playing while IM or skype is open

I have a question. I have skype and I have it open a lot of times just as a standard thing, and this since a long time. My family lives in the US and I live in Germany, and we all have skype and use it regularly. I have played a number of times with my skype open, but not in use. Last night as I was in a couple of SnGs on FT, my sister called me on skype. We spoke for about 15 minutes, and she laffed as she kept hearing the chip movement, and kept joking about is it me getting or giving chips this time. I have not had any problems, but was wondering, since I could just as easily be colluding with another player (I have NEVER done this, its only chatting with my family) but is this something FT or any other site can notice i.e. any IM programm open when playing (it would make sense) and should I send them an email in advance and explain? Or what does anyone here know/think about this?

I have played a number of time - thinking back - with skype open, as it is open but not active kinda all the time, in case someone stateside calls. Its just on when the computer is on. I have been doing this so long I dont even think about it if my skype is open, and as I was talking to my sister last night, I made a joke that good thing she doesent play, we could be raping the table (was really just a joke) and then I thought, oh no, it could seem that was if FT can tell.......

Keep skype off in the future, ( I will anyway) and forget it, or email FT and PKR and bodog, and explain in advance???

btw, I dont think I win any more when it is open, just the opposite, as I am not concentrating totally on my game.....


PS MODS: is this the right place for this? or poker rooms?

I do not think they are able to check but I mean if you are not doing anything you have nothing to fear.

Take poker seriously, if you dont play efficiently when skype is running, shut it down.

i cant play while browsing let alone on the phone/skype, i've tried and i always make dumb decisions

for me the only thing open now is the poker table(s) im playing

thanks guys for the reply's, but whether multi tasking is a good idea or not is not my question. please re read. For the record, in hundreds of hours of online play we are talking maybe 45 minutes here. I would like to know if a poker site could accuse me of colluding, even though I wasnt.

Maybe people do this all the time for coaching reasons etc. IDK. Colusion would be a big danger with this, but I guess table records would eventually show this.

And while I am on the subject, what are the rules of teamviewer?

Stop being paranoid. They cant.

Just cause I am not paranoid, deosent mean they are not out to get me........

But seriously, paranoid? It was a fairly legitimate question, IMO.

The sites can tell if some types of software is open, so it is not unthinkable that they may be able to detect IM as well. I am not an expert in this field, if you are than thanks for the answer. If you are just assuming, then let me know that in your opinion they cant. (Actually, I have been told that some software is detectable, and if certain websites are open, poker sites can detect this, but I do not know this for a fact)

People have had account frozen, and I really would rather ask twice to much than once too little..........

I do however appreciate the comments on concentration, and understand they were made in a helpful way.

What I am saying is this, if the person you were talking to is not on ftps server at all or they were not playing at your table, even if they could tell who you were talking to (even if they could tell skype was up, they cant tell who you were talking to but just saying if) there is nothing there to say that misconduct was involved and thus no action can be taken against your account.

Let me stress this, if you did nothing wrong, there is absolutely nothing to be worried about. Thus I stand by saying you may be a little paranoid.

Im from Texas, paranoia is standard......

IM's/skype etc are fine to run while playing, it is not against any TOC's.
If I am not mistaken though, you cannot have PTR open while playing, that can get you into trouble.

Ive had an IM client open probably 95% of the time I play poker, since I pretty much have it open on my computer all the time. Never once had a problem. Supposedly they can tell what other applications you have running, but in my case I find that rather hard to believe since I run my poker in a Virtual Machine on my linux laptop, but having these types of applications open are not against the sites rules.

IM's/Skype are fine to run whilst playing poker, but when I see two players in chat ask each other to open IM, I have to consider them colluding and write down their nicks and table #.

Most people who play poker have msn or Skype open when they are playing - no biggie.

TY all for the answers.

Your fine its the sites like PTR,OPR, sharkscope that they can tell if your on while playing. My buddy was playing on pokerstars and was checking players on sharkscope and got an email telling him that was against PS TOS.

Hey fletch...


They're coming to take you away ha ha, ho ho, he he!

no, they already did that. After a short time, they gave me back........

And I know that song, lol.

Can you complete this? "30 days have septober, April, June and no wonder, all the rest have peanut butter, all except my............. (do you know what comes here?)

I have never heard of that happening to anyone before with SS. Was he using the HUD or something? I don't think they have anyway of knowing if you have it open and are doing searches. (Not saying it is okay to do that - just know loads of people who do with no problem)

they're coming to take me away ha ha was a record in the 60's. I thought you may know it, I had it. And the words I wrote were from another song on that record.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They%27..._Away,_Ha-Haaa!


the next words are"my dear grandmother". I wonder if anyone other than me knows this record?....

My understanding is that they can only detect if you're running software (not if you're just puching in sn's) I'm a computer donk though, so who knows.

Poker rooms can detect what other applications are running on your computer alongside their software. There is usually something in the fine print of the TOS which says that they are allowed to gather that information.

The exact nature and scope of their scanning ability is kept secret, in order that cheaters cannot readily find a way of circumventing it. I`d be surprised, though, if they can`t tell that you are running Skype.

In itself, that`s not a concern. By default, Skype launches automatically whenever you start your computer. So, huge numbers of poker players must be running it while playing. It would only be suspicious if you were suspected for some other reason (such as soft-playing for example) of colluding, and your fellow suspect was also running Skype.

I knew this song but not the other one. Here ya go! And lol at them giving you back. Their loss is CC's gain Wow that tricycle "song" is whacked

YouTube- They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa! Napoleon XIV

YouTube- NAPOLEON XIV- I'm in love with my little red tricycle

They can't tell, and even if they could tell, why would they do anything about it? They probably know that people have Skype or IM open all the time while playing, and they aren't trying to cheat.

I went ahead and emailed PS, since this question has been asked before - here's the reply:

Thank you for your email. Your email was passed along to me as a manager in the PokerStars Game Security Team for additional review and comment. I hope to do a little better for you: let me share PokerStars' policy on TeamViewer (and similar software).

PokerStars is aware of software like TeamViewer and other similar programs that share the screen. PokerStars has considered their use, and at this stage, we have no prohibition on using TeamViewer or similar programs.

PokerStars is aware that the TeamViewer program can be used to break various aspects of our Terms of Service, but also that it has legitimate uses as well.

Consequently, PokerStars focuses its enforcement actions on the prohibited activity, rather than a possible symptom. For example, many instant messaging clients *could* be used for similar purposes, but we do not think it is reasonable to prohibit such programs from being used.
However, PokerStars does maintain a strict prohibition against collusion, multiple-account abuse, and so on, and we use a series of techniques to discover and take action against people who engage in such prohibited practices.

We are, however, continuing to consider the situation, so if we do change our mind, PokerStars will communicate that to players before any disciplinary action is taken.

I trust that this has been helpful to you, but please feel free to contact us again anytime if we can help you further.

Regards,
*****
PokerStars Game Security

Nobody cares, you can use a cell phone just as easily to avoid being noticed. How you do get caught though is when they notice you are at the same table with the same buddy for hours on end and you are not betting against him, or you are evening out your chips and other things that I am not at liberty to relay. This leaves an audit trail, and you can eventually find yourself with a frozen account. It is a privilege to play at their website, and they can take away that privilege at any time if one wants to do shady things.

Sly, on the ball as always!!

Thanks for doing that.

Nice, thanks!!!

there is no need to worry about it,ftp or pkr have no techology to know if you open or colsed skype,once sb ask a sinmilar question that if can check players poker date in the some poker sites,some poker room do not allowed it happen,but they will never know if you have open your IE or fixfore......

I am surprised by the number of posters ITT who don`t seem to accept that the poker sites routinely monitor other programs running on your PC. I thought that was common knowledge.

An example, from the TOS of Party Poker:

"Our automated software reports on any processes or programs running on your computer that have been identified as prohibited software falling within our policy."

Yeah, as a software guy let me assure that it is TRIVIAL to monitor what software you are running while you're playing, and also what sites you're browsing (on the same machine as your poker client software). This is how they know whether you're visiting SharkScope while playing, or running any other banned software. As Egon points out, all major sites mention their right to monitor your system during play in their TOS.

So to the OPs question: while they can easily tell if you're running Skype or IM during play, they CANNOT easily tell what you're doing with it. Since such applications are not specific to poker and have many legitimate uses outside of poker, it would be very difficult for them to enforce a ban against their usage during play. After all, if someone were so underhanded as to collude, they could just pick up the phone and be completely undetectable. So I wouldn't concern myself with using Skype/IM during play, but I would certainly avoid visiting SS or any other disallowed site, much less using any disallowed software, on your poker PC since this is easily detectable and enforceable.

BTW, there are some software that are considered so egregious (like poker bots and other cheats) that it's a violation of some sites' TOS to even have them on your hard drive, whether you're running them or not. So if you've been merely curious to only download and look at such software, without intending to use it, I'd strongly advise against doing so on your poker PC.

It is common knowledge that they can and do monitor certain types of programs you are running. That doesn't mean they can monitor every single thing you access.

Mmmm, not exactly true. They can technically grab what you're typing back and forth in chat, but aside from archiving it for use during an investigation they couldn't really use it against you -- the amount of logic to intelligently process chat to identify collusion would be immense, and people would find ways of shorthand chatting to get around it anyway. Besides there are real privacy issues involved that go way beyond just monitoring what software I'm running. So you'd be correct that they can't reasonably monitor what you're saying in chat/Skype.

However with regards to what you're browsing, that is absolutely possible and actually quite easy for any developer worth his salt. If you're running my software (i.e. poker client), then I can easily tell you what sites you have open in your browser.

Pokerstars is gonna think I'm a total degen.,.... I need to stop with the porn while playing on that site!

I'm sure that alteast 20% of people playing poker have frequently had porn up while playing.

As well as Skype, msn....and even places like Sharkscope. Evidently they don't really care to take the time to monitor it as closely as people seem to think. Every single sng grinder worth their salt uses SS while playing and I have never heard of any of them having an issue as a result of it.

(And btw before anyone accuses me - I am not worth my salt).