Collusion in online poker sites

[jacatone]

I've read in a couple of blogs that organized teams are flooding into these online poker sites like PartyPoker. Apparently, they all join the same game and wait for someone new to join, then gang up on them to take their money. I asked Full Tilt.com to respond to this concern and got the following response:

Hello,

Thank you for your email. We do take collusion very seriously here at Full
Tilt Poker, and appreciate your concern into this issue.

As you know, with collusion at a brick and mortar "live" game, things
may
be difficult to catch, if ever. Once those cards go into the muck, they're
forgotten forever. This is not the case in any online card room - we can
review any hand ever played, regardless of how long ago the hand actually
occurred. In fact, if people are sharing cards over AOL or over the phone,
it is usually fairly easy to see with the cards face up.

Furthermore, when anyone tries to cash out, we process a short collusion
review to observe where the money "came from". This includes finding
common partners at the tables and observing how the money was deposited
and won or lost. If people *are* colluding, it will be nearly impossible
for them to get the money out of Full Tilt. On further review, we can
return it to those players who were affected.

Again, thank you for your concern about collusion on Full Tilt. It is
something that we take very seriously, and we are constantly assured by
the fact that we have many vigilant players at our tables keeping their
eyes open for this. Should you find any pair of players you suspect in any
manner, please send us an email with their usernames and we will be happy
to investigate.


Regards,

Jordan
Team Full Tilt


I just don't see how they could stop it. If you've got pocket jacks and there's a K in the community cards how could you stop a group of players from conspiring against you and going all in to beat you?

[edudlive]

I've read in a couple of blogs that organized teams are flooding into these online poker sites like PartyPoker. Apparently, they all join the same game and wait for someone new to join, then gang up on them to take their money. I asked Full Tilt.com to respond to this concern and got the following response:

Hello,

Thank you for your email. We do take collusion very seriously here at Full
Tilt Poker, and appreciate your concern into this issue.

As you know, with collusion at a brick and mortar "live" game, things
may
be difficult to catch, if ever. Once those cards go into the muck, they're
forgotten forever. This is not the case in any online card room - we can
review any hand ever played, regardless of how long ago the hand actually
occurred. In fact, if people are sharing cards over AOL or over the phone,
it is usually fairly easy to see with the cards face up.

Furthermore, when anyone tries to cash out, we process a short collusion
review to observe where the money "came from". This includes finding
common partners at the tables and observing how the money was deposited
and won or lost. If people *are* colluding, it will be nearly impossible
for them to get the money out of Full Tilt. On further review, we can
return it to those players who were affected.

Again, thank you for your concern about collusion on Full Tilt. It is
something that we take very seriously, and we are constantly assured by
the fact that we have many vigilant players at our tables keeping their
eyes open for this. Should you find any pair of players you suspect in any
manner, please send us an email with their usernames and we will be happy
to investigate.


Regards,

Jordan
Team Full Tilt


I just don't see how they could stop it. If you've got pocket jacks and there's a K in the community cards how could you stop a group of players from conspiring against you and going all in to beat you?

If the same group of people play with each other day in and day out and are seen jamming the pot everytime with nothing, they'll notice

[EricE]

Yeah, it all comes down to greed. If they do it once in a while I doubt it would be caught. But if they made a practice of it then it would be noticed.

[drmcboy]

To put it differently, no, this is not why you aren't winning.

[jmrogers7]

While collusion should certainly be one of your concerns, it should be the least of them.

[jmrogers7]

To put it differently, no, this is not why you aren't winning.

To be fair, drmcboy, he never mentioned whether he was winning or losing.

[spino1i]

I would only expect collusion at really high stakes, where they could make a lot of money. I play 600 NL, and there's no collusion at that level. I think your just fine, dont worry about it.

[drmcboy]

Yeah - sorry - I didn't mean to appear critical, I ASSumed this was generated by a suspicious table experience or two.