Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Cheating. People Do it. Let's talk about it


Yes. It is a dirty word but something we have to talk about with our games. There has been dramatic little conversation on some of our Poker games with regards to cheating.  First off,  what is cheating?
Here is the definition on Wikipedia: Cheating:

Cheating is defined as an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating  characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others.

HOW PEOPLE CHEAT
In our poker games,  cheating is most often associated with people creating more than one screen name and playing against themselves or using using another method of conversation (chat, phone, text) to tell a friend what cards they have.  These are things people would do to cheat at our online free poker. 

CAN IT BE STOPPED
Unfortunately,  we do not have an effective method of stopping people from doing this.  Essentially,  once poker is being played remotely there really is no way for us to prevent cheating. 

In fact,  people cheat each other when they are sitting directly across from each other!  How the heck can we stop them when they are spread across the web!

WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Well,  we have a lot of tools in our game that can ensure you won't be gamed online.  Here are couple of things.

1.  Set up a private table.  From the rooms lobby you can set up a room and play privately. Only you and the people you trust will be in the room with you playing.  People can still cheat! But at least they won't be strangers.

2.  Tournaments.  Playing in tournaments prevents their from being more than one member name.  How you ask?  Well,  people arerandomly placed in a tournament table.  It is much more difficult to make sure your fake screen names are in the rooms together.

3.  Report people.  There is a help button inside of the poker game page and their is an email link on the Poker play page.  Please contact our help team with real data.  Not,  I THINK they are cheating but....real stuff.  Hearsay is very difficult to prosecute on. 

There may be more.  I would love to hear everyones ideas on how we can prevent cheating and what would you do if you were in AOL, Masque's position.  It is not easy to stop....BELIEVE ME!

47 comments:

Anonymous said...

Comment from sobenddreamwvr
12/5/07 8:13 PM | Permalink
Hello I am also SoBendRogue which I was using your bulletin board to drive cheaters into the open.I appreciate the cleaning up of the postings even my own.I Have no concrete proof of certain people cheating.I have only my observances.Although I cannot prove they are cheating and using 2 or 3 SNs at the same time I do know they are.This is why I haven't yet named names.It isn't an easy thing to prove what with AOL SN security.The only suggestion I can make is to have your MPs go to the tables of suspected ones and see what they can ferret out.Otherwise I have no solution to it either.It isnt an easy thing to do even for your MPs.I do appreciate your concern and whatevver effort you have made.But as Icourtine has said it is nearly hopeless weeding them out. So thank you for your considerations and please continue to keep our posting area clean of the gossipers and name callers.Thank You ,Johnnie
Hide Recent | Add your own

Anonymous said...

Here is my suggestion to Masque in stopping the players who use 2 screen names at a table and unfortunately sometimes 3 sn's. Since Masque does have access to all screen names, when it receives a report of the TWO NAMES IN ROOM suspected of belonging to same person, the logical action would be for Masque to privately CHECK those sn's to decipher if they indeed belong to same person. This seems so clear and obvious and quite frankly I am surprised it has not been done yet. Masque alone CAN 100% verify they belong to same individual and any action they decide to take will be extremely appreciated as this gameing the game has been ongoing for far too long and those using this cheat method seriously need to be finally prevented from doing so. Having an MP present at a table is futile because I doubt cheaters would be foolish enough to use the 2sn cheat right in front of an MP. I thank you and again many appreciate this journal to rid game of unfair play.

Anonymous said...

A follow up on my last comment. To put it more succinctly, when a player is SUSPECTED of using 2 screen names at a table...first step> NOTIFY MASQUE IMMEDIATELY. second step>A MASQUE EMPLOYEE SHOULD COME TO THAT TABLE TO OBSERVE FOR THEMSELVES THE 2 SN'S SUSPECTED ARE INDEED PRESENT AND PLAYING AT TABLE. Lastly, I would hope Masque would then check these sn;s to verify they are being used by same person. I see no other solution and it seems a very rational and logical approach IF Masque is truly serious about ending this problem. Thank you for your time.

Anonymous said...

what about the people who courupt the dealer( random generator)

Anonymous said...

Thanks everyone for your comments and support in this.  Like I said,  we will not be able to stop cheating entirely.  The best thing to do is you suspect cheating is walk away from that table, and avoid those players.  You don't have to say anything,  comment or make a hubbub.  People who cheat do it so people know.  Theres no fun in getting over on people unless others know.  It the human condition.  People are boastful.  
As a community we can stop cheaters by ignoring them and walking away.  It will cease to be fun for them!

Anonymous said...

What about people who just sit out for long period of times and win hands by no even plaing them until they are in the bb and they are still sitting out. i have lost many of hands by someone just sitting out and catching cards

Anonymous said...

why not fight fire with fire .

Anonymous said...

LMFAO WHO CARES ITS FAKE CHIPS ON AOL

Anonymous said...

i get dicconnected    with  1 person  n play me    him her   they got 8000 i got 10000 i refresh come  back and no game game over ?
   i come back n less than less than 30 seconds theres no game?

Anonymous said...

and that happened in tour room st marteen where the MPs were

Anonymous said...

Set the program up to limit the number of names on a table with the same IP. Sometimes huby's and wives like to play on the same table on their own pc's so it would be unfair to them but it would stop unfair play to everyone that plays for fun and plays fair.

Anonymous said...

what i consider to be cheating is deliberately trying scam other players , but , playing yourself isn't cheating ....sure , it takes from 1 name (s) , but doesn't playing fairly....all i know is aol tournaments are 1 every three hours and i get to play 1 or 2 a day , so i'll sign up as many names as i feel to try to play for atleast a money finnish , ofcourse 1 name at a table...forgive me if im wrong.

Anonymous said...

tmpadams and tygermcdonald instant message each other and sometimes they even play with the mother who also cheats so if you are in a room with any of them they cheat and harass others beware. one will make a bet and then the other will raise just to get you hooked into their little scheme so watch out....

Anonymous said...

tmpadams and tygermcdonald instant message each other and sometimes they even play with the mother who also cheats so if you are in a room with any of them they cheat and harass others beware. one will make a bet and then the other will raise just to get you hooked into their little scheme so watch out....

Anonymous said...

1st. of all the real cheating going on is the (RNG) which is totally corrupted and easily altered by the right programs, not only that this game is so un-realistic with all these crazy flops and bad beats that continue with set-up flops and ridiculous rivers where you always seem to lose too (usually against crap cards) and for the multiple sn's going around in 1 room is OLD news, people been doing that long time ago with multiple browsers (espesically the tourny) which is a compete joke with in it's self. i love the all in morons that call with nothing, raise with crap and go all in with 2-7 off and suck-out time and time again. then again thats what you get playing with fake chips, pretty comical actually this poker site in general. and last but least PLEASE take down the forum board all your doing is creating more drama which 1/2 of them dont even talk about poker which it is intended for in the first place. please dont upgrade this site anymore i seem to be getting booted out of rooms when i leave or enter and totally knock me out of my server! EXTREMELY ANNOYING, always seem to have problems on here

god bless have fun policing the madness in the poker rooms

Anonymous said...

What kind of a low-life would cheat at free poker? You have to be pretty pathetic...

Anonymous said...

The computerized players always get the best hands. They will get enough to win or if they have 0 dollars, they will win. Talk about more than 2 players in the same room cheating, this is comical as they raise the humans right and left, but if you fold, they just check each other. The hands are set up so you cannot get ahead, as limits are set for each table. This concern has been raised, and I heard of chips being taken from players who voice their comments on the issue. I have won hands where my total should have incresed by so much, but it would be short. Watch your totals !!! I agree with the idea of eliminating the comments during games, it's more of a gossip fest and column for deragatory remarks, than poker related chat. Most of these people play 24/7 and have no social life, but believe this forum makes them popular because they have accumulated some "air" chips. If this was for real money, you wouldn't see half of the players you see now, such as the ones that feel the need to raise every card, every hand. The powers that be say there are rules to the games, but there is no control over human greed, abuse, or the fact that the game "owners" are watching every play you make, so as to stroke their ego with the power of control.

Anonymous said...

I HAVE HEARD THAT THERE IS A COMPUTER CHEAT PROGRAM. THERE WERE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT SELLING IT TO EACH OTHER.

WHY WOULD YOU CHEAT AT FREE POKER????-----MAYBE THEY ARE PRACTICING TO PLAY WITH A CHEAT PROGRAM, AT A REAL MONEY GAME ONLINE.

WHEN I SEE SOMEONE WINNING EVERY HAND , WITH THE MOST RIDICULOUS OF CARDS, I LEAVE THE TABLE. I NOW ASSUME CHEAT PROGRAM.

WINNING THAT MANY HANDS IN A ROW IS A MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

BEWARE PEOPLE----

STEER CLEAR OF THE PEOPLE WINNING EVERY HAND.

Anonymous said...

I cant help if  in a tourny  they move screen name (A )to the same table as the other screen name(b) its not intentional ,why cheat at fake chip tournys the game is supposed to be fun!

Anonymous said...

there simply is no cheat program , a mere rumor started by people who are cheating you another way that you have yet to catch onto.this rumor is passed around by people who know better and people who are suspicious who don't know really how the game is played.i would like to see a redisigned wsop community that allows only 1 sign in to the community...like the stars community games allows

Anonymous said...

MrO..sez:
  Look,I know everything about everything! Now that we're clear on that matter let me state these jems. CHEATING...It's called many things,done in many ways,by any kind of person. But there are some facts that go along with this cheating mentallity...And,as Eric Cartman would surely say.."It's wrong,it's wrong,it's just wrong"! Oh,and bad.
  That people spend so much time trying to cheat is such a sad statement upon themselves,their brothers and sisters,even their family history. Not to mention mom and dad! What does it get you? Well,enemies for one. A following of people that do not like you at all. Quality players that refuse to play with you. And self-pride? Cheaters have none! Cheaters are just losers with to much wasted time on their hands.
  But,as I said,cheating takes many forms. For example,I just quit a WSOP poker game because I became awares that we had three players all in a row that would put just 30 points on the tables and then go allin every hand. This is cheating! They are cheating the rest of us from playing a solid game. They are cheating everyone by bringing disgust,pettiness to our tables. I'd hope we'd report these people and that the monitors would remove them from play. These 'cheaters' are intentionally ruining the game. The ethics. The skill,and though skill is a minimal average of incidents,each game still holds within it's play a certain degree of skill. Anyone that doesn't understand this concept ought not be on the tables. Cripes,play checkers with yourselves,or solitaire,then you harm only yourselves. People hold dreams and cheaters destroy them. Player's,you have got to take the minute or two it requires to report any type of cheating. Only then will being a winner be a positive,a positive for us all.  Hav-a-Hapi..MrO!
 

Anonymous said...

Reader's: It's me,again. MrO..sez:
  Clearly the number of responses on the positives of playing a fair game tell everybody we do care. That's so very important. For if we fight back,if we take a stand and demand actions from the powers that be eventually they must react. Look. As players complain,then leave the site due to inaction of the powers,they see they must respond and start placing controls on cheaters. Even to the point of removing them from play permanently.
  I speak with some authority,for as a 'Lover of the Games",I also demand fairness in playing. That the cost,or bets,be for free,or for a penny,upto a WSOP(which is why I don't understand the idea these games are free). What's free about a $5,000 WSOP seat? Play the games as for real and you'll get far more enjoyment,you'll learn more too. Anyways,as to my bringing some experience as to how cheaters are stopped,I,under an alias,do monitor some game sites. I watch for cheating,for signs of IM'ing between player's,vulgarity,racists comments,etc. I then report these players and give recommendation on penalty. Anything from a player being blocked for the day,to being suspended for upto a week,or more,depending on the actions. And yes,time to time I file for permanent removal of the players name/s,and addresses. I get paid $50-$100 per month. I make no 'friendships',and cannot collect on large prizes that I might win during play. Just as with anything else cheaters have 'tells'. And when they do,I tell. If AOL should wish to make use of my services as other sites do,we'll clean up the games slowly but surely. Hav-a-Hapi..MrO!

Anonymous said...

run a search on no rules poker 4 gods sake  39.95    60% of these players use it   only aol can fix this and should 4 money we all pay them free my butt!

Anonymous said...

I love to play and have to say the games are a little funny some tines, but I love it all and will stay with it.

DR VINNY BOOM BOTTS

Anonymous said...

I was playing in a room with the computerized players. I wrote down every hand to see how much AOL and Wsop had these games rigged to cheat. Out of exactly 50 hands, the "robots" had pocket pairs 29 times. In the same 50 hands the robots had 26 full houses, flushes 14 times, and trips 2 times. That's 42 hands where I couldn't even call. The hands I did win were once with a straight, 4 times with 2 pair, and the rest on bluffs. Aol and Wsop are in the market of cheating with a game meant for fun. Their game upgrade is stacked in favor of the robots and limits are preset on what you will get and how much you win. A former gaming programmer for these people has admiited in a blog about the way the robots signal each other to fold or raise (flashes on screen, he said), and he went on to say that these robots are aware of YOUR HOLE CARDS !!! That's why they'll fold when your hand is good. They are playing to bully people with raising because they have nothing to lose. We don't have anything to really lose either, except the enjoyment of poker when it is taken away by a program set against you winning. Aol and Wsop are in this for the pleasure of control and greed. Funny, they're greedy about winning fake chips and not worried about their giving decent service as an Internet provider. Aol and Wsop probably would cheat children of their school lunch money if the opportunity were there.

Anonymous said...

Confirmed since I last played on the 8th, that AOL and WSOP have rigged their games. They are preset to cheat in the robots favor. Again, one of the robots had 2 ace of clubs in the hole. They not only cheat with the best possible hands, they have duplicated cards for their "boy toys" to win. The hand turns over so quickly, they think it won't be seen, but the robot made a mistake and turned its cards over before the bettting was finished !! It new what it had before the game was done, an automatic winner preset by the strategists at AOL and Wsop. These robots also have been caught betting out of turn, backing up, then checking !! This makes no sense, even for a game designed to cheat for fake chips. Once again AOL proves it is not a good service provider.

Anonymous said...

mr o u r poor joke

Anonymous said...

Why is most of this blog dedicated to informing on people who use cheating programs or run 2 computers, or use telephones to communicate with others playing. Why isn't there much discussion about how AOL and WSOP have rigged these games to the computers advantage. I see comments about duplicate cards, full houses getting beat by lesser hands, winning pots being reduced, etc., all for the computerized players benefit,  but AOL and WSOP do nothing to rectify the obvious cheating they have installed in their poker program. These supposed game upgrades they install are only to better the "robots" odds, as you see with pocket pairs, river hits, always a kicker 1 card higher than yours, and the alternating check & raise between the robots. AOL and WSOP should stop advertising these games are for fun and be up front about their intent, and that is to CHEAT everybody, everytime, every game !!!

          Sincerely,
                         Dick Cheney

Anonymous said...

ok people..so what if the computer is set up to win!leave the table,find some table with out the robots in it. have fun,bet hard, out bluff the others ,and bet even more when you got them beat.like it or not cheaters will always get away with calling up friends and telling there hands to eachother,but if you got skill,and dont make the mistakes that most do then you should win or get out in front.i win all the time know when to bet when to fold and when others have nothing,(most of the time)and you would assume that i was cheating if i beat you all the time to right.have you guys ever watched the poker pros play and it always seems like a few of them always come out on top or in the last few,thats because of skill.same here although the robots are tricky and ive always backed down at the middle roller and high rollers table because they always win but it is unlikey that aol would set this game up for bots to win or for you to lose to someone else for that matter and stop listening to everything that people say in the chat box and have fun

Anonymous said...

wtf , you guys need to learn to fold sometimes. bots win alot ause you try to lose

Anonymous said...

Not sure what u guys are talking about with the bots, but that's where I go when I get low on chips, and that happens quite often, to rebuild my bank.  I usually take 5 to 7 K from them in 5 to 15 minutes.  They are easy to bluff, and are usually bluffing when they bet...just call em.   I can't see where you get that aol is favoring the bots, the bots are my personal bankers...never been turned down for a loan, lol.

Anonymous said...

OK my wife and I play in the same room, we are connected with a wireless router, if so happen we get on the same table, my moniter goes one way and her's the other we don't talk to each other, other than, nice hand, nice play, stuff like that. Don't know if router gives same address, or not , but it would not be fair if just one of us could play on the connection. Just enjoy playing the game, cheating is no fun, and there is no sense in it. Fake chips or not.

Anonymous said...

thanks aol for the stupid avatars , also , cheating is encouraged as the game makes it easier to cheat. no rules poker on aol and has been this way since the game was made.

Anonymous said...

i'm with you Lumb , the avatars stink

Anonymous said...

Cheating.   People talk about it .Let's Do it.

Anonymous said...

AOL & WSOP  encourges you to play by keeping the game interesting by dealing out high valued hands.  More playing, more $$ from sponsors.  

Anonymous said...

1 way ppl cheat is multable screen names,,they lose on 1 then switch to the other witch is in (  ) on another table,,, if names are still in these after they should be auto removed,,,it's not fair to others who have been competeing against others then some1 just shows up in 2nd or 3rd round and still has 1400 or1200 left ..absenties should be removed after 1st round is complete!!! all in favor ???

Anonymous said...

totally impossible for aol or masque to stop cheaters.Cheaters cannot even stop themselves.ScreenName service , Masque and Java make the game virtually impossible to stop multiple names from playing the poker games. I don't think anyone uses IMs or phones to tell their cards . People know how the game works and use their multiple names to accomodate any table set up. Internet Eplorer is one of the easiest browsers to use to sign in multiple names, some use as many as 80 tabs to assign their names to seats in multi table tournaments , and IE7 can accomodate that. Those using AOL software are getting screwed everytime they play , buy the software and the cheaters. Putting up this blog on cheating has only opened up new doors to those who would cheat at online games. Naturally , people want to win or atleast play the tournaments for money finnishes , which means most will do whatever it takes to achieve the best results for their names.

Anonymous said...

and to you nicksone1 , you are totally clueless of the game.sorry.

Anonymous said...

I love the this game and may be an amature but I haven't noticed anyone winning multible hands or the same two people winning. Keep up the free games, I love it!

Anonymous said...

I for one love playing in the AOL WSOP rooms.  But, here is what I have discovered is happening.  When u go into the tournament rooms and start a new tournament in "public"... 99% of the time many people show up at once.  Then, EVERYTIME, they will go "all in" on the first hand.  One of them wins and "poof" they have 8K to 10K of chips in their chip stack.  To me, going "all in" with a 3 of spades and a 2 of hearts was kinda suspicious.  Don't u think?  It happens EVERYTIME.........

Anonymous said...

I have been told many times now that some student at Long Beach State developed cheat software.  I was playing a guy about 6 months ago and he offered to sell it to me.  He wanted 50 bucks.  The guy said it shows everyones cards face up and was able to tell me my cards at least 6 times in a row.

Anonymous said...

run search on no rules poker fools  this same joke as pool or spades   probably aol selling no rules poker haha
joke u peeps r  mr o being worst

Anonymous said...

only way aol can stop them is to make the games star enabled then they wont be able to cheat people

Anonymous said...

why on wsop you see more flushes more straights more fullhouses as any place ive played the river determans the winner 85% of the time please take it out of arcade mode please ty tom

Anonymous said...

I played in a one player room versus robots, and I noticed that robots will fold most every time you raise.  I played with four robots and had over 6000 at the end, while the robot had less than 300.  Is it just the middle and high stakes tables where the robots are unlikely to beat?

Anonymous said...

If you cheat at free poker you are a real loser!  What are you trying to prove and why? A real poker player does'nt need to cheat to get a seat at WSOP!!!