Team Play Online

Before I begin what I believe will be a fairly controversial article, I want to say I am not a muckraker. I don't set out to ruin credibility or reputations. In fact, I can't even say that I am any more clean than the next guy'I have probably done something in the past online that others might find sketchy. It's the nature of online play, since rules are so easily broken when you take the casino out of the game.

Now, in recent news on PokerStars, there has come up the issue of team playing in tournaments. If you are a regular on Rec.Gambling.Poker, you might recall the blog entry about previous team play on PokerStars that was uncovered by Paul Phillips in his blog. I could be wrong, maybe it was knowledge before Paul made it public, but that was the first instance I remember seeing it.

More recently, Noah Boeken acknowledged that he began the PokerStars $500k Guarantee under his own account, Exclusive. He also acknowledged to taking over the El Capitano account, which is registered to his mentor Marcel Luske, that his friend had been playing, after Noah busted out on his own account. From there, Noah, unbeknownst to anyone at the final table, managed to take down victory and the first prize money.

This topic has been visited before on public forums. In fact, it's well-known that many big name players have multiple accounts and have continually switched names so as to keep other players from knowing who they are. It's nothing new, but it's definitely come to the forefront now that Noah took down the Stars tournament.

I don't know what PokerStars can do to prevent this. But the situation is definitely needing to be addressed. Many wonder what the big deal is' well, it should be obvious! Let's say that John Doe enters the $5,000 main event at the Legends Of Poker and plays on day one of flight one. He busts out shortly afterwards, and like everyone else, he's out of the tournament and can't return.

Now, let's say that live play emulated online play for a minute, and John Doe suddenly is back in the event! John's friend Jack didn't want to finish the tournament and left, and John takes his chips and wins the event. Does this seem fair' Obviously, it would be damn near impossible to occur, but assuming no one noticed, John Doe has been given a second birth in the event.

Obviously this reduces variance and gives people a second shot at an event they already lost out on. Your play can therefore be adjusted and you have a huge advantage.. If you knew ahead of time that your 10,000 chips at the Legends Of Poker were just the first of your two tournament lives, you could play the first round with reckless abandon trying to accumulate chips. You could gamble with hands you would normally fold, and have a huge edge on everyone. While the player to your right is afraid of being knocked out because he has just one bullet, you have two in your chamber, and can easily run the table over.

Again, I'm not trying to pick on Noah or try and point out security issues solely at PokerStars. Lee Jones has discussed this issue before and knows it exists. It's nothing exclusive to PokerStars, as it's well-known that many big names on UltimateBet have been given preferential treatment and change their account names a lot. I am just addressing the issue, using my column as a place to do that.

Jon Eaton

I highly recommend you come by our forum and discuss this issue. It's not going to get any better if we ignore it. We have to be proactive and try and reach a solution together.

note by gank: Jon Eaton posts regularly using the name sketchy1 at pocketfives forum. His voice is a positive influence on online poker.