Tell me your not serious ?

1. They never played competitively against each other . fact.
2. They made playing arrangements . this is collusion.
3. They are splitting profits (only a dummy would think otherwise) this is
against the integrity of the game as said by pokerstars.

It is pretty clear it is against the rules that are posted on the site. That is why a lot of people didn't use the same strategy. These guys broke the rules and are getting a way with it because it is simpler for Stars that way. I do hope that they get flags attached to their accounts because clearly these guys are going to shoot every angle they can and probably even cheat.

Damn man, sorry to hear that
(play the Sun Mill on the 16th, u will get good karma )

Maybe they will get spitecalled or downswing for life

negligible advantage

1. Changes nothing for your chances to hit promo.

2. Collusion vs whom?

3. Again, what does this change for your chances to hit promo?

Poker Stars and the players trying to hit the promotion

Conspiracy to commit.

They are working together (collusion) to blatantly cheat the system thus hurting the equity of everyone else and stealing from Poker Stars.

1. If they were playing "real poker" for a half hour and then did this for the last 5 hands or so would you say the same thing? The right play was to see as many hands as fast as possible
2. Playing arrangements applies to other players, not HU
3. What if 2 people agreed ahead of time to split the promo prize if either won anything and never played vs each other then won playing "real poker?" Edit: if they never played each other then it's no issue. But how about if they played 24 FR tables and a few of them were both at same table.

These guys did the most they could to have the best chance of hitting the 70 billionth hand. I don't have a problem with it. I wish I could have played (US ) and hit the milestone. PokerStars does not have a problem with it. At least PokerStars did not find anything sufficient to constitute abuse of the promotion worthy of penalty at it's sole discretion.

I don't see why so many people have their panties in a wad over this. No rules were broken. PokerStars has a pretty good track record of finding violaitons of their ToS and punishing the guilty parties.

I do agree it's against the spirit of the promotion, but that's not breaking a rule and PokerStars duty is to enforce the rules, not make life fair.

How do you know they hurt other peoples equity? No more than a 24 tabler hurts the equity of someone playing 1 table. You seem to think they played 9,999/10,000 hands around the 70b hand mark. You realize its more like....24/10,000...probably pretty close to any other person on 24 HU tables at the time.

You can't really just say "HEY they cheated me!" and not show any evidence to back it up.

They probably run over kittens and puppies in their spare time as well and are rude to their mother. Unfortunately that and all your points still do not change the fact that they worked within the system (by gaming it) and this is common in all sorts of systems and promotions. The years of 2003-7 were the bonus whoring era where people did all sorts of variations of this behavior.

They will change how the promo works in future to account for this, which is all a company can really do in these cases.

Game shows have had this happen with that Press Your Luck guy who became famous for breaking how the pattern worked as well as Price is Right when a nutjob ion the audience who went to every taping shouted out prices because he knew what everything cost.

If no rules are broken all that can be done is tweak the system to make it better next time. Get over it already, that is reality.

you might be the dumbest person ever.

Im not talking about the chances of hitting promo im talking about pokerstars rules about playing against a friend.

1.The rules state if you play against a friend you play competitively .
Even you must admit they weren't.

2.They had pre-arranged to fold every hand and split profits .
This is collusion and against the integrity of the game .

can you not read ?

You guys are dumb .

P.S. As my grandpa used to say about dummies.

" Theres no use chapping if theres nobody in "

pretty sure the whiners will disregard your reality and substitute their own.

because i do not like soft play when i got my panties on, i like it hard and rough! lol

soft play= form of collusion.

Wow.. They didnt superuse NO they didnt steal NO, they colluded... 2 persons knowing eachother and together deciding what to do on a real money table is colluding and abuse of this promo..

watch our for softplay at 2max tables, the next big collusion scame!

I thought I was done with this thread ages ago, wtf is wrong with me. I'll just close with PokerStars determination on the matter:

i think the OPs video(EVHERO) clearly shows that they soft play/cheated!

1. Funny thing is the best strategy for independent players can sometimes be exactly the same as if they were colluding. Doesn't mean anything.(e.g. on bubble of SnG, short stack all in and other players in hand check it down to improve their chances of making the money- looks like collusion but in fact isn't)

2. LOL who wasn't folding as fast as possible when the 70b hand was close? Whether with a friend or a complete stranger, wheres the difference?

Pokerstars needs to really take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
They should eat the 70K screwup and distribute the funds to paying customers that raked during this promotion.

Steve needs to admit he made a big mistake by giving the funds to the players and obviously they will change TOS moving forward. Nothing wrong with making a wrong decision and making it right.

I feel really bad for the players that put their hand earned money on the table only to watch it disappear. Might as well ship the rake to pokerstars.net players.

get over it

People are going to continue to complain and cry and say this is cheating/collusion/whatever else they want to call it. It wasn't cheating, it wasn't collusion or whatever else you want to call it. Every other 24 tabling player that was playing HU during the final 10 seconds of the promo had the same odds as these two as being selected...if you can't see that, then you're the idiot.

For all of that want to keep arguing, then you probably also can't see the difference in 24 tabling full ring vs 24 tabling 6 max vs 24 tabling HU. Everyone was free to choose how many tables they wanted vs how many opponents they wanted at the table. YOU WERE ALLOWED TO PICK AND CHOOSE WHATEVER OPTION GAVE YOU THE HIGHEST EV TO WIN!!! They chose 24 HU and just happened to be lucky enough to hit the jackpot...move on please.

I move to have this thread locked.

This has nothing to do with a +EV play. It was not a fair fight. Last time i checked pokerstars.com players play for real money. If you are going to open fold everyhand then go play pokerstars.net. Paying customers are not happy and i don't blame them one bit.

cheating tends to be +ev. thats sort of why people do it.

that statement is only true if you ignore the laws of probability

what are you on about ??
checking on the bubble doesnt look like collusion at all. Its only if you actually
type in chat or verbally say " check it down " in a live game thats what
collusion is. Its trying to influence the outcome of the game .

And no i was 8 tabling 6 max and wasnt folding as fast as i could if it happens
to hit then lucky me. Obviously it didnt.

Awesome, a five page thread with people debating the same things over and over!!!

Nice score guys, congrats.

Tell me how the hell this isn't a fair fight? If you think that these two were getting more hands in than any other 24 tabling HU player in the final seconds that would have swayed the outcome, then I feel sorry for you.