Searching, detecting and eradicating teams

[bigpooch]

Unfortunately, I do have a very mean streak as you may have
inferred from some of my previous posts. As I have said
before, if I had different beliefs, I would think of
(_v_)(_v_)inating every cheater on the planet, especially
those that cheat at cards (being an avid card player!).

Now, can anyone suggest some brilliant ideas to this
project: the search for, the detection of and the ultimate
eradication of teams that collude in online poker play at
any site. Obviously, it is important to have detailed
records of when players play, their actual hands, all the
records of transfers of funds (it even might be important to
know about NeTeller transfers, etc.). I have some ideas of
collusion detection, but I am sure that there have been
hundreds of hours spent already in thinking about excellent
ideas in detecting it, especially at the big four.

A radical idea to keep the ball rolling: have a mole/snitch
join some collusion team; better yet, have several moles or
snitches infiltrate the online collusion racket and get some
information on as many teams that exist as possible. I am
quite sure that a hundred or so willing moles/snitches would
suffice to clean up all but the most sophisticated teams.

Any helpful comments would be most welcome!

[FishyWhale]

I think you are being somewhat paranoid. There may be (and surely is) some sort of online collusion, but surely not to the degree you are thinking, both quantity- and quality-wise.

[bigpooch]

You may be right, but it can't hurt to have collusion teams
keep looking over their shoulders! It's also a great
challenge to find them, but I don't want to discuss the last
part! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[FishyWhale]

My challenge when playing poker is to maximize my EV.

[Duke]

So how are you going to differentiate between people who are buddies that happen to play in the same games, and actual colluders? The cash transfers prove nothing. Money flies around even among people who arent' that close, and who probably aren't colluding. Aside from jamming you out of hands, what actual collusion are you suspecting?

I look out for suspicious stuff online, and when I see it I put the other suspect players name in the note for the first player. And likewise. And if I see the same guys another time, I know to look out for them. If you spot it, you can turn it to being an advantage to you anyhow.

~D

[bigpooch]

Hey, that's exactly what I do! If I believe there is good
evidence of collusion, I will simply type the screen names
in the appropriate player notes. Fortunately, I haven't
seen more than half a dozen examples yet, and from the few
examples I have seen, there is not much to worry about.

On the other hand, I suspect that in limits 20-40 and above,
there will be more often collusion by sophisticated teams as
there is much more money that can be won. Also, from what I
have seen at most 15-30 games, if there is much cheating
going on, the cheats must be terribly incompetent!

[sumdumguy]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you are being somewhat paranoid. There may be (and surely is) some sort of online collusion, but surely not to the degree you are thinking, both quantity- and quality-wise.

[/ QUOTE ]
I personally know of two collusion teams. One of which is very successful. I was invited into one, and politely declined.