[DVaut1]

[ QUOTE ]
Pretty much the only difference is that I knew I was taking it up the as$s, because of people doing this, or figured I was, and you didn't.

Not sure what private forum you allude to (I participate in none) but I am friends with a lot of people in the poker world, am trusted by a wide range of them, and don't consider it my place to police their ethics, or their practices.

Every bit of my gut told me this was wrong--and I never did it myself for this reason, or maybe it's because I, personally, am too lazy to confront the hassle of withdrawing money through Party Poker on a fake account--but I was convinced by people who are generally smarter and more adept at poker thinking than I am, that this was acceptable, not really cheating and just part of the new ehtical poker landscape that online ushered in. I'm easily influenced in that way--not to participate in the mayhem, but to accept it as reality.

In any case, I'm not going to be the one to inform on my friends, regardless of what they did or how wrong I may have determined it to be. Everyone has his own ethical boundaries to create and confront, their own morals to establish, and I would feel more disingenuous informing on people who trust me than the cheaters themselves are.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I understand, but I have to imagine that your friends who cheat are not only giving it to you up the ass in the short term (by unfairly using multi-accounts), but they do much to intimidate fishes like me who now question the integrity of the games they WERE gleefully pouring their money into (and which you, as one of the very skilled players, was reaping the benefits from).

Does ZJ and JJ being outed for multi-accounting mean doom and gloom for online poker? Probably not. But I suspect that continued cheating like this (if it continues) could eventually be a threat to your profession. It sounds like the allegiance you’re granting to your unethical peers by remaining silent could eventually cost much – and I can’t imagine it’s worth the price. I have absolutely no serious empirical evidence, and am relying very much on anecdotal evidence, but I think fear (that is, fear of being cheated) keeps many would-be players aware from the tables, especially online, where paranoia and innuendo already runs rampant.

But I have friends and family, and like you said, breaking their trust by outing them as cheaters is exceedingly difficult, and I wouldn't seriously expect many to do it. But I think it's probably the wrong decision in the end, borne out of our own fears of being black-listed among those whose opinions we value. So I hope this doesn't come off as grandstanding, because I assume I would behave exactly as you have if I were in a similar situation.