Collusion
Collusion is a process in which more than one, usually two, players know the cards of each other and trying to impose bad odds to the rest of other players. Collusions do happen today at poker rooms, but not as much as people think they do. Also, it is not as bad as what people think it is.
Most of the poker rooms have a process to handle with collusion. Many have software to automatically detect collusion and all will investigate thoroughly if they receive a complaint.
When a poker room receives a complaint, this is what they usually do:
- Temporarily suspend the suspected colluding players, or the whole table, including the complaining player, until the investigation is completed. The investigation can usually takes few days.
- Get the history of the hand
- Analyze the hand play by an expert team who know the game.
It is noted that not all colluding complaints are legitimate because sometimes a player think there was collusion while there was not. In a very loose game, the play of some players can cause others to think of collusion. A full-tilt player will go crazy with any hand.
When a poker room determines that two players are colluding, the following steps are usually taken:
- Player accounts are suspended,
- Money from the player accounts will be forfeited.
- The players are permanently barred from the poker room. The computer ids, hard disk drive id, email addresses, credit card id, etc. may be recorded in the banned lists. If a new player having the information matches any of these, they will not be allowed to register.
Colluding players usually use the following techniques:
1. Their set up:
- Two or more people on the phone, use instant messaging or use video broadcasting of their screens
- One player registering as two or more users. This player then plays on two or more computers side by side at the same time.
2. Their play technique:
- Raise to kick people out: One would bet and the other raises to kick the other players out of the hand. The other player would fold because of a higher amount to call.
- Raise to impose bad odds to other drawing players: putting disadvantages to callers because of bad odds. Good players usually fold because of bad odds.
- Raise for more profit: Sometimes, they keep raising each others to maximize the profit of their hands with another player sandwiched in the middle. Sometimes, they just flat call with the nut to invite more callers.
- Avoid playing themselves: Many times they will just fold with a very strong hand because there are no other players left. This is to avoid paying an increased rake.
In fact, it’s extremely hard to collude. Although colluding players have advantages to others, it requires sophisticated, good odds-calculating techniques to make profit. Among two colluding players, usually one has a legitimate hand and the other does not. Also, many cases they may inadvertently impose bad odds to their partner. Therefore, they may win one but can lose twice as much in a hand because they are playing two-handed.
I’ve heard of stories of a player playing on two computers side by side and after few weeks he went broke. In this case, playing 2-handed poker becomes 2 handed blackjack. I believe that it’s easier to learn how to play good poker than learning how to collude.
How to avoid collusion:
- Play at a full table rather than short table,
- Play at a table with a reasonable average pot size. If a table having a way too high average pot size, it means one of two things: there is a collusion on-going, or there a full tilt players at the table and it is a good game.
- Move to another table if you think there is a collusion going on.
Most poker sites have taken measure to ensure the integrity of the games. These include:
- Detect players’ play patterns such as always sitting together at the same table. This technique works well for crowded poker sites with many table choices, but it does not work with the sparse ones. Two regular players will play together most of the times at a $5/$10 table if this is the only the $5/$10 table available.
- Detect folding strong hands. This works when a colluding player folds the nut or almost the nut. If the players check all the way to show-down, or one bets one folds then this technique is not as effective. In addition, disconnections can cause a strong hand to fold.
- Detect same IP address: If two players sitting at the same table have the same IP address, the software will not allow the second player to sit-in. This prevents one player from using two computers in his/her home network. This technique works only if the two computers are using the same ISP (Internet Service Provider) and are in the same home network. However, if the 2 computers are connecting using different ISPs or one is high-speed and one is dial-up, the software will not be able to detect this collusion.
As you can see, the above are good tools, but not enough to eliminate collusion. Honestly, I can tell you that like in real life, there are always cheaters who are trying to get ahead of others by illegal means. There will always be collusions in online poker. Nonetheless, it is happening much lesser than you would think in online poker than in any other money games.
There are regular poker players out there trying to find colluding tables to play. You may be laughing at me when reading this. But this is the fact. These players know that they can make good profits at these tables. They usually identify the colluding players when sitting down at a table and play it on them. In Vietnamese, it’s called “gay ong dap lung ong”. You use their cane to beat them. It should be noted that you should only play with premium hands against colluding players and you don’t chase with under pair, over cards, or gut shot straight against them. Just drop your cards and surrender peacefully.
