Newbie online poker question

[Silent Bob]

I was just wondering what the risks are to playing online as far as collusion goes....I mean it seems very easy for someone to collaborate with someone or even a few people via IM or the telephone. I have read the policy at Empire as well as a few other places but they don't really seem to have any surefire way of catching any of these people....anyone ever suspect anyone of this at a table? I just really can't stand the people who play the free tables anymore and want to make the jump to real $$ even if it's just $.25/$.50 to start...

[jasonHoldEm]

Hi Bob, welcome to the forums.

I'm not going to lie to you, collusion does exist online, but also remember that collusion exists in real life.

Most colluders are stupid, they get too greedy and make it easy for themselves to be discovered (frequently you'll see the same two players raising each other, trying to trap someone in the middle, when one of them has a hand, or forcing other players out of the hand when both of them have missed), when this sort of raising back and forth starts to occur (especially when one of the players ends up folding for one bet on the river in a massive pot) it should set off some red flags for you.

Most of the sites do a very good job of investigating reports of collusion and also have computer programs in place to safegard against it fulltime.

I sincerely doubt you'll ever see collusion at the micro limits, the reward simply isn't worth the risk involved. I've busted two teams of colluders at 2/4 and 3/6 (one at each), but given the number of hours I've put in this is a very small amount.

As I said at the start, most colluders are stupid and their greed makes them easy targets to get caught. I personally feel that an online player should not "fear" collusion, only take the necessary steps to be aware of it. Obviously, if at any time you feel you might be being cheated you should get out of the game and report it to the site immediately.

Hope that helps,
jHE

[davidross]

Bob,

I may play more online poker than anyone, around 14,000 hands a week, and I've only run into 1 case where I suspected collusion. I reported it and I received a reply the next day telling me they had banned the offenders.

You will see far more instances of all-in abuse than collusion, people disconnection on purpose to avoid putting more money in the pot.

As Jason said, you don't have a lot to worry about at the micro limits. ANd as you get more experience and move up in limits you will recognize when things don't seem right.

[frizzfreeling]

I would say it is still quite rare, even in the high dollar games. In the last 100,000 hands, I have come across obvious collusion only once. There were a couple of other times that I suspected it, but if they were colluding, they were so poor at it that it wasnt doing them any good anyway. It doesnt do a couple of loose colluders any good to raise each other with me in the middle, if I have the nuts!