Who are the Ukraines?

I've been seeing a lot of Ukraines from Odessa at medium to large buy-in tournaments. I hear there is at least 20 of them. Are these bots or players in a room together or something else like that?

[Tailgunner]

The Ukraine is a state in Russia.

Thanks, but I was asking who they are. And actually, Ukraine is a sovereign country, not a state of Russia. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Tailgunner]

Ok, so I'm behind the times [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

And if they're not immigrants, then I don't know them [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[helmvi]

I asked this from the support, and got this answer:

Thank you for your report. We have recieved a number of reports about this
group of Ukranian players, as I'm sure you can imagine. Although it does
look a bit odd that this group of players have chosen such similar User Id
I hope that I can explain this to you. We take the integrity of our
games very seriously and welcome every opportunity to ensure that they are
played fairly and honestly.

The first thing I want to do is explain that we do not have rules that
would prevent friends or associates from playing in the same real money
multi-table tournaments. The reason is that it is rare for them to find
themselves at the same table for a sustained length of time and therefore
do not pose a risk to other players in the tournament.

In regards to these players. In some countries, depositing to the site is
more difficult than in other countries. The Ukraine is one such country. As
a result, it is often the case that one player with a larger account
balance will fund the accounts of several players from a particular country
by simply transferring funds to them. That is the case with the Ukraine
accounts. You might find several accounts on the site with the
word "Ukraine" and then a number following. All it means is that these
particular accounts are funded from one central account.

They are, of course, subject to all of the rules that exist at PokerStars.
As there have been a few reports regarding these players, our collusion
team has conducted a thorough review of all their accounts, and found no
cause for concern. As you noted some of these players do like to play
together in our multitable events, but the opportunities for collusion in
events witch such a large field are very slim. We have found no unusual
play in the hands they have played together. Thank you again for bringing
this to our attention, and please let us know if you have any more
questions or concerns.

Thanks for the info! I'm glad PS at least looked into this.

[SossMan]

Pstars rocks.

[N 82 50 24]

The ukraines are 20 computers in an internet cafe in Odessa. Here is the message from Stars (sheets sent me a copy of this):

Yes, we have of course noticed it. What is happening here is that an internet café owner (in the Ukraine, obviously) has set up one PokerStars account per machine.

He is charging players to use the machines and play on the site. I assume he's taking a percentage of their winnings if they are up, and taking money up front for when they lose or buyin to a tournament.

Don't know if it's the same player who is playing on an account each time, and I haven't a clue why he made it so obvious. Anyone good enough to get into the top 100 TLB is likely not stupid, and if they were doing anything underhanded, they would likely at least attempt to disguise it. The fact that they're placing pretty well makes me think that it is the same person on each account each time, but there's no way to be certain.

We have reviewed the play between these accounts on multiple occasions. As it might be a different person each time, this is obviously not ideal for us, as we need to re-review regularly. We have not found anything asides from honest play that complies fully with the tournament rules.

This matter has been brought to the attention of management so that we can formulate a policy, but you can rest assured that these players are not breaking any of the tournament rules.

I was crusing to victory against these Ukranians and had to withdraw from the game because I was mysteriously poisoned.

[miajag81]

[ QUOTE ]
I was crusing to victory against these Ukranians and had to withdraw from the game because I was mysteriously poisoned.

[/ QUOTE ]

nh