Disclaimer: I have no personal attitude in this case. Neither I know any of ppl I listed in this post. There are some links to Russian forums ITT, don't be angry, there is no useful info on Russian anyway. Use google translator if you need. BTW, did I post this in correct place?

I wrote about this on some Russian forum (b/c there are Russians involved, I'm also initially from Russia, emigrated later, but this is offtopic). After that I went for a long-long holiday, and as I can see now, nothing changed at all during these 2 months.

I am playing mid-stakes CAP games (up to 2/4), PTRing some regs from time to time and noticed a strange thing. One Belorussian player was break-even (or even worse) @ mid-stakes and had very good run @ high-stakes. That wasn't like 10k hands or so, it was some kind of long run. Belorussian community is not that wide, so there's no need in being Sherlock to uncover the truth.

So lets get back to business. I'm pretty sure that PokerStrategy coach niabios is playing on 5/10+ cap games @ Stars from more than one acc. niabios & obmanusha are his screennames and I gonna prove it.

Firtsly, he wrote there about his statistics for last 2 months (original post date is 05/23).

http://www.pokeroff.ru/Niabios/obuch...0-post-2778962

But check his PTR, he played only 6.5k hands @ 25/50cap alltime, interesting enough already, right?
http://www.pokertableratings.com/sta...search/niabios

Check obmanusha's one and see how many hands was played @ mid AND high-stakes. Obmanusha never played 1/2- and 5/10+ at the same time!!

Secondly, he posted in his blog hands from 25/50cap, but he was so stupid to post obmanusha's hands. See it for yourself:

http://ru.pokerstrategy.com/forum/th...03#post4615203
1st hand (with side note "Ruddy (Rudder1ess) eats my brain)
http://www.pokertableratings.com/han...62/14479886186

2nd hand
http://www.pokertableratings.com/han...03/14479736878

(you don't need ptr acc to see these hands)

and finally
http://ru.pokerstrategy.com/forum/th...72#post4613172
compare 1st hand from this post to
http://www.pokertableratings.com/han...13/14472339452

So, I'm about 99.(9)% sure that niabios=obmanusha (at least @ high-stakes). One of trusted members of Russian community, krondix, wrote that obmanusha must be niabios wife's account, so Stars can't ban them for playing from one IP. I don't know their reason to share one account, maybe it's cool to trick high-stakes regs, playing from break-even acc at level that is way bigger that this acc usually plays.

Please send link to this thread to Stars's security (security@pokerstars.com), not support.

One more thing about Russian community. veyr strange thing, I suppose. After posting this info about 2 months ago on one of Russian forums I got ton of negatives comments like "you rat", "even if he is cheating, how this affects you" and so on. Is it really normal?

Maybe this thread needs to be moved into "High Stakes NL"? Or nobody cares about CAP games?

Anyway, I forgot to tell that firstly I posted that in PokerStrategy forum and got banned within hour I think.

They say it's their mutual blog, Stars allow spouces play from 1 computer, doesn't look shady yet. Of course pokerstrategy is full of scammers, + after fulltilt going busto they have lost their sourse of income. Now theyre even selling statuses.

Well, the thing is not their play from one PC. Girl plays 100-400nl cap and can't beat it at all. Guy plays 1000-5000nl from his acc and from his gf's one. At least he claims that obmanusha's hands were played by him (posting them like he played them himself), also he posts graphs that don't match only niabios's graph, according to PTR. Isn't that enough to look shady?

Personally I don't mind if my opponents have multiple accounts on the same site, as long as they don't use those accounts to play at the same table at the same time. Don't know why any other player should care about that either unless they have some personal issues with the player in question.

The way you describe it, it does seem that he is multi-accounting, though. Report it if it makes you happy, it shouldn't be too difficult for stars to figure it out once you point them in the right direction.

yeah probably the same guy since they both suck equally as bad

def cheating

You really don't see how someone being very familiar with your style and having a read on your play gives them an unfair advantage if you have no idea who they are?

I play micros so I wouldn't mind if my opponents changed their username every day but maybe it would be a big problem at high stakes.

Tell me what exactly do you think will happen if a new name joins the table and starts playing like one of the regulars used to, what would you do?
How much do you think that name change might cost you?

nice sherlock op, but this is pretty common at highstakes, also at the plo5k+ games are a lot of multiaccounter/accountsharer...

just stupid from this guy to make it so obv...

lost all credibility for an opinion with this comment considering this is a high stakes situation.

That's a bit silly to say. This is a multi-accounting/cheating situation. While this situation may have occurred at high stakes, I don't see how a micro player isn't allowed to have an opinion. I don't happen to agree with SatanBunny and I'm a micro player. You don't have to play high-stakes to understand and have an opinion regarding mulit-accounting, ya snob.

There's no necessary correlation between intelligence and stakes played (or post count for that matter, as many seem to think) as demonstrated by your comment.

omg someone cheating in the online wild west?

call the sheriff!

Fine, ignore my opinion but can you answer my question?
If it seems a bit off topic you could send a PM instead of posting an answer.

If you really know your opponent that well, you should recognize him by his playing style, not just by his name. He may temporarily have an edge but you'd be onto him soon enough, wouldn't you? I'm asking, not telling.

Against a fish I couldn't care less if he changes his name every day.

But against a reg, who you have history with plus reads etc that have taken thousands of hands to gain... then he is at a huge advantage if playing on another account vs you.

Forget highstakes. If this was happening at my level 100nl I would be pisssed. At high stakes its just inexcusable but after recent scandals I am not even slightly surprised.

You are way off. Having a true read on your opponent is everything in poker. And it takes many many hours and thousands of hands sometimes to get an accurate read on opponents tendencies in certain situations. The idea that you will recognize player X easily and quickly when his name is now player Y is absurd. There is a reason why shady players collectively pay thousands and thousands of dollars and cheat buying hand histories to expedite the often laborious task of getting reads and stats on players.

Of course you wouldn't mind at the micros. Who cares if RandomDonk23 changes his name to RandomDonk35?

That's why I asked about the high stakes.
And now I got my answer, thank you.

The fact is if you have a 100k hand history with said reg, they have 100k hands worth of a read on you. You could have playernotes as well. If they sign under a diff account they still have their reads on you, but you don't have any idea who they are.

People do it because there is an edge they gain by doing it that they would otherwise not have. In this way it is unfair, and indefensible imo.

It's clearly cheating and getting an advantage.
I wonder if they wouldn't get fake reads sometimes though. You know how he would play that hand against old-u but would he play it the same way vs the new-u, an unknown?

You always have to factor in a players specific tendencies toward you, and just as importantly gameflow. Both of these factors can override the stats you see in given situations. This doesnt however render stats meaningless as there are a ton of situations that players, being creatures of habit, will make the plays that have become standard for them. These standard lines become even more prevalent vs unknowns.

You are only allowed one account per person.

Abusing this even slightly is cheating.


/thread

Hey everyone,

thanks for bringing it up & discussing it. Any information is appreciated - here or directly to support@pokerstrategy.com.

We will investigate the matter & act accordingly. Obviously we will not accept misconduct of any kind by our freelancers.

Best,
Lutz

Oh, that's ok then...

Nice! Is there any chance that results of this case would be public?