online cheating/collusion (long post)

I am brand new to posting here or anywhere, but I have been actively playing on PP for over a year now. There have been times when I have been stuck in the middle of two players jammin' and slammin' me over the course af a few hours. Although I put in my 2 cents worth to PP, I also realize that this is a problem in EVERY card room. I believe that it even happens to me and I never even know it. When I do see it, I take advantage of the fact that it is very easy to find a new table to play on and fast. I take notes on their play and get hand histories for my records. When I see them at a table, I gladly find a different table. This is the way it will always be, just the same as it always has since poker was created. Player beware. I think that many cheaters are life-long losers, so let's make it easy on ourselves and find the fish. Kind of like if there is a better player than you at your table, you might not make too many moves on him and try to find the weaker players to get paid by. Playing is fun - cheating is wrong - and I welcome all comments.

I suggest you become much more proactive if you perceive collusion on-line.


When I see something that's not right, I record the hand number and tell the players at the table that I'm asking the site to review the hand because I suspect collusion.


I've had colluding players jump out of the game immediately a few times.


The bigger problem is that nothing seems to be done about it.


Lately, I've experienced some blatant collusion on Party Poker Million tournaments. Again, I've never gotten a response back from the staff.


The bottom line is that you must be on the alert for collusion at all times. It is more prevalent on-line because it can be done annonymously behind the computer screen with no apparent accountability.


Moron

I play the microlimits at Paradise. At least in one case they did something about collusion.

As review of attached correspondense below shows, Paradise did bar 2 players for collusion.

So I was glad to see them respond and do something about it.

By the way, I think that collusion occurs just like this in B&M casino's, for sure locals soft playing each other, and like in the case I reported, locals whip sawing you.

I was dissappointed that Paradise would not give me some money back!! Oh well.


Hello Mal,


Thanks for your e-mail regarding the accounts of 'MACDAN' and 'macdog'. Coincidentally, at the time that you sent us your e-mail a member of our Security Team was monitoring the play of both players. Given that both players claimed to be located in the same city and given that the ISP addresses used by these accounts resolved to a similar location our internal monitors flagged the accounts in question.


Upon completion of our review we have deemed that sufficient evidence of collusion exists to warrant the permanent closure of both accounts.


We are reticent of the fact that the on-line gaming environment allows for players to communicate during play. However in order to minimize the potential for abusing this system and to provide the safest playing environment possible we have implemented SEVERAL security measures to detect the possibility of collusion. Without giving away our security measures they do include the following:


1. Tracking IP address and matching historical playing patterns. This flags and determines if certain players historically play on the same table.


2. Player trapping monitoring. Historical hands are automatically reviewed and if a weak hand was involved with raising and re-raising with multiple players it is flagged and forwarded to security.


3. Strong hand folding. If a player folds a strong hand before the flop such as AQ when another player has AK it is flagged.


4. Any player that reports a suspicious hand, it is thoroughly reviewed by our security dept. Security will also review the historical hands of the players involved. It is this ability to see every player's entire history that gives us the incredible ability to combat collusion better than a brick and mortar card room.


There are also additional automated features that I have not mentioned in the above. No system is flawless but we are confident we provide our players a safe and fair environment to play. Our business is built on ensuring the highest levels of integrity.


Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Best Regards,


Jason,

Paradise Poker Security


www.ParadisePoker.com (http://www.ParadisePoker.com)


re: cnf1a


----- Original Message -----

From: Mal Staples

To: support@paradisepoker.com

Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 11:18 PM

Subject: Possible Collusion


$1-2 Table, Vairo, 2100 to 2215 CST.

MACDAN and macdog from Littleton are whipsawing people.

I would appreciate your opinion

Agreed! The more proactive vs. Collusion the better. I am happy to see the post on how PP is monitoring their play ground. Poker cheats belong under the same air strike as terrorist. Thanx for the responses!