SNG collusion, rt to privacy, etc

[sheetsworld]

I am sure this has been discussed before....but this is in response to the following email I got from pokerstars...


Hello,

PokerStars has become aware of some players who were working together in our Sit & Go tournaments to the detriment of other players. You were involved in at least one tournament with these players and as a result you may have been adversely affected.

The players' accounts were closed and their funds frozen pending a thorough investigation, which is now complete. In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders' winnings or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible. To confirm your credit, log onto your PokerStars account, go to the 'Cashier' screen and click the 'History' button. Your share will be shown "Credit Purchase", followed by the amount of the credit.

I regret that we will be unable to answer questions as to how your specific credit amount was calculated. Likewise, we are not at liberty to identify the specific games or players in question. Suffice to say that they have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.

The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to us and we will not abide cheating or collusion in our games. We work hard to police our games and prevent such instances. In the rare cases where collusion has actually occurred, we make sure that any players affected are compensated appropriately.

Thank you for your continued play here on PokerStars. Please do not hesitate to let us know any time we can be of help.



Best Regards,

SteveW

PokerStars Support Team


I still cannot imagine why they could not disclose the players names. When zeejustin and jjprodigy were banned from the sites, their names were identified in emails by Pokerstars for the whole world to see. It is not as if they need to release their REAL names, so to me there is no right to privacy issue or safety issue here.

As a matter of game analysis, I would like to know who they were just so I can reevaluate my hand play against them in this light.


sheets

[BradleyT]

How much did you get? That should give some indication if they were regulars in your game or not.

[aditya]

[ QUOTE ]
In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders' winnings or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

They distribute the account balances of the people? That seems ridiculous as for the 1k's, you most likely need 50k to play, so that surely cannot be right. Also, when caught, do they lose these funds or do they let them withdraw and then ban their account. How much did you get for that sheets?

Also, I would think it would be pretty obvious who has committed the collusion as there are a LOT of regulars at the 1k, hence making it very easy to identify who the colluders were.

[TheNoodleMan]

Interesting. How many other people got the same email? It seems like the number of people who got this email and the amount of money they received would be solid indicators of how long this was going on.

[Newt_Buggs]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders' winnings or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

They distribute the account balances of the people? That seems ridiculous as for the 1k's, you most likely need 50k to play, so that surely cannot be right. Also, when caught, do they lose these funds or do they let them withdraw and then ban their account. How much did you get for that sheets?

Also, I would think it would be pretty obvious who has committed the collusion as there are a LOT of regulars at the 1k, hence making it very easy to identify who the colluders were.

[/ QUOTE ]
I would guess that most cheaters, and even many non cheaters don't keep $50k in their account.

[sheetsworld]

I got $120....and fyi other players who played lower levels got refunds too, though it is unclear that it is due to the same people...apparently the collusion, at least as it relates to my email, comes from the 225s.

sheets

[pokerplayer13]

Hi sheets. Thank you very much for posting this. I am stuck around 30000 dollars in the 1000's, and this interests me. I looked at my emails and cashier but no refunds. I think if a few of the regulars dont show up anymore, they could be the culprits. I will keep track of what regulars dont show up for a few days. Thanks again for the post sheets. If pokerstars wont give up the names, i will try by process of elimination.

[recondite7]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi sheets. Thank you very much for posting this. I am stuck around 30000 dollars in the 1000's, and this interests me. I looked at my emails and cashier but no refunds. I think if a few of the regulars dont show up anymore, they could be the culprits. I will keep track of what regulars dont show up for a few days. Thanks again for the post sheets. If pokerstars wont give up the names, i will try by process of elimination.

[/ QUOTE ]


There is a fatal flaw in this logic. If a regular player has stopped playing these games than it is not necessary that they are the culprit. This process can only prove who is not the cheater and although it might seem fishy that certain players aren't showing up anymore, this process can not lead to a certain answer.

All that being said, if a person who used to play 8 sngs at a time 8 hours a day has just stopped playing any games on pokerstars there is a very good reason to be suspicious of him or her.

[bones]

Hopefully it's these two.

[suzzer99]

Hassan was still playing as of a few hours ago. What blows my mind is if those two really were colluding, why would they be so blatant about it in chat? Seems like they're just idiots.