This is collusion, no?

[terrellk11]

The difference here is that it was vocalized. There are often (when dealing with smart players you can say "always") situations where players will check it down and avoid risking their stacks for no reason. But implicit collusion (a term used by at least one pro for a legitimate tactic) is different from explicit collusion (what happened here).

[TimWillTell]

Stars policy in this is to give the players a warning, making them aware that what they did is not allowed.
Stars will not take away their winnings.
Because Stars not only caters for the pro's but also for the fish!

Lee gave a full explanation in a similar thread about a year ago.

[1p0kerboy]

[ QUOTE ]
Stars policy in this is to give the players a warning, making them aware that what they did is not allowed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope this isn't the case.

We are playing for a very significant prize here, $1050.

If this ends up being 'Stars policy I can see plenty of people eager to use up their "get out of cheating one time card".

I will be sick if PokerStars simply allows this to slide.

I'm not interested in playing at a site where cheating goes unpunished.

I'm especially upset because I feel I had a much better chance on winning the seat if this wouldn't have happened. I did finish at the final table and watched these two protect each other throughout the event.

[jafeather]

PM Lee these HHs with chat directly

[1p0kerboy]

[ QUOTE ]
PM Lee these HHs with chat directly

[/ QUOTE ]

I first wanted to give the proper department time to reach their own conlusions first. They should have plenty of access to the chat logs at the end of the tournament. Hopefully they will reach the proper conclusion, which will be to remove the seats from the players who cheated.

If this doesn't happen then I am planning on reproducing the hand histories in their entirety here. I have no problem 'outing' the players who obviously cheated and stole from the rest of us that contributed to the tournament.

But before I do anything I want to make sure that 'Stars has an opportunity to handle the situation first.

[mbpoker]

Stars past policy, as Lee explained, was either punish or warn the offenders depending on the severity of the offence and the previous history, but in any case promote the players who were harmed. At least that what I recall.

As somebody else posted it's usual in such cases that the offenders are novices who didn't realize it's not allowed (why otheriwse do it in open chat?) and didn't know each other prior to this tournament.

[1p0kerboy]

So beacause they don't know the rules they will be allowed to get away with cheating.

Great policy.

[Canard]

It seems a perfectly logical policy. Why would Stars want to chase away customers who may just have been acting from ignorance?

[1p0kerboy]

Also consider how many chips these two might have accumulated after reaching "an agreement" in the chat box.

In other words, there were probably hands where even though they didn't chat directly they might have helped each other due to their agreement in previous chat.

This whole situation makes me sick. I seriously don't see how I can play tournaments at PokerStars anymore if they just simply allow this.

[1p0kerboy]

[ QUOTE ]
It seems a perfectly logical policy. Why would Stars want to chase away customers who may just have been acting from ignorance?


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not saying close their accounts. But certainly take back the prize that they won from cheating, no?