Collusion

[TeUnit]

Yes, It just happened to me a few weeks ago, I was playing 5c-10c plo and every pot was getting raised and reraised. After several hours some players were up hundreds of $. What happened was one player was playing under several different names and essentially colluding with himself. Lots of players lost money to the cheat, but they caught him and made the players whole.

 

[Arthur ZM]

This has not happened to me and I hope it will not happen. It will be interesting to listen to the story.

 

[phantomjiujitsu]

I don't think it's ever happened to me. I hope it never does.

 

[jordanbillie]

Once a player gave chips to other players blatantly, it was in homegames, but with real money prizes.
Of the stupidest thing I've seen, that player was folding on the river, and letting the other players win the pot.
I think I should report that player for doing that stupid maneuver.

Blatant cheating, you should point out to these players that their actions are not OK. Whomever is in charge of the home game should make the rules clear, and not allow any behavior of this type.

 

[TDTODDY]

I made it to the final table @ Borgata, (one of the opens) 3500 buy ins. It got down to 3. At the break I noticed the other 2 run off by themselves. I was in 2nd place behind a huge stack. After the break we played 3 levels to get to heads up. They checked down or min bet every hand they were in together. There was nothing I could do.I was bet out of almost every hand until I started to shove. The big stack was calling every one of my bets and then shoving. I made a mistake and got short handed. The 2 called time on me after 30-40 seconds on every hand. I didn't play well enough to win, but I'll never forget those 2 checking down trips and straights and pounding me every hand.

 

[theANMATOR]

Hello friends. Have you ever seen or be a victim of collusion at a poker table? And if you are not sure, do you suspect what could have happened? Then I will tell you something that happened to me a while ago.

A certain player on GlobalPoker was announcing his hand every preflop in chat.
The chat box is not open by default on my layout. I bluffed the guy real close to the final table and I wanted to show him the bluff - so I was looking around for the show feature in the settings. The interface on Global is wonky and I was trying to find the show after fold option. I was fumbling with the chat/settings/other tabs - to show my cards, and clicked over to the chat box - sure enough - he was announcing every hand he played in the chat box the entire game.
I kindly asked him to stop - and he accused me of colluding with him the entire game by knowing his hole cards - because he was posting them. I informed him that was not the case and the next time he posted his hole cards - I captured the chat history and - reported him. and that was that.
Support on Global is quite nice - they informed me later - they could see directly from my hand history during that event I was not colluding with that player - and they had suspended him from using the chat feature for 1 month.
Next time we encountered each other - he apologized, so that was nice to see Global support follow up on and evaluate the incident.


Beyond that weird situation - Thankfully this has not happened to me - I detest cheaters and thieves - so I would have to elevate control over my actions and words if that ever did happen.

Yes, both as a player and as a dealer. In either format (online or live) you should constantly be evaluating (subconsciously) the atmosphere of your gaming experience

Very interesting aspect you point out being the dealer.
What is the standard protocol when in that position? Do you have to be 100% sure there is something going on - to bring attention to it, or is it more like - you might suspect something so you report it and let security take care of it. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

[jordanbillie]

Very interesting aspect you point out being the dealer.
What is the standard protocol when in that position? Do you have to be 100% sure there is something going on - to bring attention to it, or is it more like - you might suspect something so you report it and let security take care of it. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

The common types of collusion (agreeing to check it down in advance, discussing one's hand, etc.), I would simply call the person out on it immediately, "Hey, you can't say that!" If they continued, they were issued a warning by the floor supervisor, and if they continued after that they received a 24 hour exclusion. We ran a strict room, and the players all supported that style of management.

The more severe types of collusion (signalling to each other, trying to get a long term edge in a game together) we had to get security involved to investigate. We would usually call the "eye in the sky" and explain to them our suspicions, and they would investigate any tape they had on the accused "cheaters." Sometimes we couldn't get great evidence from surveillance, so we would proceed as if it was a minor offence and issue a warning. A few times, we uncovered some serious cheating and had security present in the room while we indefinitely banned the ones involved.

The poker room was a fun place to work, which provided a lot of entertainment and insight into the game. I'm happy to share my stories as I remember them.

 

[Ianmacca99]

Something strange happened to me a few years ago only a couple of hands this happened but one player seemed to be giving chips to another player at the table playing online cash 50p/£1 blinds I had raised AQs 3x UTG I had 3 callers before small blind raised to £17 then big blind went all in for £19.55 in this situation my AQ is probably no good so I folded as did the callers then small blind then folded for an additional £2.55 when no one would ever fold in this spot. This happened another 2 times folding for a pound or two more no sure if that counts as collusion but it was strange to see

 

[jordanbillie]

Something strange happened to me a few years ago only a couple of hands this happened but one player seemed to be giving chips to another player at the table playing online cash 50p/£1 blinds I had raised AQs 3x UTG I had 3 callers before small blind raised to £17 then big blind went all in for £19.55 in this situation my AQ is probably no good so I folded as did the callers then small blind then folded for an additional £2.55 when no one would ever fold in this spot. This happened another 2 times folding for a pound or two more no sure if that counts as collusion but it was strange to see

That's one of those spots where it could very easily be collusion, or it could just be a really terrible player, or even a misclick? There is really nothing you can in that spot, honestly.

 

[Warrior1961]

Thank you all for your comments.

 

[Szachajevy]

I try to not think about collusion but I saw once something I can call like that , I'm telling myself that it's just terrible player. Players were writing coments , too bad it was in language I didnt know