David Dearlove (Hullplayer) has been banned. His ban according to the Sky security person he has spoken to is because he admitted collusion. He was asked if the screenshot chat where hole cards were discussed was pre-flop and DD confirmed it was.

He asked about David Harvey and was told he is denying collusion and maintaining the hole card chat was all post flop.

If it is accepted that Hullplayer's chat was pre-flop and he has been subsequently banned how can there be any doubt that Dave Harvey is also guilty. Are Sky running a wormhole chat facility we don't know about?

These players cannot be separated and treated differently just because one is a friend of Tony Kendall and the Sky management.

PRE-FLOP, POST-FLOP, What's the difference, there's still 5 or 2 cards still to come..
post-flop i say i have AK, you say i have 10 10 and i'm shoving i fold, that's collusion.

So it's fair to say that playing on Sky is pointless because it's all about team play?

Wasn't likely to play anyway but now it's certain I won't.

Tony should be the least of your concerns InnocentRV if you are the person people are taking about. given the evidence made available on here. Guilty as charged is my verdict which makes your choice of user name rather distasteful. i dont think your fellow team mates want your sort leading them in the future or do you consider them sheep to? i would hope if your sky friend wont deal with you the good people, and i am sure there are many within your team will.

The team are obviously under instruction not to put you any deeper in the hole you are already in.

They out to get you? Have checked everywhere but fail to see anyone other than you and DD in the screenshots.

Don't try and pin your CHEATING on anyone other than your greedy self.

You were wrong and outsmarted 3 years ago and you cannot block people on here that know the egotistical smug git behind the facade.

Man up and face the music!!

Sky lost it's originality after the TV channel had gone.

Sky will now also lose a nice percentage of traffic if they look weak on this, take a stand ban the cheat.

There's no forced collude here... Ban him. Simple

cashed out all of my Sky roll today. If collusion between "teams" is permitted just so long as they don't admit it , i'm not going to continue to play there .Cash out guys , its the only message that is going to get sky management to take notice.

I won't be rushed into a knee jerk reaction....I'm leaving my 74p in for now

Just as an example of the Sky Forum censorship in action. There is a thread where Sky Officials are giving bland, non-specific reasoning to their approach to collusion.

On that thread there are some very barbed remarks made towards anyone who is voicing objections to the way the Harvey/Dearlove collusion has been handled. Those barbed remarks remain for all to see with a gentle reminder from the Sky Official to be nice to each other.

The flip side are the posts that are being removed/deleted without warning. One poster has just asked why her/his post was deleted. It was met with a curt, ''you breached the forum rules.''

This is an exact C&P of that post, taken prior to it being deleted by the Sky moderator................


I am fairly new to sky poker, I frequent many forums, I feel that this story is starting to steamroll and gather a little pace.
I have already read quite a few threads over a few forums with this story, IMO the way that this has been handled is abysmal to say the least.
Whatever reason or whatever stake, does not matter cheating is cheating!
The evidence is there for all to see.
If I was the victim of collusion then I would want whoever is responsible to not only be banned but receive a heavier penalty and a more thorough investigation by somebody other than those hoping to keep their respectability intact.
I understand that this is not the first time that collusion has been proven on the forum without the sky poker team getting there first, with many forum members doing the investigation for them.
I have had a few dealings with the cc team and found them to be very helpfull, so please don't take this as a " I hate sky poker"
I just don't like how 1 player can still be allowed to play after the evidence and admittance.
Its quite easy to collude in poker through various messenger sites, it cannot be stopped but once proven I think that serious actions must be taken.

______________________


Worthy of deletion?

The OP has asked why her/his post was deleted. This is often a forerunner to being forum banned.

Meanwhile Hullplayer is banned while HitmaRV's account remains live on the forum.

Collusion takes 2 to tango but Hullplayer admitted it - this isn't reason in of itself to ban another player. If I was a losing player on sky and wasn't too bothered if I was never allowed to play there again & held a grudge against someone I could theoretically make up a story and admit to colluding with X player that I held a grudge against. The screenshots could also in theory be photo shopped & Sky do say that they can't take what has been said on other social media as fact.

However, HitmanRV shot himself in the foot when he admitted his part in the collusion on the forum. So whilst the screenshots + Hullplayers' confession may be inadmissible in court (so to speak) Hitman's retracted confession is certainly irrefutable evidence that he indeed colluded.

According to Hullplayer, who asked Sky what was happening with HitmanRV and was told he is denying collusion and maintaining the hole card chat was all post flop. (I'm assuming he meant post-hand, not post-flop. Colluding pre-flop or post-flop is still colluding!) The screenshots clearly prove otherwise though and again coupled with his confession surely leads to a no-brainier charge of guilty.

It seems that the only ones that don't think he is guilty, is himself and Sky, even some of his team "through the grape vine" have said he is guilty, but don't want to add flames to the fire.
But by saying now't the whole team will come under scrutiny every time they play a team game.

I've been bought here via another thread as this seems to have blown up but I think a few of you are missing the bigger picture and are concentrating too much on Sky. The evidence is as clear as any I have seen, they both colluded and the site for some strange reason decided to inforce "evidence" rules to protect Dave Harvey but what's the big picture?

His team has over 200 members and they play TOGETHER across different sites (not just Sky) every day of the week. They play in online team MTT events but also together in general main went MTTS.

It is possible that the one time that they are caught cheating is the only time that they have done it but after a bit of digging into online mentions of Dave Harvey and The Hitsquad it's obvious that they do very well in team events and large field MTTS and as someone has mentioned previous there seems to have been a particularly high upswing in the last year on Sky alone. It could all be a coincidence right?

I think it's only fair and very possible that the collusion goes deeper. What is to say that the Hitsquad don't work together and collude across all sites they play on. What's to say that they don't use their own forums and chat groups to coordinate it.

The only evidence that this is possible is that the creator of the team and it's captain was caught out cheating with another team member but denied it. We are left to hope that this was an isolated incident and just "unlucky" that the one time they cheated it was caught in a screen shot.

Does someone want to give me the odds of this being the only time that this has happened and that this has only happened on Sky?

"Through the Grapevine" says it all.

Are you seriously telling me that in a team of that size and a team that is apparently made up of so called decent players of all levels there isn't one of them that has come out in public to properly condemn them BOTH. That doesn't seem right to me? Are they all balls deep in it together or scared to speak out?

Ofc it's happened before. Anyone who believes differently needs their head examined. The whole team is tarred by this now. The only way to move on is to get rid of DH from the head of the team.

The situation is being carefully managed by Sky Poker. The forum whilst allowing some critical posts relating to the handling of this and the status of the players, is also deleting anything that digs too deep. There is an adequate supply of posters coming forward to pounce on any detractors.

The Hitsquad have a section of the teamtalk page but there isn't a single mention of this on there. Sky replies are simply ''you don't know what we are doing and we won't tell you.''

Unfortunately the grapevine is all most people have to go on.

Meanwhile Hullplayer remains banned and HitmanRV has a full profile on the Sky Poker Forum. Hullplayers profile has been removed in keeping with the fate of banned players.

I'm going to make a rather extreme example to prove my point here. Why is Mugabe still in power in Zimbabwe, surely one of his supporters condemns what he does?

I don't know anything about this hitsquad but what I do know is that a team of 200 people, directly colluding or not, have a big presence on small poker sites. Personally for me, there are no friends at a poker table. I've had pretty heated debates about this in the past where I've been accused of taking a different line vs friends to maximise my EV only to hear "friends don't do that". The point is friends/teammates will always collude, whether it's as downright obvious as "I have AK" or simply playing softer on the bubble of a tournament vs their short stack friend. I am not saying all people are like that, but I reckon many are.

Now ask yourself, if you're playing on a small site in a 6 max tourney, would you 2 or 3 of the other players to be part of your "team" or would you want them possibly colluding against you because you spoke out against them? Bear in mind these guys know what happens behind the scenes so they may be aware of lots of colluding that happens which would make them less likely to want to be a target at the table.

These guys also play live events together...and did In fact win the apat uk team championship.....I played in this and as a team we were told if we get on the same table together(although this didn't happen,because we didn't last that long) that as its a team game it's acceptable to avoid confrontation with a team mate but not to blatantly collude.

Now it may just be coincidence that they won then a few months later are caught out cheating but it makes you think that maybe they had a plan with secret signals etc all along?

Going off your name and the suffix I assume you are a member of Team 51?

I didn't think team 51 had entered the APAT Live Competition. Did you play in it as a member of another team?

Both players are now banned.

I suspect DH will find a way back onto sky poker (on his own name or otherwise) but a good result due to community pressure nonetheless.

Yes...it had nothing to do with sky poker or team51

It's not the best advertisement for his "Legal Team".

What on earth prompted them to think that 'Teams' were a good idea in the first place?

I note from the Sky forum that the 'Hit Squad' thread has now been removed from view. Does that mean that team has been disbanded? Will they move away from team play being allowed on their site?

One Positive!!
You have made a HitWife Very Happy!! Thanks!! Xx

I Move on...
HitSquad remains Positive & Strong.

See you all around I expect.

I remain Sky Loyal I have many Close friends there across Community, from All Teams & Indies.
Tony K, was merley a Good Poker Acquaintance, not a close friend at all, as has been implied above, & nothing to do with any of this, neither has rest of The THS Team.

The HitSquad has run for 5 years with NEVER a Problem or Accusation, nor had I, till Now.
All Loyal to Sky & Community. That Continues....





IF....
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!




Bye & GL