Stars cheating credit

[William Wilson]

I woke up today with an email from PokerStars and a $22.50 deposit into my account. Here is the letter, thoughts?

Hello,

PokerStars has become aware of two players who were working together in our Sit & Go tournaments to the detriment of other players. You were involved in at least one tournament with these players and as a result you may have been adversely affected.

The players' accounts were closed and their funds frozen pending a thorough investigation, which is now complete. Fortunately the problem was identified quickly and they had only played in a few tournaments before the accounts were closed.

In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders' winnings an/or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible. To confirm your credit, log onto your PokerStars account, go to the 'Cashier' screen and click the 'History' button. Your share will be shown as a "Credit Purchase".

I regret that we will be unable to answer questions as to how your specific credit amount was calculated. Likewise, we are not at liberty to identify the specific games or players in question. Suffice to say that they have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.

The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to us and we will not abide cheating or collusion in our games. We work hard to police our games and prevent such instances. In the rare cases where collusion has actually occurred, we make sure that any players affected are compensated appropriately.

Thank you for your continued play here on PokerStars. Please do not hesitate to let us know any time we can be of help.


Best Regards,

SteveW
PokerStars Support Team

[bones]

So that's what customer service and cheating prevention looks like.

I need to quit Party.

[ZebraAss]

/images/graemlins/smile.gif I got 27 and some change. Yay for poker stars.

[swarm]

I really have to give Pokerstars credit with their attempts to deter cheating. The site has integrity and is proactive as the online poker community grows. Such as the simple thing of disabling chat windows when a player is all in.

If I could gain the same hourly rate I do at Party I would switch over. I typically only use stars for ring games and mtt tournies.

[skipperbob]

Wow!...May have to rethink the PartyPoker thing; but they did give me a hat /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Apathy]

Ya sure beats Party's service heres the email I got back recently. My original email is below.

It was blatent cheating and they sent me some form letter bullshit.

Dear xxxx,

We appreciate you taking the time to report situations of alleged Disconnect Protection abuse at PartyPoker.com.

Starting with the hand history (or hand #) that you sent to us, we have performed an investigation that would allow us to examine thoroughly the account in question "Jennifer2002".

We have looked into these players records and collected the previous hands in which this player used the Disconnect Protection. Our goal was to look for a pattern where the player usually disconnects in key moments.

Some of the parameters we use when investigating possible protection abuse:

* The player's cards at the time of disconnection.
* The player's previous action (whether he was betting/raising) and also the actions of the other players at the time of disconnection.
* The benefit obtained by a player disconnecting The timing of disconnection
* A players pattern of disconnections Previous allegations made by other players and/or the system

Using the information listed above we have investigated the history of player "Jennifer2002" thoroughly. Although that might seem suspicious, the player has in fact not disconnected more than what might be normal with an unstable internet connection and the hands in which he was reported by players or the system are borderline suspicious, at best.

Nonetheless, we have recorded your complaint into the players account and will keep this investigation on file. In addition, our gaming experts will be monitoring this player's account. If the player does at any time show a pattern of abuse we will remove his protection. We have sent an email to the player informing him of the investigation and making him aware that his actions are being monitored.

We thank you for taking the time to report your suspicions. Keeping the games honest is our highest priority.

Contact us anytime, we are available around the clock to assist you with your account related questions and suggestions.

Sincerely,
Harish
Investigations Team
alerts@PartyPoker.com

--Original Message--
From: xxxx@uwo.ca
Date: 2005-03-09 05:58
To: info@partypoker.com
Subject: Cheating on 2-4NL table #36879[#2548708]

There was an instance of intentional disconnect on table #36879 at 5:49 est I
expect this to be taken seriously and action to be taken. The guilty player was
Jennifer2002, who clearly intentionally disconnected to avoid making a tough
river decision which would most likely have resulted in her losing her entire
stack to me.

I look forward to your reply and as previously stated expect this to be taken
very seriously.

Here is the hand as it played out:

***** Hand History for Game 1708965166 *****
$400 NL Hold'em - Wednesday, March 09, 05:42:25 EDT 2005
Table Table 36879 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 6: Qwantum ( $333.6 )
Seat 7: Jennifer2002 ( $252.8 )
Seat 8: edawg2169 ( $135.6 )
Qwantum posts small blind [$2].
Jennifer2002 posts big blind [$4].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Qwantum [ 6h 4h ]
edawg2169 calls [$4].
Qwantum calls [$2].
Jennifer2002 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, 5c, Jh ]
Qwantum checks.
Jennifer2002 checks.
edawg2169 checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ]
Qwantum bets [$7].
Jennifer2002 calls [$7].
edawg2169 folds.
** Dealing River ** [ 7d ]
Qwantum bets [$15].
Jennifer2002 raises [$60].
Qwantum is all-In [$307.6]
sam300 has joined the table.
Jennifer2002 could not respond in time.(disconnected)
Jennifer2002 shows [ 7c, 8s ] two pairs, eights and sevens.
Qwantum shows [ 6h, 4h ] a straight, four to eight.
Qwantum wins $262.6 from side pot #1 with a straight, four to eight.
Qwantum wins $145 from the main pot with a straight, four to eight.

[mackthefork]

Hi Apathy

I hope your Party user ID isn't Apathy, if so support probably assumed it was a direction. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

They just don't care (or read you emails)

Mack

[Hood]

Am I missing something here? They clearly did read his email and their response seemed rather reasonable. They admit it was 'borderline suspicious', but what would you like them to do - close her account and ban her from the site? For one disconnection? Although it was a very conveienient time for her to get disconnected, it will occur to some people accidently at rather opportune times.

It would seem rather harsh to ban her for one issue. Rather, I'd keep an eye on and seem if it occurs again, and inform the player that they are investigating her play. Which is exactly what the email says they'll do.

- Hood (who doesn't work for party, nor has had to deal with their support...)

[se2schul]

Wow, great response from poker stars.

I find Party is hit or miss. I've had 2 instances where people were colluding against me. In both instances, I went all in on the bubble, and two players discussed their hands before deciding whether to call me. I got knocked OOTM in both instances and complained to Party. In the first instance, they removed the winnings of the colluders and gave it to me. In the second instance (which seemed identical to the first), they said that it makes no difference since my hand was inferior (WTF?!?!). Party certainly can have good resolutions to complaints of collusion, but I won't be happy with their customer service until it is consistently good.

[skipperbob]

Calling PP's help line "customer service' is similar to lauding the IRS on the results of their "voluntary compliance" /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Thigh]

Yeah, I thought the response was good also. That they're keeping her/him on tabs and have sent her/him an email I think is good.

Then again, I don't play on party either.