Alon Ipser
Cardschat Elite
Silver Level
I played a SnG earlier this week at Stars and ended up a table with 2 people with very similar names both from Beruit, Lebanon. I didn't like the idea of possble collusion so I e-mailed cutomer support. It turns out they probably weren't colluding but thought I would post the reply back from Stars support so you can see what they do when this type of thing is reported to them.
Thank you for taking time to bring this matter to our attention. As you
know we are well equipped to review reports such as yours. PokerStars
employs a team of poker specialists who's job it is to review suspicious
activity identified internally and to follow up on reports such at yours.
We have all played poker for years and have been trained to recognize the
methods used by poker cheats. With that in mind I have completed my review
of the accounts 'kharouf' & 'kharouf1'
In situations of this nature, we begin by reviewing the accounts of the
players involved to determine what, if any, relationship exists between
them. In this instance they are from the same country and account activity
wouldindicate that they know each other. That in itself is not a crime
though providing you play against them as you would anyone else.
When checking for collusion we simply replay the tournament with the cards
face up. We look for several things which include, but are not limited to:
1. Squeeze play - the players reraise each other in an effort to drive
a third from the pot.
2. Pot building - the players put in small bets that entice others to
call when one of them makes a big hand, in the hope of building a larger
pot, and perhaps commit a player.
3. Stack balancing - the player with the larger stack purposely loses
to the smaller stack to ensure both players remain in the game.
4. Softplay - this is where one player who holds a really strong hand
decides not to bet his hand against another. It is very similar to (3)
stack balancing, and many stack balances are also softplays.
(1) and (2) above usually requires the sharing of hole card information
externally to the game, however for (3) and (4), if two players just
happen to have a policy of not clashing against one another, then they do
not necessarily need to have any knowledge of one another's cards.
Despite the fact that you reported them for collusion in a Sit and Go I
looked into their ring game play together and noted that they have not
crossed paths this month. this is also the 1st SnG they have played
together in the last month. Please bear in mind that players colluding
will have higher than average play rates.
To be honest there was very little to go on in this tournament as they
were both outvery early. I will say however that a review of these players
has been done a few months ago and there was nothing found to indicate any
sort of collusion. Based on that and the lack of evidence here I can only
state that there was nothing suspicious found. I have however placed a
note in both accounts of this investigation for future reference.
As you can see, we have a lot of tools at our disposal which help us keep
our games honest and fair. In addition, the thousands of honest, vigilant
players who point out situations that merit investigation - which are an
important part of our arsenal. Thank you for doing your part to protect
the integrity of our games.
Please let me know should you wish to discuss further.
Regards,
Ed
PokerStars Support Team
Thank you for taking time to bring this matter to our attention. As you
know we are well equipped to review reports such as yours. PokerStars
employs a team of poker specialists who's job it is to review suspicious
activity identified internally and to follow up on reports such at yours.
We have all played poker for years and have been trained to recognize the
methods used by poker cheats. With that in mind I have completed my review
of the accounts 'kharouf' & 'kharouf1'
In situations of this nature, we begin by reviewing the accounts of the
players involved to determine what, if any, relationship exists between
them. In this instance they are from the same country and account activity
wouldindicate that they know each other. That in itself is not a crime
though providing you play against them as you would anyone else.
When checking for collusion we simply replay the tournament with the cards
face up. We look for several things which include, but are not limited to:
1. Squeeze play - the players reraise each other in an effort to drive
a third from the pot.
2. Pot building - the players put in small bets that entice others to
call when one of them makes a big hand, in the hope of building a larger
pot, and perhaps commit a player.
3. Stack balancing - the player with the larger stack purposely loses
to the smaller stack to ensure both players remain in the game.
4. Softplay - this is where one player who holds a really strong hand
decides not to bet his hand against another. It is very similar to (3)
stack balancing, and many stack balances are also softplays.
(1) and (2) above usually requires the sharing of hole card information
externally to the game, however for (3) and (4), if two players just
happen to have a policy of not clashing against one another, then they do
not necessarily need to have any knowledge of one another's cards.
Despite the fact that you reported them for collusion in a Sit and Go I
looked into their ring game play together and noted that they have not
crossed paths this month. this is also the 1st SnG they have played
together in the last month. Please bear in mind that players colluding
will have higher than average play rates.
To be honest there was very little to go on in this tournament as they
were both outvery early. I will say however that a review of these players
has been done a few months ago and there was nothing found to indicate any
sort of collusion. Based on that and the lack of evidence here I can only
state that there was nothing suspicious found. I have however placed a
note in both accounts of this investigation for future reference.
As you can see, we have a lot of tools at our disposal which help us keep
our games honest and fair. In addition, the thousands of honest, vigilant
players who point out situations that merit investigation - which are an
important part of our arsenal. Thank you for doing your part to protect
the integrity of our games.
Please let me know should you wish to discuss further.
Regards,
Ed
PokerStars Support Team
