Collusion at Absolute Poker

Yesterday I decided to kill some time in the afternoon by playing in one of the gigantic freerolls on Absolute. These things are insane - people will literally move all-in on the first hand with something like Q-T, hoping to double up or go sign up for the next one. I managed to get up around 6K before I was moved to a table with two Russian players who were passing each other information through the chat window. I know they were passing info - and not talking about pierogies and snow, as Worm would say - because I took the time to look up some of the words they were using. Funny how using words like "queen" and "ace" can make others think you're cheating.

Anyhow, I sent an email to Absolute's poker room manager about the collusion. I got this response back:

Hi Jason,
Thanks for bringing this matter to my attention. We do have an "english only at the table" rule, and this is also included in the rules listed on our web site. I will look at the chat of these players to confirm if they were simply exchanging pleasantries or communicating information about their cards. If they were merely exchanging in chat unrelated to their cards, I will likely only give them a warning and inform that future violations will result in a loss of chat privileges. If they are telling each other about their cards or engaging in any form of cheating further actions, up to and including closure of their accounts, will be taken.
Thank you again for reporting this matter to us.

Maybe nothing happens to these guys in the long run, but maybe they get banned for their cheating. All I know is, I felt better for reporting it - a rule is a rule, and it has to be enforced to be effective.

Moral of the story? Don't be afraid to bring anything that resembles cheating to the attention of the poker room manager. It's their job to look into stuff like this, and if you don't bring it up they'll never know what's going on. These guys can't be at every table at once - they need your help to enforce the rules they've enacted for your protection.

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Catching the Antichrist - Saving fish from their chips, one piscoid at a time (catchingtheantichrist - dot- jasonkirk -dot- net)