Cheating Poll:

[miajag]

When I first started playing online ($25 and $50NL) I would sometimes play at the same tables as friends and we would tell each other our holecards over IM. This was before I knew much about the game or really understood how unfair it was to other players. I only did it a few times, haven't done it in a couple years, and wouldn't even consider it now.

[Gildwulf]

I datamine and use PAHUD every day. If pushing these small edges (and believe me, in the middle/high-limit six-max you need to push every edge you get nowadays), then I am a cheater.

[StellarWind]

[ QUOTE ]
i have always wondered if 2p2 was infested. maybe it is.

[/ QUOTE ]
Of course 2+2 is infested. This isn't a little club anymore. This is the worldwide go-to source for poker information and almost everyone who is anyone in online poker at least visits now and then.

Did you think that cheaters don't need information on poker strategy, poker news, poker sites, and everything else? That they are nonhuman creatures that don't like to socialize and gossip with other players?

Everything that is good, bad, and indifferent about poker shows up here. I'm sure that even many of the fish come to gawk.

However I firmly believe that poker professionals need to act the part. Cheating is wrong and a grave threat to the very existence of the online game. Those who benefit the most from poker have an obligation to be squeaky clean and set an example for the rest to follow.

There is too much of a culture of cheating in poker. Too many people practice it and too many others tolerate those who do. Poker is a fad right now but it won't last that way. One of two things is going to happen:

1. Poker will resume its former status as a barely respectable aspect of society, rocked by scandals of all kinds, distrusted by the public, and persecuted by the legal establishment.

2. Poker will cleanup and become mainstream entertainment, just like bridge and bowling. Poker players will be respected members of society. Politicians will view poker as something to be taxed and regulated rather than destroyed. There will always be cheaters, but they will be perceived as outlaws operating on the margin, just like all other criminals.

It's easy to sneer and say none of this matters, but people are watching us. Congress is watching, local politicians are watching, the press is watching, and most importantly the public is watching. In the end they will judge us. If they perceive that organized poker is a cesspool of cheats and criminals then the public will shun us, adverse legislation will sprout like mushrooms after the rain, and the police will dog us everywhere.

Poker is a fascinating game. All we have to do is clean it up and the people will embrace us. The centrist politicians will follow their lead and start repealing laws instead of making new ones. It's not like the core antigambling minority can actually do anything by itself--legal gambling is a huge and rapidly growing industry in the U.S and elsewhere.

It's your choice folks. Honest poker players are the ones that need poker. The cheaters are just professional criminals who happen to be doing poker this year. They'll just move on to the next scam and leave us with the wreckage.

Either we kill them or they will kill us. Remember that next time your "friend" confides that he is colluding, multiaccounting, using a bot, or otherwise taking advantage of a few suckers. He doesn't love poker and he isn't going to be the one that suffers when 60 Minutes or The Washington Post makes online collusion scandals into a feature story and destroys our reputation forever.

[Leader]

[ QUOTE ]
Friend IM's you while he is playing and asks for advice

[/ QUOTE ]

I laughed hard seeing this. Just because I charge people money to do this for them. Nice to know 6 people (so far) think I'm a rotten cheater. This forum isn't infested with cheaters; it's infested with nits!

[GrannyMae]

poty

[Catt]

Great post.

[SNOWBALL]

One time I was on aim with a girl I knew IRL who was sitting at my FR 2/4 table on UB. I told her what cards I had after the hands were over, or during a hand so she could sweat me if she had already folded. I don't think this is cheating.

[SNOWBALL]

vnh

[Iolaus]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Friend IM's you while he is playing and asks for advice

[/ QUOTE ]

I laughed hard seeing this. Just because I charge people money to do this for them. Nice to know 6 people (so far) think I'm a rotten cheater. This forum isn't infested with cheaters; it's infested with nits!

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm one of the people who voted this is cheating. It violates the "one player to a hand" rule.

Perhaps we're just interpreting the poll question differently. I interpreted this part of the question to mean that the player in question is asking for advice about a hand he is currently involved in.

[Spee]

Ennnn Ohhhhh.