Poker Coaching and Other Ethical Grey Areas (for BillytheKidd)

[Your Mom]

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YM,

I don't think there's anything wrong with your position. I personally just feel that it is unethical if someone asks me a question "Hey, are you El Diablo?" and then I say "No, I am not." I don't think I have any obligation to answer the question, though. I really have no problem with your position, though.

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Fair enough.

[NajdorfDefense]

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I guess I dont see why you cant tell El D your cards and have him make the decision for you. There is not a one player to a hand rule online.

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This is exactly what I was going to say. There are rules that exist in B&M that players seem to assume exist online. One of these is the 1-player-to-a-hand rule. Another is the idea of computer assistance. (Ranging from weak stuff like odds calculators to PokerTracker up to very controversial things like PokerEdge.)

My definition of an 'ethical' game is one in which the rules are clearly stated, enforced, and symmetric between players. If you get to talk to ElD during a hand, you'll have an advantage over me. But if you got to talk to him before the hand, that's an advantage too; we're not disallowing advantages, just "unfair" advantages.
-Sam

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I feel like people are confusing 'rules' and 'ethics' again. A lot of stuff in this thread is unethical. Just because there are no laws/rules against it yet doesn't make something ethical.

[Emperor]

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Who,

Just saw this thread. I think that fundamentally pretty much all of those things are fine online.

The things you list fall into two categories.

1) One player to a hand. Sites have explicitly said (Stars for sure and at least one other site) that there is no one player to a hand rule online. When you play against an online opponent, that may be one person or ten person gathered around a computer.

2) Misrepresenting who the online id represents. So, you are some unknown name and a top pro is playing the account. Or you are a LAG pro and you play on a very tight pros account. I used to consider this unethical. However, over the last couple of years, this has become almost standard practice for many players and sites and players have not really objected to it, thus it has imo become part of the online game. I do, however, consider it unethical to lie if asked. Definitely not against the rules, but if someone says "whoa, how did you know to make that call? Have we played before? Do we know each other?" and you then answer dishonestly, I feel that is unethical.

Obviously, any sort of collusion or information sharing when both players are involved in the game or tournament is a completely different situation.

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I disagree with pt. #2 ElD. I view online as anonymous poker. You can play on whatever acct. you want whenever you want and say or not say who you are or aren't.

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I would consider this unethical and illegal.

In the T&C of most pokersites it forbids sharing your account information with someone else. I would consider playing on someone elses account to be breaking that rule.