Two players always together - suspicious?
 

Last night I sat down at a $20 + 2 SNG at Paradise and noticed a couple players whose names I recognized. I went to look them up in Poker Tracker and noticed that not only had I played each of them in three SNGs before, it was the same three ie they always play together. Should this concern me? I have a friend who I have played a ton of SNGs with so someone could think the same of us, but then again we chat a ton during games too so everyone knows we know each other, whereas these guys were stone silent through all three games. In one they ended the SNG heads up against each other and it lasted three hands (although I don't have a record of those hands so who knows what was going on.) I thought about pointing them out to Paradise support and didn't, but I did end up leaving the table and picking another one. How would you guys feel about this situation?

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

Quitely point it out to paradise. If you're right, you might stop a couple of cheaters. If you're wrong, nothing will happen and life will go on the same.

al

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

It doesn't necessarily mean anything. If their play when others are still in it seems suspicious, then it's time to be concerned. Their heads-up play is meaningless. I've played heads-up at the end of a tourney for one hand or 40 minutes - it just depends how things go. Besides if everyone else is out, they can do what they want - it's really none of your business.

They could be friends, it could be one guy stalking the other or it could be a collusion deal.

If their play is suspicious, then report them as possible offenders. If their play is reasonable then don't sweat it.

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

There is no problem at all with saying, 'Hey guys, I'm sure its just my imagination running wild, but I'm a little leery of you guys always sitting together, so I'm gonna ask them to monitor the situation. Like I said, I'm sure its nothing, but I have to make sure I feel safe. Thanks for understanding.'

Then tell the site support the same exact thing...takes a few minutes and clears up problems in a good way imo.

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

It is probably meaningless. I play 3 tourneys at a time usually and I play with the same people a lot. One time I played in 3 tourneys simultaneously with the same guy at all 3 tables. 3 occurrences are really not very many.

Now, if I saw what I thought was chip dumping on more than 1 occasion then I would be very upset and report my suspicions to site management.

You should understand also that every site has anti collusion software that tries to detect if players collude. These algorithims will look at factors such as playing only together, etc.

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

This is good advice. What's to say one doesn't recognize the other for a horrible player and knows when he is bluffing?

The real question is how they play the hands. That information will be much more telling.

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

they ended up heads up - can't be too horrible [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

Well I ended up writing Paradise a letter saying basically, "This is probably nothing but could you take a look just to be safe?" They responded very nicely thanking me for my letter and that an initial look at the players' history showed that they did play a great deal of games together and that they obviously knew each other. Based on this they would look into their play more througly and I would hear from them within 24 hours. Then this morning I got this letter:

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Hello Mr.,

Upon further review I have found some play between these players that has given me cause for concern. I will be investigating more deeply and taking this up directly with the players involved. Should I feel that their play is in any way unacceptable they will be permanently removed from Paradise Poker.

Thank you again for your report, we appreciate it, as keeping the games fair and honest is our highest priority.

Regards,
Paradise Poker Security
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So that was nice. The outcome is really irrelevant. I mean, if they are colluding I'm glad its getting taken care of, but I'm mostly just happy to see that Paradise is willing to investigate player concerns and take them seriously. This just further confirms to me that they have a very well run team over there.

Re: Two players always together - suspicious?
 

I have gotten that response before I'm positive it's generic.