Where does content theft start?
I just had a trackback from a site I didn’t recognize. So I look it up and find that it’s one of the “zombie-blogs” popping up left and right. What is it all about? It’s providing “poker news”, namely taking parts of content from poker blogs, slapping some ads on it and that’s that. Then I go ahead and the server admin is telling me something along the lines of “if you don’t want your content available around the net, just stop pinging search-engines” – errm wtf?
The site in question, which shall receive no further link love through this post, is a clear case of content scraping in order to monetize other people’s content. The only thing that it’s keeping it from being outright 100% content theft is that it’s providing a “read more” link leading to the original authors blog, but does this make it any better? So you get a linkback, but the thing is that it’s still using the content in order to slap ads on them.
Anyone got some hands-on experience with similar sites? What’s your opinion on such sites? Does a linkback make something like this legit in your eyes?
Rafe Furst’s Last Longer Bet for WSOP Main Event
In his most recent post he’s thinking about starting a last longer pool…
Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Chris Ferguson, Perry Friedman or Mikey the Monkey
🙂
My thoughts on this proposal:
Well, I don’t have a clue what they are thinking putting a monkey into the Main Event, although many people have already called this year’s WSOP a zoo, so it might be not that far out after all. That said, I don’t have a clue about what the monkey is capable of either, so it’s really hard to say…so I’m moving on to a comedy prediction…:
I. Phil Hellmuth will have a strong run in this year’s Main Event. One thing is for sure though: he will blowup sooner or later (I’m guessing later this time), but it inevitable – the super-donkeys-worst-players-ever-tilt is upon him for sure, especially due to the donkey/pro ratio which should be huge this year.
II. Negreanu: I hope he goes deep, I like to watch him. I guess it all depends on the run of cards in the end (remember last year where he got sucked out on time and time again and couldn’t make a hand in return when he was drawing?)..
III. Perry Friedman: Hmm…maybe his faces he paints on his hands sometimes can give me a clue :p
IV. Chris Ferguson: Jesus will do well, too. I don’t see him going ultra-deep though
V. Da Chimp: He will spend most of the time in the later stages of day 1 on the rail for dropping a p&p-bomb – yes that’s a poo&pee-bomb: after starting out pretty well by sucking out on some donkeys, it’s going to be his time to get sucked out on. After getting sucked out on, he’ll turn on the inner aggression monkey and crap all over the table…this will earn him a 2h penalty, which will be enough to almost blind him out. Shortly after that he’s going to be all-in with da bananas (77) and double up, which in turn will lead to yet another railtime as the “happy monkey dance” isn’t allowed on the dealer’s head…this time the penalty is only 1h, but it’ll be enough to blind him out… 🙂
So my last-longer guess is:
1. Friedman
2. Phil Hellmuth
3. Da Chimpster
4. Chris Ferguson
5. Daniel Negreanu
Anyone willing to put a banana split on that? 😉
ForPeyton Auctions – second lot
So, the second lot of auctions are indeed online now…so for anyone who missed out on the first lot (see here), here’s your second chance – same goes for anyone else: head over to the ebay auctions, now!
So get your lazy behind over to ebay already, thanks!
Weekend live poker and online non-poker
Playing while drunk can really be fun, although it still hurts if you lose with Ax vs Kx three times in a row, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Friday started out with some SnGs at FullTilt and trying to catch up with all the revealing trip reports of all those in attendance of the WPBT Summer Classic. Man, I really really wanted to be there, but it wasn’t to be. Maybe next year when I’m finally done with my degree at university.
So we headed to a mate’s birthday (the host of our regular home game) and we basically had no intention to play any poker 😉 but in the end it was the good ol’ drunk early morning game. I was able to finish ITM in the first one, then quickly donked out of the second one. In the third one I was the monster chip leader at one point – 3000 chips were in play and I held around 2200 of them. Then the already mentioned three in a row Ax vs Kx hands happened: I called a double-All-In with my Ace rag and one of the other players almost tripled up. Then we were All-In again, same result. Then again and it was over with. Let’s just say that neither luck nor concentration was on my side – we were approaching 8am (!) and were slightly buzzed up to say the least. Come next friday we’ll play our regular home game again, which brings me to the next topic…
…we talked about finally getting a (semi-) decent poker table for our game as we were playing on a regular table with some felt thrown over it, which is kind of ugly. So I ordered one tonight, a foldable one, a true bargain considering the regular listings around here. I’m really looking forward to play at a real table.
On saturday, after the ultra-relaxing (note: lie) 2 hours of sleep on the couch I already needed to get up again as I was picked up at 10:30am to play a private footie (that’s soccer for the americans) tourney which involves drinking, too. Well, it basically revolves around drinking…nothing like getting your buzz on again easily with a nice cool beer. Play and drank the day away and when I finally made it home at 9pm I was so knackered that I almost fell asleep on the spot. Then I remembered that I should take a shower and treat my sunburn from drinking and playing footie in the sun all day. Almost needless to say that I was well awake again after the shower, so I watch a movie and at midnight I was finally going to bed…just to get up again at 9am today (sunday) to help clean up the location of our tourney.
So some live poker friday, no poker on saturday and only one SnGs on Party – a one shorthanded table donkfest which I won after I successfully trapped two donks in a row (nice to flop or turn the boat, seeing your opponent chasing the useless flush and pushing when it hits: priceless). Apart from that I was looking around at FullTilt and PokerStars and unbelievable how many players turned out to play the monster seat tourneys (FTP: 100 seats, Stars: 150 guaranteed) tonight. Good thing that you don’t need to win those things to earn a seat, but by looking at the numbers I would say that the guy/gal who wins the one on Stars should save some himself some time and stay at home – after beating a field of 7737 (s)he should have used his/her luck for the whole year, so no point in showing up in the main event 😉
Alrighty…enough babbling for tonight…I should catch some sleep anyway after this quite exhausting weekend, especially considering that I’ve got a dentist appointment tomorrow…
Follow-up on the first forpeyton.com auctions
As I mentioned in one of my prior post, there were quite some amazing things up for auction at ebay. The crown jewel of this first set of auctions was, at least IMHO, the Phil Gordon package including not only a signed copy of his “Little Green Book”, a signed copy of his DVD “Final table poker” and a signed photograph, but also an one hour phone lesson. Wow! Although I was eager to get my hands on this one, but in the end it was a little over my price range (the winning bid was 321.27$) – still one heck of a steal at this price!
So while I bid in numerous of the other auctions (including the signed photograph by Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier and Mark Seif’s Jersey) I set my sights on my second favourite item, which would be Daniel Negreanu’s package including a signed T-Shirt, a signed hat and a signed photograph – so basically a three in one deal. I went ahead and put a bid in and to my surprise my “early bluff at the pot” resulted in all of “my opponents’ ” folding.
So I take it down. Nice. Now the only thing between me and the package is finding the best way to ship it to me (to Germany) without it costing a fortune, but I’m sure that Shelly Hokanson and/or Bob Nardi will sort that out for me. I’m so excited that I’m able to help this good cause and receive such great stuff in return, which makes it even more exciting.
I want to take the opportunity to point your attention to the ForPeyton homepage once again and especially to the auctions page as there’s a good chance that there will be more exciting things up for auction in the (near) future! There’s also the ongoing possibility to simply donate some money to the cause, see the donations page for further information.
Furthermore I would like to spread some link love to all the pros who were generous enough to devote time and/or donate things and/or money to this good cause (in no particular order):
Get ready to reraise your fellow bidders
As most of you might already know there is an effort to raise money for the little girl Payton (if that doesn’t ring a bell, head on over to ForPeyton.com ) and the first auctions have started on ebay – a little less than two days left.
Sidenote: I already contacted Bob Nardi about the possibility to ship overseas and he said that something can be worked out (e.g. via USPS), so I’m going to bid (as a matter of fact I already did on the signed Isabelle Mercier photo, but Sir Al bid higher and holds the highest bid at time of writing this). So get out your wallets, help out for a good cause and get some cool signed stuff of a pro player in the process! Reraise your fellow bidders!
The items currently up for auctions are:
Why the WSOP mostly sucks so far
Saturday July 08th 2006, 7:43 pm
Filed under:
OpinionatedSorry to say that, but the WSOP mostly sucks big time so far. Why? Because there is no tv coverage over here and so I’m relying on the good ol’ internet. Last year I was more than uptodate with the awesome coverage done by the good doctor himself – this year it’s just not the same, because the greedy WSOP dastards sold the rights to report chip-counts etc exclusively.
What a joke! I mean it’s okay to squeeze out every last bit of dough, but please, at least make it right and add to the contract that the coverage has to live up to certain standards (e.g. chip count updates with a lag of several hours is not okay, not listing all players still in contention is not okay, writing two half sentences per half hour is not okay, ..).
One thing’s for sure though, the suits accomplished three things with that move:
- The made more dough…
- They screwed reporters and photographers who were doing heck of a job in keeping people updated and entertained (guys like Dr. Pauly and probably many others)…
- They pissed off fans who don’t have any other means to get “live” (or let’s say “almost real-time”) coverage…
So, “Harrah’s whatever corp or inc” thanks for nothing!
The only upside of this year’s WSOP so far is that people I like (to watch) are going deep and/or even winning bracelets (Rafe Furst, Sam Farha, Phil Ivey (2nd place), Phil Hellmuth (2nd place), …), keep it up guys – too bad that you are not getting the exposure you deserve 🙁
Comeback and thoughts on suckouts
Well, I don’t know if you can call it a comeback, but I think it was a good performance – and that’s kind of a comeback from my bad run lately. Before I get into the narrative mode, be warned that this might be a loooong ass post, not an uber post like by the Iggster himself, but longer than recent posts.
I played my (currently) favourite SnG, NL HE 6 (5$, 6 players, top 2 ITM). Sure enough getting some good cards and/or hitting some nice boards early on is a good start, which makes navigating towards the top 2 all that easier, but I still needed the patience and had to make some big decisions.
Early on I caught As4s in the BB, limped around to me, I check…flop is three spades, no straight flush possibility. SB checks it, I check it, UTG min bets…all call…I min raise…3 call. Turn is blank, I check again, UTG min bets again…all call…I min raise…only UTG calls. River is blank. Now I don’t want him to check it down, but as he was leading out all the way I’m hoping that he’s putting me on a busted flush draw (as if I would draw to a four flush, lol). I check and sure enough he leads out with half the pot…I min raise him to extract a little more value and he calls. I show my nut flush and take down a nice pot. He mucked two pair, poor fellow. A little later I had an insane rush of cards, which put me in an even better position – I had KK three times and QQ twice. The second time I held QQ I was in the SB, folded to me, I bet 6BB into the short BB (who lost his chips to me in the early flush hand)…he ponders and pushes…it’s not much more to me and I’m hoping to not see and Ace or King in his hand…my prayers are heard…he shows QJo…nice.
From there on I got some decent hands in steal positions (AQo twice, AJ and AK once) and was able to stay ahead of the blinds. Then I went card dead for quite some time. So I slowly bounced from first to last (3 handed by then), after paying off some weak Aces twice. Then it was bubble time as the other two players battled it out – one fell short and we were ITM. Chip stacks were me 3.5k him 5.5k. We traded blinds and didn’t see that many flops and when we did he took the lead most of the time as I couldn’t hit anything and I dislike 1k bets when holding 8 high on a AKxx board…then my patience payed off. I hold QJ he min raises and I call (pot now 2k), flop is the ever so beautiful QJJ. I check, he checks. Turn is blank. I bet 500. He calls. River is blank. I bet 500, he calls. Pot 4k is shoved to me. Now that I’m sitting on slightly over 7k chips I’m in full control and end the match in the next hand…I push with Ax he calls with Qx and I’m the winner.
Wheee…I thought I couldn’t win anymore, groovy to see that I can. As I said above, it sure helps to get good starting hands, but we all know that’s just part of the game. My assessment prior to playing today was that I had some flaws in my recent play (which were no doubt impaired by a bad run of cards/suckouts) – cards speak, but some consideration can sometimes replace a good cup:
- Don’t underestimate the other players – true I’m playing at low levels, but they’re not all donkeys.
- Don’t let the frustration of prior hands/sessions get the best of you – you might know that feeling that you have to “push the envelope” when you’re running bad, which more often than not will hurt you instead of the donks.
- Patience is key, don’t let card-deadness or dry flops get the best of you – unless the odds + your feeling for the hand/opponent (along with possible user notes 😉 ) imply a call/raise, don’t waste your chips. This is war, one battle lost isn’t the end.
- Bubble time is crucial, but don’t get too pushy or too tight – recently I was letting the aggression monkey out of it’s cage right at bubble time, which didn’t work out so well. Pushing preflop, even with a decent hand, is not the only option.
- Don’t let the fear of getting sucked out on interfere with your sound play* (find the * further below for extended thoughts on this one)
- etc etc
Now I don’t claim to have found a cure for my recent bad run, I’m just thinking that by not looking at my game over the last few days (week) I put myself into some spots that I didn’t need to be in. (There’s a huge difference whether someone has to call your all-in bet when it’s 30BB instead of 15BB – true, some ppl will call you one way or another, but sometimes you gotta think that even the biggest donkey will at least think a little before calling a huge all-in (no question that sometimes they won’t and so this example really is situational and I didn’t put myself in a weak stack position by playing badly that often [sometimes I did by “taking shots”, sometimes it was just a series of suckouts])).
One way or another, cards speak, so if you get sucked out on for the umpteenth time, then so be it…if your decisions prior to the hand and in the hand were sound, there’s nothing to get angry about – it’s part of the game, although we all dislike it very much (especially if the suckout was really by some donk drawing with TOTALLY incorrect odds).
*On June 4th I said that I was working on a post resolving around the question “How does ‘questionable’ play influence your own game?â€?, I didn’t continue to write on the post as I was going crazy over it. Let me quote the things I wrote about that question and then have another look at it:
—Quote: Original post draft——————–
After yesterday’s live game I had a long discussion on the way home. The main topic was the question “How does ‘questionable’ (aka “bad play”) influence your own game?” To put this question into context I would like to start things of with a description of some typical scenarios (1.-3. taken from yesterday’s home game, 4. from the tourney two weeks ago – tournament, NL HE, two tables):
- I’m holding QhQd in the BB. The table is seven handed and you watch how the action makes it’s way around the table. Fold. Call. Fold. Call. Fold. Call. Action is on me. Blinds are at Level one (.10/.20) so I decide to punish the limpers and/or end the hand right there. Fold, Call, Call from the SB. Flop comes down Jack high with two clubs and one spade. SB checks. What do you do?
- I’m holding AcQh and pump it up to 2 (blinds at .20/.40). Two callers. Flop comes down Ah-Xd-Xs. I bet half the pot, one player folds, the other on the button calls. Turn is Xs. I check…Button checks. River is Xs…I check…Button bets 1.5x the pot. What do you do?
- I’m holding A9o…two callers…flop comes down A-Xs-Xs…I bet to see where I’m at…one player folds…one player calls…turn is another blank…I bet again…other player calls. River is another 9s…I check…other player goes into the tank and bets around the pot. What do you do?
- Player 1 is holding JJ in LP, Player 2 is holding KQo in MP…player 2 raises preflop to 4xBB…player 1 calls. Flop comes down AKQ rainbow…player 2 bets the pot…player 1 calls….turn is blank…player 2 bets the pot…player 1 calls…river is a J…player 2 bets the pot…player 1 calls…What do you make of this hand?
To add some more context to the scenarios a little analysis of the player’s styles is in order: There are some more conservative players [playing “good” starting hands, mixing things up sometimes with not-premium hands, only playing to the river if odds are correct, using and caring about position, etc], some swing players [mostly playing good starting hands, but a greater range of hands, sometimes mixing it up with minimal chances, but mostly playing straight up poker], some risky players [playing a large range of hands, mostly calling station type poker, no reraise until the river, etc] and some maniacs [basically playing almost all two cards as long as they look pretty (to those players), couldn’t care less about pot odds, outs, etc; unable and/or unwillingly to let a hand go if there’s the slightest chance to make the hand (even if there’s only one card to come)].
Now that all this info has been provided I would like to start to answer the original question for myself: “How does questionable play influence your own game?” – Tough one, but after the recent live games I would have to answer it in two words: a lot! Depending on who’s in the hand it’s really tough to play text-book poker. If I raise preflop to 5xBB or 10x BB or even more, what sort of hands does your opponent(s) call with? Where are you at if you’re holding something like AQo on a King high board and your bet is just called? There’s no such thing as “justice” in poker, but sometimes you wish that there was. How can the deck reward a maniac calling HUGE bets with A2? Maybe the phrase “but they were s00ted” sounds too good to the poker gods, so they keep giving those players runner runner flushs? So, I basically tried two different strategies in the last two tourneys:
- Make it known that you’re in the hand. Play your preflop “monsters” like there’s no tomorrow. Bet the living jebus out of them if you connect on the flop. – What was the result? I get sucked out on 3 occasions by players who had no odds and hence no right to even think about staying in the hands till the end and I’m out quickly (see here).
- Play cautiously and use the concept of the preemptive laydown/slowplay**. – Where did it lead me to? To the final table, but not in healthy chip position.
**Def. Preemptive slowplay/ preemptive laydown: “You’re in a hand with at least one maniac. You know that he won’t laydown his hand no matter how large you bet. You hold the current nuts, but the board is scary (i.e. two cards of the same suit; gapped cards making a straight possible, especially with two cards to come; a lot of overcards; etc). Instead of trying to protect your hand by betting large amount of chips, you’re checking it down, calling it down till the end if the bets aren’t huge or you’re laying it down right there, because you suspect that your maniac opponent is drawing to the nuts. You make a preemptive slowplay / preemptive laydown.”
Now, most people would call me crazy to even think about such a concept. After all if you’re anywhere from 5x% – 100% it’s an incorrect play, depending on the situation (i.e. while it seems to be an incorrect play if you’re let’s say 80/20 to win, but if you’re only 50/50 aka coinflip it might not be incorrect to throw it away and wait for a better spot). The recent experience contradicts that assumption. [Quick thought: Surely over the long run it will hurt me and reward the maniac at the same time, if I continue to not push the edges…but for the time being it seems to work, not optimal, but junk kick free]. Let’s go back to the scenarios I presented above:
- We’re three handed with two solid players and one maniac. Both decide to call my preflop raise, so it’s safe to assume that the solid player has got at least a twenty and the maniac at least an Ace rag. The flop comes down Jack high with two clubs. Normally I would bet out at least half the pot to see where I’m at, but given the read I’ve got I decide that I don’t want to put more money in the pot. Solid player checks, maniac checks. Now I’m really sure that at least one of my opponents is on a flush draw and the other one is probably still playing his Ace rag. Turn is a blank spade, which puts two spades and two clubs on the board, still Jack high. I check again and the others check right behind me. River is another blank spade, now there are two clubs and three spades on board. I check…solid player bets…maniac reraises…I curse my “slowplay” or otherwise put my unwillingness to put more money in the pot and fold. The solid player re-reraises. Maniac is worried, but calls…Solid player shows: Q high flush, maniac shows K high flush… – in this case I played the hand pretty badly…I should have put in a huge bet after the flop, but I didn’t…and so I got sucked out on. Not really a classic preemptive laydown, but a hand that was playing with my mind. I was so worried about getting sucked out on at the turn and/or river, that I fucked it up pretty good…even the maniac wouldn’t have called an All-In on the flop…then again: if he didn’t have the spades, but the clubs, he would have called…and a single ace would have killed me, too.
- Once again, scared play postflop, because of the fear of getting sucked out on. At the end this was a classic preemptive laydown hand. He was indeed drawing to the nuts and connecting yet again. He wouldn’t have layed it down no matter what. Classic preemptive slowplay and laydown in the end. I mucked the hand face up as I knew that he had the flush, yet again.
- Basically the same as 2.
- In this hand I wasn’t involved, it was the opposite of scared play and nowhere near an preemtive laydown. The player holding KQ raised preflop, flopped two pair, bet the living jebus out of it and got sucked out on in the end. What odds and outs did the player holding JJ have? Outs:two Js, four tens. Odds: After the flop roughly 22/78, after the turn roughly 14/86…so he had no business in the pot given the three overcards and the huge bets, nontheless this play was yet again rewarded by the deck.
————————————————-
Wow, now that I’m looking at that post (which wasn’t edited since original writing and no I’m not embarrassed to put it out there, otherwise I wouldn’t do it ;)), I can understand my reasoning back then [after getting sucked out on not only in the online games, but in my own home game, which I usually had at my finger tips].
But let’s be real – the concept of the preemptive laydown/slowplay to minimize losses is soooo way over the top, that’s it’s fucking up your own mind pretty good along with the harmful side effects of minimising your chances to win huge pots along but at the same time encouraging the maniacs/donks to keep drawing out on you on now “improved”, but probably still incorrect, odds [although it might still be valid over a very small statistical smaple!]. So scratch that, time to get back to the good old poker philosophy – stick with your instincts/feels, play correctly but mix it up sometimes and take some shots, anything else will be to your disadvantage in the long run.
Now that I got that devil of my shoulder I can officially announce that I’m back and what can I say to the home game crew: better watch out…I’m back to reclaim my overall net throne…so watch out! [I’m still the player with the most money won overall due to my participation in more events, but I lost the net won throne to a mate of mine (hi Armin :))]
Post imminent
Well, after yesterday’s home game I was confused and my mind was running at 180mph. I had a pretty good discussion on the drive home about the question “How does ‘questionable’ play influence your own game?” and the things surrounding that question.
I’m still writing on this very interesting topic and so this is just a note that there will be a post about it as soon as I got all the things worked out. Could be today, could be tomorrow, could be a few days…you’ll find out soon enough… 😉
Online poker “scandal”
As the whole poker blogospehere (and poker forum scene for that matter) is buzzing unlike I’ve seen it in my short stint in the community, I thought I would add my 0.02$…
The situation: For all of those who might have missed it a quick summary…online player JJProdigy was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He played with two accounts in the same MTT…sure enough he won with one of the accounts (“ABlackCar” – 140k in the PartyPoker 500k guaranteed tourney on February 12th 2006). As he was stupid enough to tell some friends about his win, one of those was even more stupid and posted congrats on the pocketfives forums…which in turn led to complaints to the PartyPoker support, which investigated and subsequently banned both his accounts and took all of his money sitting in there. All his tries to cover up the whole thing with the “grandma story” were futile and he came clean in the mean time.
Two sides of the same story:
- Sorry to say it that harsh, but “Yes!”. He was cheating and got caught and punished. Hat tip to the PartyPoker support.
- You gotta ask yourself something though: do you really believe that this is a singular occurence?
- I highly doubt it. It’s just that this is the first major case that spread fast around the web.
- The reaction of PartyPoker is good, but what worries me more is that the chances are high that there was and still is the same thing going on. After all the logic behind it is quite simple: The player(s) tell themselves that they’ve got a bigger chance to cash (true) and they’re willing to pay the buyin numerous times. The company (which poker room it might be is quite irrelevant) could be thinking the same thing…more buyins, more profit for us.
If you look at it that way, there’s a whole set of other questions to ask: Why aren’t there proper counter measures? Why isn’t there a (real-time) monitoring of events? Are they even interested in busting those guys?
I guess there’s some different possibilities here:
1. I think that even a simple monitoring process would be enough to find most of the cheaters – and don’t tell me it’s “too hard” to do. Little example: I played a little online game (“Die Staemme”) for quite a while and although it’s a free game (ad supported) they had a simple monitoring process: If > 1 player connects from same IP at the same time start investigating (after all you could be behind a private or corporate router, at a dorm or similar, so this isn’t total proof yet). If > 1 player connected from the same IP + machine – immediate questioning of the player and temporary ban until situation is evaluated. etc etc – the latter should be quite easy to accomplish and it would at least identify the most obvious cheaters! (I know that it’s much harder to catch the other cheaters – same IP but different machines, possibly two accounts registered on a married couple and similar cases…but at least try to catch the blunt cheaters for crying out loud!) So if a free game site can afford to monitor > 20k players at any given time, why can’t billion-dollar-companies do the same for some 100k at any given time?
2. The company isn’t really interested in catching them! There, I said it. How could someone come to such a conclusion? – (Yes this is just a theory and no accusation due to lack of evidence, but hear me out) – What if both of the accounts are playing regularly in high buyin tourney and maybe even in mid/high level ring games. Then those accounts are really interesting for the company, because of the rake (read: income for the company) the produce on a steady basis. The company couldn’t care less about who wins the tourneys or sngs or ring games. As long as they’re playing on a regular basis (read: generating revenue). – On another note: such a theory isn’t limited to online poker by any means…I have witnessed similar occurences with other only sites (i.e. ebay) as numerous powersellers were (and probably still are) running numerous accounts in an effort to bid on their own stuff…to my surprise, almost NONE of them were ever contacted or banned. Why? Because higher sales prices = higher comission…
3. …is related to 2. with a twist: Consider 2. to be true, but after all they need to keep the “normal” (read: non-cheating) players happy, too. So they’ve got the means to catch (at least the) obvious cheaters, but they won’t unless there’s something to be gained from it and/or if the public outcry makes it necessary…think about it: Outcry in the community…possible and existing customers might jump ship…catch one “big fish” and deal with quite quickly…company shines in the limelight, customers are feeling better again…etc…
4. The are very well interested in catching the cheaters. After all there seems to be something like an “Investigation / Fraud detection / … – team” on every major poker room, but they do their work in the background hidden from the public eye and there’s nothing more to it. It’s just that this time all the information was made available by the users themselves (and/or the staff), because the interest in the whole matter was so big…
Decide for yourself which explanation is the right one…that’s just my 0.02$ for now…so feel free to join in on the ongoing discussion.
I’m off to watch the NBA All-Star game…Go West!!!
