Poker Collusion

Poker Collusion occurs when two or more partners decide to sit at one table and cheat the other unsuspecting players at that table. This is basically playing differently against one or more players than you do against others at the table. Most common forms of collusion are soft play, that is, failing to bet or raise in a situation that would normally merit it because of your opponent; whipsawing, where partners at opposite ends of the table raise and re raise each other to trap players in between; and dumping, or deliberately losing to your partner.

The two or more partners trading information is probably the most serious example of such cheating, but all of these are considered bad play and should not be tolerated at any poker game. Traditionally, players sitting at a poker table had a better chance of catching the people committing collusion or any other form of cheating. With the popularity of online poker, the players have to rely on the online poker providers to monitor and protect the fairness of online poker. An online player has no idea about who the other players are in a Poker Room that he/she is playing in.

Collusion in online poker is relatively easy and much more difficult to spot if executed well. The main reason is that the cheaters can engage in instant messaging discussing their cards with no one looking at them. Sometimes the same person can be using two or more computers and playing under different aliases. This gives him an advantage that's difficult to work against. However many poker rooms have imposed a maximum of one account per household, though a determined cheater can still bypass this by using multiple connections thus having different IP addresses. However, online poker sites keep records of every hand played, and collusion can often be detected by finding the appropriate pattern. Many sites also offer heads-up games, where collusion is not useful.

Is it possible that 2 or 3 of those players are sitting in one room somewhere on 2 or 3 different computers literally stealing from other players? The answer is yes, they might try to do that, but this is where the Anti-Collusion policies of leading Online Poker Sites come in to play. For example, PokerRoom.com sends each player's cards exclusively to that particular player's computer. The cards can not be viewed from anywhere else. All game activities are logged and saved in PokerRoom.com's database as well. The Players are asked to do their part as well. If they suspect that Collusion is occurring, they can simply send an email to the support or fraud department of their respective Online Poker Site and help to stop the practice of Collusion.

Party Poker has a three (3) step approach to deal with cheaters:

(i) identification & detection;

(ii) warning/suspending offending users; and

(iii) additional measures through enlarged customer choice.

In friendly games it is common to be playing against someone you know well. Perhaps your spouse may be playing at the game with the rest of your friends. Suddenly your luck turns for the worse. Subconsciously, you are less willing to take the money of the people you know or love. Perhaps one fellow has been getting bad hands all evening, and you know he has car payments to make, and this changes the game being played. The best advice is to leave friendship outside the poker game. Especially in tournament poker, soft-playing a friend is cheating all of the other players out of their chance to see you bust your friend, getting them closer to the prize money.

For this reason, there are laws in some U.S. states saying that a husband and wife cannot play poker at the same table. Perhaps the easiest way to exploit such a situation is to agree to split the profits (after all, couples often have shared bank accounts). Even without any explicit collusion during the game, this reduces the variance of the team as a whole.

It should come as no surprise that two people sharing information about their hands enjoy a great advantage over the other players. If you do not believe this, deal out a few poker hands, but deal yourself two. The idea is that these players signal one another and only play the better of the two hands. Signals can take many forms, from the placement of the chips on the cards to morse code tapping on the table. The key ingredient in all signaling systems is the ability to be repeated unobtrusively. In order for this advantage to make money it has to be done many times without someone realizing it. In a game where people (hopefully) are always watching each other, this can prove problematic. When a cheat is signaling the value of his hand to his partner, he is also signaling the value of his hand to everyone at the table. The result of a system of signals being figured out is nothing short of financial disaster. Some games are more susceptible to this kind of cheating than others: in Five-card stud and Lowball, for example, signaling the rank of just one card can give another player sufficient information to make many otherwise difficult decisions.