Cheating and Collusion at Online Poker Rooms
Poker is a highly competitive game where the winners stand to win large amounts of cash for beating their opponents. Online poker is no different. As such, player cheating is an issue. Some players will do anything to gain an edge and increase their chances of winning, even if it means resorting to cheating. The relative anonymity of Internet poker facilitates this.
The good news is that online poker rooms are aware of player cheating and the tricky schemes people invent. Here’s a rundown of some common methods online poker cheats employ and how online poker rooms have responded to them.
All-in Abuse
This method of cheating is by abusing a feature called “all-in protection” or “disconnect protection,” designed to help online poker players. It works as such – when a poker player times out or disconnects from an online poker room (a rather common occurrence, given the fickle nature of many internet connections), any money the player has invested in the pot will be protected. When the player logs back in, they’ll be entitled to receive the money they invested since it wasn’t their fault that they were disconnected. If the disconnected poker player wins, he wins the part of the pot he bet on, and the player with the next best hand wins any side pots after the disconnect.
Some poker players try to exploit this feature. They intentionally disconnect their internet connection when they’re afraid to make a poker decision to hold onto their invested money instead of folding and losing it. This is a clear-cut example of cheating, and online poker rooms are well aware of this exploit and have responded. This type of cheating is nowhere near as much of a problem as it was in the past.
At the time, virtually all online poker sites had a “disconnect protection” feature. Many online poker rooms have completely stopped offering disconnect protection. Full Tilt and Poker Stars will give players adequate time to reconnect should there be a legitimate disconnection problem. But if they fail to return to the action within the allocated time, their hand is folded if further betting actions occur. This eliminates the all-in abuse cheats from these online poker rooms.
Other online poker sites that still offer disconnect protection nearly always have more tables that don’t provide it. These are listed as “no all-in” or “no DP (disconnect protection)” tables, which turn off the disconnect protection feature for players who are concerned about the exploit. If you ever notice what you deem to be all-in abuse at your online card room, contact support staff immediately.
In addition, all poker rooms prevent this cheating by monitoring disconnects. Online poker players suspected of this type of abuse will have their accounts banned, and players who are victims of this cheating are often eligible for monetary compensation.
Collusion
Collusion is defined as two players covertly working together to increase one player’s chances of winning. To understand this, imagine two or more friends logged into the same online poker room, playing at the same table. They share information about their cards to understand what isn’t remaining in the deck. Worse still, they work together to increase the pot size or to squeeze other players out of hand. Presumably, they’ll share their profits when the game is over.
Collusion is often difficult to spot because it’s often hard to tell if players are working together or simply making decisions on their own based on their poker strategies. A player folding AQ before the flop might be doing it because his friend has AK, or he might be a very tight player who is only willing to pursue absolute premium hands.
Player cheating of this nature is easier to detect than you might think. Online poker sites have a complete hand history database for all their poker players. They know if certain players have a history of playing on the same tables. Their databases are automatically scanned with complex algorithms searching for signs of cooperation. When something fishy is spotted, the staff will manually review the action.
Online poker rooms take multiple steps against collusion, except on rare occasions; it is not an issue when playing online poker. Online poker rooms take reports of suspected collusion very seriously. Poker Stars is considered one of the best sites for thoroughly reviewing these situations. Regardless of which online poker room you play at, contact customer service immediately if you suspect player cheating, including conspiracy, at your table.
Multi-Accounting
It is against the terms of most online poker rooms to sign up under more than one player account. However, this doesn’t stop people from doing so – and in many ways, the online poker rooms only have themselves to blame for this. Most cases where players have created additional accounts are usually because they weren’t receiving rakeback on their existing account and, therefore, paying more than other players. But there’s a big difference between creating a new player account and the true definition of multi-accounting, which can be a form of collaboration.
Multi-accounting is when an online poker player plays under more than one account simultaneously on the same site. Players might enter an online poker tournament under several different versions to increase their chances of cashing. In some rare cases, they could end up on the same table, which would be a huge advantage (see collusion above) and unfair to the other players. The good news is that this form of cheating is fairly easy for online poker rooms to spot, and players who attempt to cheat in this way will face serious consequences.
Online Poker Bots
Poker bots are software programs designed to analyze a poker game, particularly starting hands and community cards, and make decisions for the player. A poker bot can be set up to play poker for real money while the player sleeps, goes to work, or generally doesn’t pay attention to the game himself. The simple fact is that online poker sites disapprove of bots, and you should consider them a form of player cheating.
Poker bots are not as big of a problem as some angry poker forum posters (that may have been beaten fairly) would like people to believe and get far more attention than they deserve. In the rare event that a poker bot has been identified in the past, it is quite an unsuccessful technique. Bot algorithms are no match for even the amateur poker player, and sites found guilty of using poker bots (however ineffective they may be) have always failed or been forced out of the online poker market.
Conclusion
There’s no denying that cheating occurs. It happens in live poker games, and it happens in online poker games. There will always be cheaters trying to scam people when there’s money involved. But it isn’t nearly as bad as you might think. Online poker rooms know dishonest players will try and cheat given the opportunity, and they put a lot of time and resources into making the games fair. If you suspect foul play at an online card room, cash out and take your money elsewhere.
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