I've been out of the poker scene for a while. When sweating a friend who is playing online is it cheating to give them advice on a hand? How about telling them how to play? What about general coaching? I'm asking so I don't unknowingly cheat or do something unethical. If this is addressed somewhere can you point me to the right direction?

Sweat sessions happen all the time. If you’re worried about it just hold back commentary until after the hand is done. There’s nothing wrong with helping players learn on the fly by pointing out mistakes immediately after they make them. If you’re talking about when a hand is actively running and influencing a players decision, I would consult your sites terms of service. Some might prohibit “ghost playing”. I personally don’t see it as any different then following a preflop chart or running solving software, but some may feel differently, especially at higher stakes.

It’s certainly not allowed to play under someone else’s name, but where the line is drawn in terms of having another player telling someone what to do is kind of a grey zone. I don’t know where that distinction is made.

One player to a hand. If you give advice during a hand, tell someone what to do, talk about what your opponent could have or anything like that it is flatout cheating and unethical.

I’m not sure that all online poker rooms have that rule.

I know that PokerStars didn’t have a “one player to a hand” rule for the longest time because it’s an unenforceable rule anyway in most instances. That topic came up several times back in the day when good young players first started to live together in grind houses. There’s old videos of Krantz and FWF discussion optimal play while one of them is in a HU match with someone else. At one point a PokerStars rep even posted on 2+2 to confirm that they don’t have a OPTAH rule.

So I would check the rules of the online poker room to see if they have a OPTAH rule and if they don’t, giving advice while sweating might be questionable behavior but not illegal and certainly not cheating.

How is it "questionable" behavior. If you were in a casino and a player just asks around how other players have seen you play hands and whether they think you are bluffing during the hand, would you consider that questionable? Whether there is an actual OPTAH rule in place is irrelevant if we're purely talking ethics.

If you’re playing live poker and the floor comes over and tells you that they don’t have a OPTAH rule and your friend sitting behind you is allowed to give you advice, how is it unethical to let him do that?

The only difference is that at PokerStars, lots of players didn’t know or didn’t expect that to happen. That made it questionable in my opinion. But if they had a pop up that told players that team play is not disallowed, nothing about it would have been unethical.

I guess we have different views.

If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?

No one would know if you "cheated" or not so it is really irrelevant. If you are of extreme great character and want to do the right thing all of the time I guess it does matter but here's my off on a tangent view.

You telling him what move to make in real time is like you playing for him. It is your decision in the hand. I don't know if I would call that cheating but it is definitely not beneficial. It is more beneficial to critique the other players decisions. You making the decisions doesn't teach the why. It just says what to do in that situation. If you explain why you made that decision the other player may or may not remember but I believe that allowing him to make the correct or incorrect decision (as you see it) then giving your point of view on it may be a better learning experience for the other player.

I'm going to (sort of) agree with Kelvis.

Poker is not a team game. Thus coaching someone while he/she is in a hand is clearly unethical.

That said, since the online casino has no way of policing this, a realistic view suggests that your opponents may be doing just that, so you can bend your ethics by saying you're just leveling the playing field.

Thank you for the input. Maybe others will add to the discussion

If you sit at the table and tell another player what to do, it is cheating. If you take over someone's decisions, it is cheating, also when you are not at the table/the account holder.

The latter is something that has been/is done in tourneys where a better player takes over later. It is not that useful in cash games but it can be multiaccounting.

Stars just changed their Terms about it as far as I read, that though seems to allow multiaccounting as long as you are not at the same table or a tourney.