In my previous article I discussed the latest scandal on Full Tilt Poker regarding Isildur1 and the sharing of information which led to him losing millions. But I feel that there are serious warning signs here with how online poker is moving full stop. Back when I turned full-time in 2002, there was an innocence about the game. Even the very best players who were making a living were nowhere near as strong as the leading players today, or even the lower ranking professionals for that matter.
The online environment has changed but then again it has changed due to the people who are working behind the scenes at these poker sites. Mass education of players and online poker tracking software has turned online poker into an entirely different animal. In fact, I voiced my concerns years ago at how I felt online poker was going.
When people hear about top players cheating and multi-accounting then they are bound to ask themselves the question of if poker can be beaten at all in an online environment without lowering themselves to cheating in the same way. The potential problem that I can see is if more and more poker players see this as their only viable option when it comes to making money online.
It has long since been the case that no-limit is starting to dry up at certain levels with regards to finding value. What is happening in the high-stakes games is basically down to value being very thin on the ground. If it was plentiful then people like Brian Townsend wouldn’t need to multi-account would they?
But if the very best in the world are doing this because they feel the need to then what about the rest of us? Even if you argued that these guys could drop down to say $25-$50 and make $1 million a year would they want to? The players at $25-$50 are some of the very best in the world and are every bit as tough as the high-stakes players but most either lack the bankroll or the nerve to play nosebleeds.
$10-$20 and $25-$50 no-limit are very tough and this will certainly move down to $5-$10 and it probably has already. In fact NL600 is populated by more and more strong players these days and game selection is getting more critical. But I just cannot see players at the high-stakes games multi-accounting and the players at the lower stakes not bothering.
At the end of the day, money and income is relative and $100,000 a year could be massive to millions of people who play online poker and if they thought that cheating would reach that goal then a very fair percentage would go down that path…..human nature and financial necessity dictates as much. Millions of people have ended up in jail after leading honest lives and poker is no different.
The question here though is “are poker sites and software manufactures driving more players to it?” When more and more players justify cheating as a way of making money then we have a problem. When people see cheating as “being professional” then cheating no longer seems bad in the individual perspective but a necessary method of operation.
With players multi-accounting and changing IP addresses and using all sorts of devious software to con their fellow players and the sites themselves then where will this all end? Another problem is that it is happening whether we like it or not. We have the added problem that people like me write about it and that educates people who didn’t know already.
So then we have an even worse situation where reading about cheating creates its own feedback loop and gives people ideas. One could say that I really ought to shut my mouth but what’s the point when it is happening anyway. Writing this article hasn’t led to the numerous exposed scandals that have cropped up recently, they would have happened with or without me.
My main concern is the lower levels getting far tougher to beat as strong players are multi-tabling lower stakes rather than play their own levels. If this were to happen we could potentially get the Full Tilt Poker situation being replicated in games as low as NL600 shortly……if it isn’t already. It is all very sobering indeed and the sad fact is that I cannot see the situation getting better for quite some time.
Carl "The Dean" Sampson can be seen at his blog
http://www.pokersharkpool.com and
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