Is this illegal

I entered a tournament online just to kill some time before going to an important meeting. It was only for $1. I been just card dead lately so I thought Id just kill an hour or two playing this little game. I started getting cards left and right. Even when it was time to leave I would go all in with connectors just to get busted so I could go. But I would always river with the straight and win all the chips. It was ridiculous. Pretty soon I was in the money and the chip leader with over 100K. The field was about 400 and it paid at 45. With first place paying almost $200 I was getting frantic with 20 minutes left before I had to leave. I called up trying to push the appointment back but they wouldnt do it.
I called up my girl and asked her to take over for me but she also had an appointment. I called some close poker friends. I would have to give them my password to my account and ask If they would play it out for me. But then thought against it. My question is this. Is this legal? Do poker sites ban such things? If caught would my account be frozen.
Lucky for me that I have mobile broadband so I threw my laptop in the car and when I got to the place I hooked up. It was around 5:00PM when traffic was the worse so it took me about 30 minutes to get to my destination. When I got there I logged in and found that my stack had dwindled down to 25K and there was 10 left. The blinds were 2500/5000. I was pissed that they were all stealing from me. Anyway to come down to it I ended up 10th with a $6 profit. Im sure if someone played the game for me I would have ended up much higher.

wouldn't be sure you'd end up much higher. You had good chance to go all the way but much more likely to already be out. Look at top ten at 400 left, compare to final table, how many are the same. Yes, you could be punished

It depends what site you were playing at. I believe it is legal at Stars but Illegal at Tilt, to have someone else at another location continue the tournament under your username. It is always best to use extreme caution if you don't know the rules though.

I have done this with friends before and yes it is illegal on all sites i believe But we are talking about very trusted friends.

ppl do this shit all the time, you've got nothing to worry about.

I've been in a similar position a couple of times when in a tournament, nipped off to the toilet and come back to find Mrs. Snowman happily clicking away on the laptop.
However, as she is a worse poker player than me (quite an achievement) it usually results in far less chips than when I departed for the previously mentioned wee.
I don't think many other players would object to this, however, any player taking over a stack after a game has started is against the rules of every site I've ever visited.
I think.


Probably.

Full Tilt's Site Rule #2:
Take your chances and you might lose everything. I'm sure, sooner or later you'll be found out, if you continue breaking rules. They'll be happy to keep your money, no questions asked.

Online Poker Forum - Ban the active account, leave open the inactive one
Banned from full tilt
Online Poker Forum - FULL TILT STOLE MY MONEY AND ISN'T EMAILING ME BACK!!!

^^^^Good Post, It's not hardly worth losing your whole BR now is it, now that you know the rules.

Well let me ask you this, I like to go between my PC and laptop during tournaments, could they suspect me of having somebody else playing for me by doing this?

Bah, don't quote me after I edit! lol


I don't see it as a problem as long as you're not on two pc's at the same time, logged on to the same screen name. Try emailing Tilt. See if they'd like to ban ya?! I guess it's a catch 22, do you email them to see that it's ok, or telling them possibly that you're breaking rules. lol I wouldn't know what to do. That's for sure.

You're probably working from the same IP, or at least an IP with 100 feet of each other, so probably not.

As for Stars, I would ass-u-me it is against the rules for someone to finish a tourney for someone else. I'm trying to find the posting here, but wasn't there a Sunday Million which was revoked recently because he sold his account to someone else so they could finish? Granted you aren't "selling" you're account, but I think it's more the fact of someone finishing a tourney they didn't start.

I believe Stars allows another to finish/play a part of a tourney if you allow them access to your screen name. I recall reading a post here when the Champion of Online Poker was multi-accounting...and someone mention Raymer lost power in a storm and thought about having someone finish one of the Championship lead-up events for him, when he was deep in the tourney. Somehow someone brought up it was illegal on Tilt but legal on Stars.

One of the suggestions of Tournament playing is to set aside time to play the game.
Aside from that, it is against site rules but would most likely be put under suspicion if someone was to log into your account from another IP address.

Hey life is sometimes funny and not perfect. You make plans and allot time for some poker playing and you get a call from a family member who says they have an emergency and need you. Ok since to most "normal" people family is more important than a $5 SNG. Do you just dump the tourney. I tried that going all in with junk and kept winning.
Which brings me to another point. Im reminded when Bobby Baldwin bought Stu Ungar a seat in the Main Event of the WSOP and Stuey wouldnt come down from his room. Could Bobby have sat in instead. What happens in a live tournament when your partner has a pain in his chest and has to go to the emergency (which has happened to several friends) could you sit in his place or does his stack get blinded off. When I bought in to the WSOP I had to register under my name.

It is illegal at live tournaments, ergo 'tis illegal at on-line sites. They do have your ip address and computer name as well as part of their verification process, as do many of the poker forum administrators.
So don't do it.
FYI, if detected by others who play within the rules, you run the risk of being reported.

Nobody can tell if an IP is withing 100 feet of another. Well, at least not with a warrant and the cooperation of the Internet Service Provider.

Assuming he's using DSL and going through a router, yeah, he'll be using hte same IP address regardless of which computer he's using.

If he uses dial-up or uses his next door neighbor's DSL, the number sill be different. All that online site will see is that the IP is differnet. They *can* see what company you used, and they *can* trace that IP address to the general vicinity (as ISP's give addresses to certain regions). So and ISP can probably narrow it down to your city.

As for the legality of having someone take over your account, here are the official rules:

During a MTT tournament at Caesar's in Elizabeth, Indiana, a player at my table was experiencing signs of a heart attack. Excessive sweating, tightness in his chest, etc.

As the paramedics tended to him tableside, we continued to play with his stack being blinded off. He wanted to sit back in and play but they insisted he go with them for more tests.

One floorperson initially told the dealer to deal him out and not take his chips for the blinds, but was over-ruled by the shift manager. He was dealt in and blinded off 'til all his chips were gone.

This was a satellite into a bigger tourney that was to begin in about 4 hours. The guy had already won his way into the big tourney and was just playing the satellite for the cash value.

He never came back to the table and I assume they took him to a hospital.

Don't know if he made it back for the big tourney, but if not, was probably refunded his entry fee.

Tough break, but the tourney had to go on because the clock was ticking.

One note of caution, if/whenever sharing your password. The very next time you log back on ... immediately change your password. Sorry ... should trust no one with that information. In fact, never "save" or "remember" them on the system either.

mostly illegal i believe

Wrong. Online poker sites go by their own rules and regulations, and it depends on the site than their specific terms of service.