cheating (thus giving your wife the win) or refunding her buy in. The game was compromised and the outcome was affected by collusion. Simply coming along and telling them not to do it anymore isnt even close to satisfactory.

Hats off to your wife for being able to mantain her composeur after all that and still going on to win, that would have been easy for something like that to put you on tilt (yet another reason why her buy in should have been refunded).

[Gorgonian]

I actually agree with you. But I do not know if the others involved were dealt with in any other way, so I don't want to say they didn't do more. Did they refund the buy-in, no. Should they have? Possibly. But they may have put some penalties on the other players that I don't know about so I am hesitant to say they should have done more.

Good points, though.

[Jim Kuhn]

If I were the card room manager and this happened I would disqualify all three players and award your wife 100% of the prize money. This would send a clear message that collusion and cheating will not be tolerated.

Thank you,

Jim Kuhn
Catfish4U
/images/graemlins/spade.gif /images/graemlins/diamond.gif /images/graemlins/club.gif /images/graemlins/heart.gif

[radek2166]

Yup.. They all should have been DQ'D. Wife should have gotten 100%

[JDErickson]

Just another good AP story. A few months ago Arkady and I caught 2 idiots pot pumping redhanded. We had about 10 clear obvious hands. We sent them to AP and they investigated and barred the players.

Hats off to AP for their handling of that.

[MicroBob]

I think more COULD have been done. But I also think that DQ'ing all 3 players and giving her 100% of the prize-money is possibly a bit extreme.

I suspect that some or all 3 of the players involved weren't entirely aware that what they were doing was illegal or against the rules (in spite of the fact that they should have...especially when it got to the point that they were telling each other their hole-cards).
I also am guessing that they were committing this type of collusion for the first time.

For that reason, AP needs to be a bit realistic and let the tourney play-out.
they also don't want to lose 3 customers by coming down overly harsh....again some of these players probably just came up with the idea spontaneously and forgot the fact that it would obviously be against the rules.


Since it had only been taking place for a few minutes I think that arriving at the table and warning the players to knock it off doesn't fall too shy of a satisfactory handling of the situation.


If she had finished 4th then I think requesting a refund of her buy-in would have been appropriate because her chances were compromised by the blind trading.

Hopefully these players all got an e-mail with further details that their behavior at the tables was inappropriate and will be met with stricter consequences in the future.

[Alobar]

Ignorance of the rules is no justification for allowing it to go unpunished. Youd have to be a complete moron to know that telling everyone your hole cards isnt legal. And honestly if you have 3 people with that kind of attitude not play at your site anymore, you are probably better off.