Collusion in poker tournaments

sleepers332 · Apr 19, 2025

Hi all just want to see where u would stand on collision and soft play in poker tournaments? I’ve just played a final table and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life from 3 players , chip dumping checking back the nuts on multiple occasions and soft play between all 3 , I’ve played poker along time and honestly have never seen anything like what has just happened & it genuinely made me feel ill bye the end of it ,
I have saved several of the hands that occurred on the final table and wondering is there any point in reporting it or is it just a waste of time with emails back and forth?

puzzlefish · Apr 19, 2025

Depends where you played. I know some sites are quite active about preventing collusion (as opposed to collision).

Rost · Apr 19, 2025

Different situations can be interpreted differently. The reasons why certain players played the way they did can also be different. But if you have any suspicions, you can certainly contact support or the security team about this.

belizebum · Apr 19, 2025

If you have the screenshots, send them off to the appropriate people with your concerns and leave it at that. If they respond then it will be up to you to continue further. If you have evidence, I would put some effort into..never know what could happen.

sleepers332 · Apr 20, 2025

puzzlefish said:
Depends where you played. I know some sites are quite active about preventing collusion (as opposed to collision).

Apologies about my spelling It isn’t my strong point at times

sleepers332 · Apr 20, 2025

Rost said:
Different situations can be interpreted differently. The reasons why certain players played the way they did can also be different. But if you have any suspicions, you can certainly contact support or the security team about this.

I do think I no what u mean about playing certain ways but it was a pko tournament where u seeing people chase gut shots and basically go all in on most nut draws that they are live to , but instead one had in where one of the eledged 3 lost a massive all in cases a bounty and only left with 4.5 blinds the next had both of other players min raised his big blind to both calling then to bet one big blind on the flop and and then to check the turn to him on the with only .9 of a blind left and to fold to his shove this happened twice also to the other player who became short stacked to chasing a bounty any ways I’ve slept on it a little and after todays session I’m going reporting it , and will post if I get any feed back from support but truthfully support on this site is difficult at best to deal with but who nows

thedarkman · Apr 20, 2025

sleepers332 said:
Hi all just want to see where u would stand on collision and soft play in poker tournaments? I’ve just played a final table and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life from 3 players , chip dumping checking back the nuts on multiple occasions and soft play between all 3 , I’ve played poker along time and honestly have never seen anything like what has just happened & it genuinely made me feel ill bye the end of it ,
I have saved several of the hands that occurred on the final table and wondering is there any point in reporting it or is it just a waste of time with emails back and forth?

What stakes were you playing? I know this sort of thing can happen in high stakes cash games but there are two objections to tournaments, the big one is that if you have a couple of hundred or even a couple of dozen players, how do the conspirators conspire?

fundiver199 · Apr 20, 2025

thedarkman said:
What stakes were you playing? I know this sort of thing can happen in high stakes cash games but there are two objections to tournaments, the big one is that if you have a couple of hundred or even a couple of dozen players, how do the conspirators conspire?

This is a good point. It would be quite a coincidence for 3 buddies to end up on the final table, if the field was just somewhat significant. And therefore collusion is more of a concern in single table SnGs than MTTs. Unless maybe it was a high roller game, where most of the regulars know each other and might have a deal to collude against unknown recreational players. Or maybe they are from the same stable or even bots programmed to collude.

On the other end if this was a freeroll or microstakes game, then many players are just bad, and their bad play can sometimes look like collusion, when for instance they fail to identify spots, where they are supposed to jam any two from SB and choose to give a short stacked BB a walk. Repeatedly checking back the nuts is definitely a red flag though, and in many live tournaments it will result in a penalty.

hardongear · Apr 20, 2025

Depends on site if it's worth reporting.

Also if it was micro/low stakes nah likely not chip dumping. Likely just shitty players playing shitty.

The higher the stakes the more likely it was chip dumping as all the higher stakes guys know each other, may have pieces of each other or maybe agree to soft play against each other when recs or unknown players are involved or reach the final table.

You maybe also got unlucky and 2 guys from the same stable managed to reach the final table and were on Discord together sharing cards and info.

Personally I have 20+ years experience so if something feels off or funny I pretty much know it, can tell and trust my instincts. You say played poker a long time. Trust your experience and report them I would if I was you.

You can likely post the hands here......or there is a forum section to place them.

Cheers!!!

sleepers332 · Apr 20, 2025

thedarkman said:
What stakes were you playing? I know this sort of thing can happen in high stakes cash games but there are two objections to tournaments, the big one is that if you have a couple of hundred or even a couple of dozen players, how do the conspirators conspire?

It’s was a €22 plo pko , about 300 you would have received for winning it + bounties

sleepers332 · Apr 20, 2025

hardongear said:
Depends on site if it's worth reporting.

Also if it was micro/low stakes nah likely not chip dumping. Likely just shitty players playing shitty.

The higher the stakes the more likely it was chip dumping as all the higher stakes guys know each other, may have pieces of each other or maybe agree to soft play against each other when recs or unknown players are involved or reach the final table.

You maybe also got unlucky and 2 guys from the same stable managed to reach the final table and were on Discord together sharing cards and info.

Personally I have 20+ years experience so if something feels off or funny I pretty much know it, can tell and trust my instincts. You say played poker a long time. Trust your experience and report them I would if I was you.

You can likely post the hands here......or there is a forum section to place them.

Cheers!!!

I have a feeling you are complete right about being in the same stable or just soft playing against each other as no it would benefit them to keep all 3 in

hardongear · Apr 20, 2025

sleepers332 said:
I have a feeling you are complete right about being in the same stable or just soft playing against each other as no it would benefit them to keep all 3 in

I very well could be......I've also seen players from the same country soft play and chip dump each other.

Cheers!!!

fundiver199 · Apr 20, 2025

As others have suggested, it would be cool, if you would share the suspicious hand histories in this thread. You can use CCs free hand converter to convert and anonymise them, if you wish. If you use a tracker, you have the hand histories there, and if not they can most likely be found on the site, or you can ask support to send them to you. Just to get a second opinion, if it was really obvious collusion or not.

Poker Orifice · Apr 20, 2025

sleepers332 said:
I have saved several of the hands that occurred on the final table and wondering is there any point in reporting it or is it just a waste of time with emails back and forth?

If you want opinions on the situation, why not post these 'several hands' so that people can get a better idea of what was happening?

billibooo · Apr 20, 2025

I would agree BUT I also want to throw out there that I have seen really good people be accused of this, who would never. So be sure <3 and maybe let us see the hands like the big guy just said ^^ <3

SPANKYSN · Apr 20, 2025

puzzlefish said:
Depends where you played. I know some sites are quite active about preventing collusion (as opposed to collision).

You hit that HEAD ON!

Vallet · May 7, 2025

If you share your doubts with poker room support about collusion, what do you have to lose?
Share the screenshots with us. Everyone should see the hands of these players.

enno · May 7, 2025

sleepers332 said:
I have saved several of the hands that occurred on the final table and wondering is there any point in reporting it or is it just a waste of time with emails back and forth?

If you have saved several hands then submit them to support so that they can review them.

Dimidrol2 · May 7, 2025

Collusion can always have a basis. If the game was serious, then it is necessary to punish such scammers.

hajaehyun · May 7, 2025

I need to report a bad play~

Margo17 · May 7, 2025

Situations like this need to be reported. I have never been in a situation like this, and I hope I never am. There will always be bad people out there.

Jonhop · Aug 2, 2025

sleepers332 said:
Hi all just want to see where u would stand on collision and soft play in poker tournaments? I’ve just played a final table and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life from 3 players , chip dumping checking back the nuts on multiple occasions and soft play between all 3 , I’ve played poker along time and honestly have never seen anything like what has just happened & it genuinely made me feel ill bye the end of it ,
I have saved several of the hands that occurred on the final table and wondering is there any point in reporting it or is it just a waste of time with emails back and forth?

I know a large team that has made over 50 million so yeah people better start saying something. It is the late unlimited re entry’s. They just wrote their own rules and the casino owners loved it.

pentazepam · Aug 2, 2025

hardongear said:
You maybe also got unlucky and 2 guys from the same stable managed to reach the final table

Some stables can also change to an HU-specialist, then it's just you and one player from the team left. Not cricket.

TeUnit · Aug 2, 2025

You see things like limp folding to the micro stack way too often, but usually they are not colluding they are just not playing well.

_420_420_ · Aug 4, 2025

My goal in tournaments is to have chips collide into my stack

Collusion in poker tournaments

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