[rothko]

ucla, where many people go wrong is in making a disadvantage into a question of ethics. simply because a person may have an edge on you doesn't make it wrong. this is what is happening now with online poker.

the rules define what is right, not any one person's opinion as to what seems proper. if team play is allowed online it is not wrong. it may feel wrong, but that is a conditioned response not one based in logic.

consider the game of baseball. oftentimes the manager will switch pitchers to match up with a certain batter. the pitcher might be particularly good against one batter and may come to the mound for only that one batter. after the strike out, the pitcher returns to the sidelines and the pitcher that is better overall resumes playing. likewise a batter that is particularly good in certain situations, but isn't in the regular rotation might be brought in. runners that excel at stealing bases can be subbed in. balls can be thrown to intentionally walk a superior batter, etc. perhaps of greatest import to the current conversation is the example of the relief pitcher: the one that is a specialist in closing. nobody considers these things to be unethical, because they are explicitly allowed in the rules of the game. however, if you actually sit back and think about it you might be tempted to say that they are unfair. shouldn't the pitcher that started the game finish it? how can they bring in so and so with a fresh arm who is absolutely deadly at finishing? it's not fair. see the similarities?

there will be things that don't seem to make sense. behaviour x will be allowed, but behaviour x.1 won't be even though they are essentially the same thing. this goes for anything in life. whenever there is a line drawn there are things that may be holding hands, but are separated by that line. it is up to each of us to respect that line, regardless.

when jeff bought that seat late in the sunday million what he did was not wrong, because it was allowed by the rules of the site. however, the rules have since been changed and so it would be cheating to do it now.

if stealthmunk buys a bunch of people into a tournament and then coaches the one that goes deep it gives him a much better chance to win the tournament and most importantly, from our standpoint, to do better than us. it is this last point that makes us want to say, "hey, that's unfair!" however, if it is sanctioned by the site it is not wrong. yes, it sucks for us, but it doesn't make stealthmunk a bad guy. if the rules do forbid the behaviour then it would indeed be unethical of stealthmunk to do this.

it is the rules that define the "morality" of the game.