I must disagree with this as there are many members here that use MSN during some games, e.g. during the invasion games, there is always a mass chat going on, on MSN and not once have I seen anything that would slightly resemble cheating and I am sure that if anything like that reared it's ugly head that or those members would be quickly put into their place.
I'm not saying that it dosen't happen by the cheating sites, but I am not that paranoid as to think that it is always happening.
Never said it was 'all or nothing'. There may be many who can be in live chat forms with other players and not cheat. Then there are those who only see it as an undetectable opportunity.
Unless a person happens to be the Sunday Millions winner with a ~$200 buy-in and ROI is HUGE, winnings are often rated in "BB/hour" ... yes? no? ... If you are a good/decent winning player and have a 50BB win rate, what happens when that one player in one hand has a 'partner' (or two) and they AIM, MSN or Skype their way into
JUST ONE 100BB full stack win? Only has to happen once every few hours for you to become a losing player, wondering 'wtf ... must be variance' ....
Of course live poker can be rigged too, but I think nick's point is it is a little easier for you to look out for it and potentially spot cheating when you can actually SEE what's going on around you. On the computer unless you're a hacker or a computer whiz there's really no way to track your opponents and what they are doing at any given time during a hand.
Correct. At least at the tables I can see what is happening. I also know there is an eye in the sky watching as well. Table stakes ... makes chip dumping and collusion a bit more obvious. Online you are at the mercy of all the ills that anonymous humans can devise.
I'll go back again to the PStars stats. Over 200,000 players online. Are they ALL honest poker players? Even if the potential thieves and scammers are just 10% of the players, which of the 20,000 unidentified thieves is sitting at YOUR table? A more realistic figure might be 20%+ that WOULD cheat if they could. If their buddy is online. If the table is right. If .... etc. Which of these 40,000+ cheats is at your table? Add multi-tabling to the equation and the question begs to be asked ... how many TABLES are these 40,000 potential thieves infesting?
Where I first came to realize the potential for this is in the 'password protected' freerolls and private buy-in games. Info is passed quickly and efficiently by chat, e-mail, live sessions, cell, MSN, Skype, AIM, etc. Do these thieves actually stop at password sharing? Of course not. They are blatant thieves without scruples. They WILL take your money any way they can.
I don't consider myself 'paranoid'. But I don't feel I am equipped to protect myself from online theft at
poker sites either. At least in live games, card markers or shady dealers are few and far between. Collusion is always possible, but far more detectable on live tables.
All that I am saying is that there are many players who ridicule the 'rigged' conspiracy theorists while not giving enough credit to the potential for 'pick-pocketing' by your table neighbor. Issues like the one that created this thread are the early discoveries that can eventually ruin
online poker security and safety.
) in response to one of them posting how I screwed them out of being able to play in any more OFCs 
