[JayCo]

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Based on this, couldn't you get friends at all 4 tables in each different seat and as such, know all the hole cards of every user every hand??

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Bingo.

This format could reward collusion an order of magnitude more than 2 players sitting at the same table IM'ing hole cards.

One key to dramatically reduce how easy colluding could potentially be is to change the sequence of the hands for each table/group. In other words, if the tourney is 100 hands long, table 1 could receive hole/board cards for hands 1,2,3, 4... while table 2 might receive cards from hand 10,20,30, and table 3 100,99, etc.

They could also shuffle the suits between tables to make it slightly more tricky to distinguish the hands at different tables from each other (e.g., if seat #1 will flop a KQ-high flush on hand #37, they could make it be in a different suit for each table).

They also could give each player the same hole cards more than once. (e.g., this prevents colluder #1 from telling colluder #2 definitively what the flop will be the next time colluder #2 has AJs in the hole).

With these and a few other defenses in place, it certainly would be HARDER, but still not impossible for colluders to get an edge.

The good news is that cheaters are essentially a lazy lot or mercenaries looking out only for their own bottom line. So making it annoying and complex while lowering the risk-reward ratio could go a long way in reducing collusion.

One other thought a little further out there- if this site is in US soil, is it possible that cheating/colluding could become a criminal / prosecutable offense for US players? In other words, could they boost the risk end of the risk-reward equation for cheating higher by creating the perception that you have more to lose than your playing privleges & bankroll ala a felony charge?

J