Playing in a land-based poker room is different from playing poker online. With online poker, only a graphic table is visible to each of the player along with animated cards and chips. And each of them could be doing anything when playing the game online. Players can be on the side of their pool sun bathing, enjoying their meal, or even seated at their computers naked. No rules disallow these things as those can’t be seen by each of the player. Though the idea of conversing to another player at the same table through telephone calls or instant messaging has been initially unknown to people since the initial Internet-poker goes online, this loophole makes online poker collusion possible.

 

The impression of operating with another player was common to the poker arena. Players have been budding up for inasmuch as there has been gambling. With agreed signaling system to send message with each other about their hands, two or more players go to the same room and sit at the same poker table. Their goal is very much straightforward, to win a great deal of money through better betting manipulation. This can be a serious threat to your pile of chips and could possibly empty your pocket. So, how do you go about identifying if the poker room you are in has those cheating opponents? Perhaps knowledge on some of the common forms of collusion is necessary.

 

SOFT PLAY

 

This is perhaps a not so strong form of collusion. Not betting or raising against a player when you obviously have the bullets, puts you soft-playing the opponent. Basically, you are inoperative with another player on the same group, nevertheless playing your hand otherwise against them. e.i. you and a player are the last two individuals left in the game. On the river, you have the nuts, however the other player bets. In this situation, not raising puts you “soft-playing” the opponent. Another situation, you have two buddies at a table who do hate to play opposite to one another, so they play their hands more weakly, however they would raise you to death when it is you in the pot against them.

 

WHIPSAWING

 

I personally hate the raise and reraise during pre-flop. And, I usually regret not folding and losing a lot of chips after being trapped in the kind of situation, because I thought of seeing the flop while having an stable trust on my cards. What I didn’t know then was the activity was clearly a Whipsawing where partners of the execution continually raise and reraise one another to trap players. Whipsawing causes players to call one or more bets which will then eventually fold to the colluding players after realizing that it is too costly to stay active in an unending betting.

 

DUMPING

 

Dumping has very simple mechanics and is quite obvious for anyone to detect, most especially the Online Casinos. Losing intentionally to a partner is the basic of it. The accomplice will either make a carelessly huge bets together with ban hands, anticipating to lose to the partner, or build huge bets/raises, only to fold on a later round to a small bet, which any legal player would instantly call. The activity is often correlated to stolen credit card and account hijacking.

 

SIGNALLING

 

This perhaps is less traceable with online poker. Nevertheless, can still be done effectively with land-based poker. Partners usually trade information via signals of some sort. With online poker, trading information can be done through telephone calls or instant messaging which other players are really blind about. With land-based poker, chips arrangement is done which each represents a message partners want to relay to one another. Even usual and unusual gestures and mannerisms can be utilized.

 

Though casinos proving online casino games such online poker lauded that everyone should play their hands according to how strong they are in each situation, still some group of players are aggressive enough just to gain an edge over opponents. Having opponents executing any of these activities would surely change the way you play your game. That is why it is important to be aware of them to avoid losing an impressive amount of money before you know it. Once observed, don’t hesitate to transfer to another table.