Who's Cheating?

There has been a ton of talk on the message boards about some high profile online players who were caught using multiple accounts in the same tournaments. Their names on the boards were JJ Prodigy and ZeeJustin. I had not really heard of JJ but I was a reader of Justin's blog and was usually impressed with his writing and his knowledge of the game. I am disappointed because his response to the allegations is just silly. Here are a few of his quotes:

"I have been at the same table as myself. For what it’s worth, my standard protocol has been to increase my number of tables when this happens. As most of you know, I will very rarely be playing fewer than six tables at a time. If I had 6 tables open and two of my accounts were brought to the same table, I would simply open up 4-6 more SNGs. I felt that this would negate my unethical advantage. With 10 tables open, I just play tight and solid. I can’t even remember the hole cards one account folded after the flop, and I’m certainly unable to pay special attention to that table. "

This was just totally stupid. Lets open up more tables to distract myself and therefore negate my advantage. I seriously doubt that's what happened. Especially as he made it towards the last 25% of the field. Doubling up is a huge advantage at these stages and would have been very easy to do.

"All of the money that was seized from me was from sit’n’go play where nothing unethical was done. I never entered multiple accounts into the same sit’n’go, never colluded with anyone, never soft played anyone and never chip dumped with anyone.The other accounts I used never had any big MTT scores. Combined, I am pretty sure they were all long-term losers in the few MTT’s they played. Despite this, almost $100,000 was seized from my accounts."

Just because you were smart enough to cash out the Multi Table Tournament Winnings doesn't mean you are justified in keeping it. I think he's lucky that Party Poker doesn't go after more of his money.

"I have one account. That account is named ZeeJustin. My brother also has an account named Bernard61 (formerly jwilson55), and I have used that account quite often. No where in Party’s rules does it say you cannot use someone else’s account. I’m sure many of you have used friends’ accounts before, and there is nothing wrong with this. People will often take over MTT’s for friends that have unforeseen obligations.

I do think what I’ve done is unethical, and I certainly regret doing it, however, I need to point out that no where in Party’s rules is it stated that you cannot enter multiple accounts into the same tournament. Not only do they not forbid it, but to open multiple clients on the same PC, all you have to do is click the icon a bit more rapidly than normal. Great work PartyPoker."

His reading comprehension must be at a 3rd grade level. It says in the agreement that the name on your account must match your true and legal name. You are prohibited from holding more than one account.

Just because it doesn't say you are not allowed to enter multiple accounts in a tournament does not make it legal. The line of not allowing multiple accounts to begin with, makes using them for any purpose illegal.

I am extremely happy that Party Poker is cracking down on the cheaters and making them pay. I would hope they are able to return money to some of the other players who were hurt by the cheating, but that is probably too much to ask.

I am amazed that these players were able to open multiple accounts at the same time from the same IP address. I have tried to log into the same table from different skins before and been blocked, so I figured it was impossible. Apparently not, but hopefully they have fixed it now.

If I lucky, the tournaments will now be softer and I can make a big score.

Working On The Party Poker Steps

Results since last post:
Ring Games: -35
Tourneys: -217

I was pretty busy last week so I did not get to play as much as I would have liked. A couple of nights ago, I was bored and decided to look at the Party Poker Steps again.

I decided to pursue the Mini Steps which is a 5 round process. The first round is $5+1. You need to win to advance. 2nd through 5th place get to play again for free.

I fired up two level one steps. I won one and finished second in the other. I played the second round. In round 2, you need to finish in the top two to advance. I managed to win again and so it's on to round 3.

Last night I played my round 3 match. I was running well, catching good cards, and picking off a couple of bluffs. It was down to 3 handed. The top 2 advance. The third place player was down to 2.5 BB while me and the other guy had around 10 BB each. He went all in. Me and the other big stack called and tried to check it down. The small stack woke up with a big hand and he tripled up. Uh oh.

It went back and forth a few more times and eventually it was folded to me on the small blind and I pushed in. The Big Blind called and I was dominated. Out in third, so I am still at level 3.
I feel like I made the correct mathematical plays, but it just did not work out. My luck ran out.

If I get to level 5, 1st place is $4,000. That is a reeeeaaaaal nice pay day. And that is just the mini steps. I am going to investigate the big steps and see if this might be an easy way to run up a cash balance for the World Series of Poker.

Of course the problem with the steps is that while you are playing these games, you are not earning any money until the final step.

4 of a Kind and I Get Paid

Here's the hand history from a great 4 of a kind hand on Full Contact Poker:

Texas Hold'em $3-$6 (Real Money), #85,400,113 Table Colon, 4 Feb 2006 7:31 PM ET

Seat 1: Claudin5. ($138 in chips)
Seat 2: rockyroad11 ($358.60 in chips)
Seat 3: curtis1120x ($61.70 in chips)
Seat 4: ScoobD ($570.80 in chips)
Seat 5: JaBBaTheNuTT ($59.50 in chips)
Seat 6: larryvq0 ($106.65 in chips)
Seat 7: Volscam ($81.45 in chips)
Seat 8: mrvkp8 ($79.50 in chips)
Seat 9: Miss_Kandy ($313.05 in chips)
Seat 10: Jonnylove8 ($106.90 in chips)

ANTES/BLINDS Miss_Kandy posts blind ($1.50), Jonnylove8 posts blind ($3).

PRE-FLOP Claudin5. folds, rockyroad11 calls $3, curtis1120x bets $6, ScoobD folds, JaBBaTheNuTT folds, larryvq0 calls $6, Volscam bets $9, mrvkp8 bets $12, Miss_Kandy folds, Jonnylove8 folds, rockyroad11 calls $9, curtis1120x calls $6, larryvq0 calls $6, Volscam calls $3.

FLOP [board cards 2C,6S,9S ]

rockyroad11 checks, curtis1120x checks, larryvq0 bets $3, Volscam calls $3, mrvkp8 bets $6, rockyroad11 folds, curtis1120x bets $9, larryvq0 bets $9, Volscam calls $9, mrvkp8 calls $6, curtis1120x calls $3.

TURN [board cards 2C,6S,9S,8D ]

curtis1120x checks, larryvq0 bets $6, Volscam calls $6, mrvkp8 bets $12, curtis1120x folds, larryvq0 bets $12, Volscam calls $12, mrvkp8 calls $6.

RIVER [board cards 2C,6S,9S,8D,6C ]

larryvq0 bets $6, Volscam bets $12, mrvkp8 folds, larryvq0 bets $12, Volscam calls $6.

SHOWDOWN larryvq0 shows [ 6H,6D ] Volscam mucks cards [ 8H,7H ] larryvq0 wins $199.50.

SUMMARY
Dealer: mrvkp8 Pot: $202.50, (including rake: $3)
Claudin5., loses $0
rockyroad11, loses $12
curtis1120x, loses $24
ScoobD, loses $0
JaBBaTheNuTT, loses $0
larryvq0, bets $60, collects $199.50, net $139.50
Volscam, loses $60
mrvkp8, loses $42
Miss_Kandy, loses $1.50
Jonnylove8, loses $3

So Volscam goes crazy and reraises with a medium suited connector preflop. He continues to pump the pot for his draw, even though he could lose to a flush and after the turn it is no longer the nuts. Then he tries to raise the river. There is something to be said for doing everything you can to win the big pots, but does he really expect me to fold for one more after all the aggression I have shown the entire hand????

Another Small Cash In Tournament

Results since last post:
Ring games: +487
Tourneys: +354

I played in a $11 buy in multi table at Full Tilt this morning. Out of 280 players I finished 10th. I made a handful of mistakes during the tournament, but none of them were fatal. My total profit was only $25.

Basically the key to going far in these tournaments seems to be to double or triple up early. Then win the races when small stacks go all in against you. Then if you still have 10-15 x the big blind within 10 of the money, just steal the blinds every time it's folded to you.

I had players seriously irritated with me at the table for stealing so much. They almost never played back at me. When they finally did, I either had enough sense to lay it down, or they were so short stacked that it would not make a dent, if I lost.

In a further answer to the previous post about moving up......I think from now on, I am going to keep playing in the 8-16 levels at the brick and mortar casinos. I had another session, this time at Casino Arizona. Again the players were not that good. I lost $100, but most of it was due to a brief 5 minute period of tilt. I really get the urge for fancy play syndrome at the higher levels, thinking that I need to play "better" against the so called stronger players. This seems to get me in a lot of trouble. Especially when I try to get creative defending my blinds.

For the most part, everyone chops if it is folded to the big blind. It's not my first choice, but why irritate the other players. I will raise with damn near any 2 if it's folded to me on the button. If I defend in the small blind, I will usually raise to try and isolate the button. If I am in the Big Blind, then I will usually just call. From there I think I need to only move forward if I flop top or second pair, or if I have a decent draw, or a strong Ace. I have pissed away too much money trying to bluff with absolutely nothing.