accusation of cheating

[couplecraft]

Hi. I'm new here.

I was just playing the Wingows Poker Turned Str8 Freeroll. At the start three Hungarian players started chatting in Hungarian. I don't understand Hungarian and have no idea what they were saying, but an Anglophone player at the table said in English that one of them said he had a scanner! They denied it. I asked the Anglophone guy for further information but he just told me to be quiet.

I was playing tight-aggressive and went all-in with KK. After one of the Hungarian players folded, I showed. Three hands later I went all in again, bluffing with Ace high on a three-spade flop, and the same guy called instantly with Ts4s. I was out.

I really don't know what to think.

So I've sent an email to Wingows support asking for two things: (1) Find out if the Hungarian guy was really cheating and, if he was, redress the matter; (2) Find out if the Anglophone guy made a frivolous public accusation of cheating and, if he did, discipline him.

Do people here think I behaved the right way? Please elaborate.

How do you feel about frivolous public accusations of cheating? I consider them a serious violation of poker ethics.

couplecraft

 

[soflat]

What kind of scanner? A police scanner? A flatbed scanner? ?

 

[couplecraft]

What kind of scanner? A police scanner? A flatbed scanner? ?

Hehe. Touch.

couplecraft

 

[steadman]

Hi. I'm new here.

I was playing tight-aggressive and went all-in with KK. After one of the Hungarian players folded, I showed. Three hands later I went all in again, bluffing with Ace high on a three-spade flop, and the same guy called instantly with Ts4s. I was out.

couplecraft

Hi,

I have to say there is nothing wrong with calling an all in with a 10 high flush on a freeroll - no matter how tight the alliner is playing.

I don't know much about scanners, etc. but I can only assume that if you are correctly firewalled you should you believe yourself safe. It seems incredible to believe that anyone could scan the actual poker server for your cards and certainly the idea that each players computer would hold information about the other players cards before showdown would be ridiculous for any commercial poker site.

As far as any of the Hungarian players claiming they have a scanner - if that really was the case why would they mention it through the poker chatroom?

Regards,

S.

 

[couplecraft]

Hi,

I have to say there is nothing wrong with calling an all in with a 10 high flush on a freeroll - no matter how tight the alliner is playing.

I don't know much about scanners, etc. but I can only assume that if you are correctly firewalled you should you believe yourself safe. It seems incredible to believe that anyone could scan the actual poker server for your cards and certainly the idea that each players computer would hold information about the other players cards before showdown would be ridiculous for any commercial poker site.

As far as any of the Hungarian players claiming they have a scanner - if that really was the case why would they mention it through the poker chatroom?

Regards,

S.

It does take a tough player to fold a flush. (I'd love to meet someone who has folded a boat, because I've never seen it happen.)

The other thing is that, in small-prize-pool freerolls on small online cardrooms, the player quality usually isn't great, and I forgot that. Judging by how quickly the guy called, he didn't seem to give any thought to my having an A, Q, or J-high flush, which would at least have made a decent player pause for a few seconds. (There was no pair on board and no straight flush possibility, but I strongly doubt he gave that any thought, either.) I was suspicious because the guy didn't even stop to think about it for half a second, but likely I just gave him too much credit and outsmarted myself.

Wingows is a very small poker room that uses an interface I've never seen elsewhere. Their security standards might not be terribly high. I have legal XP and a registered Mcafee package that keep auto-updating frequently, so if one of the Hungarian guys hacked me I know whom to sue.

Why would they openly mention cheating, even in Hungarian? I can only guess at collusion. But I'm not even sure non-English chat is prohibited in that cardroom and have asked Wingows to clarify.

Wingows replied a few minutes ago. They asked for the three Hungarian guys' screen names and I told them to check the chat log. They start yapping in a foreign language before the first hand is dealt. If Wingows didn't log the chat, then I don't see how they could investigate anything.

Which is probably no big deal. Likely the accuser was talking out of his butt.

couplecraft

UPDATE: While I was typing another post, Wingows replied and confirmed that they do log chats and that chat in languages other than English is not permitted. Wow, their response time is lightning-fast!

 

[tennis_balls]

rest assured that even if such a "scanner" did exist, you would not be encountering this at a freeroll.

you didn't say but I'm assuming you had the ace of spades in this hand?

 

[couplecraft]

rest assured that even if such a "scanner" did exist, you would not be encountering this at a freeroll.

you didn't say but I'm assuming you had the ace of spades in this hand?

Good point about it being a freeroll. I think top prize was 10 British pounds, so who would bother? Split it three ways among three guys? Nah. Most likely the accuser *was* talking out of his butt. I do hope he gets a stern warning email.

No, I had an Ac and went all-in on the river. It was a pure bluff.

couplecraft

 

[Lord_Have_Mercy]

You Bluffed your A$$ right out the tournament.

 

[couplecraft]

You Bluffed your A$$ right out the tournament.

Hey, I set it up by showing those KK! But see my comment in the other thread about visually inspecting my colon.

couplecraft

 

[pokeraddict]

The main thing is that Dobrosoft does not allow any language other then English to be spoken at the table. It's a freeroll though, don't expect much to happen.

 

[ace4suited]

I think the no language but english rule is a little harsh on non english speakers but if a player in a game that is english only players are within their rights to contact support and get their chat removed or get other actions taken.

As for the call - bluffing in a freeroll is very rarely a good play people will call with bellybuster straight draws and less. The "scanner" notion is nonsense online playing is actually much safer from that point of view than live play.

 

[tencardcharlie]

I'd love to meet someone who has folded a boat

Nice to meet you too

Why would they openly mention cheating, even in Hungarian?

Yes, that certainly does not make sense. I occasionally see people talk about these 'scanners' and stuff - but of course it is just rubbish. If someone used some kind of cheating device they would be silent about it.

 

[couplecraft]

folding a boat

Charlie, please tell me of your experience folding a boat. I've never seen such a thing.

cc

 

[gerilege]

I'm a Hungarian poker player and a computer scientist and a native Hungarian speaker. You can be 100% sure that nothing bad happened. I don't even know how do you call such a specific "scanner" in Hungarian. It's sure that we don't have a separate word for that. If you have the logs, the word for original computer scanner is simply "szkenner" in Hungarian. But we never use this word for anything else than scanner in terms of a device for scanning documents. So the English speaking guy WAS SURELY WRONG , because he COULD NOT KNOW that the Hungarians are speaking about such a scanner. Even a native speaker in Hungarian doesn't know Hungarian words for anything else than a simple scanner. How could than a native English then realize that they were talking about such things (which would have been some phrase or kind a "workaround words" for the English term in Hungarian)?

I really hate anyway that some of the rookie Hungarian poker players chat in Hungarian. If you post the chat logs here or PM, I can tell you what they were talking about. If I have to guess, it was about scanning in documents for verification for some poker sites. It is always a problem for rookie Hungarian players, who participate on a freeroll.

 

[gerilege]

Charlie, please tell me of your experience folding a boat. I've never seen such a thing.

cc

You have 2c3c, flop is 2s,2d,Kh, turn is Kc. Turn/river fold is quite reasonable.

 

[couplecraft]

You have 2c3c, flop is 2s,2d,Kh, turn is Kc. Turn/river fold is quite reasonable.

Sorry, I thought "boat" meant full house. But I can imagine having BB with 23o and then getting a spread of 22K3K where you'd be afraid of a K.

cc

 

[couplecraft]

I'm a Hungarian poker player and a computer scientist and a native Hungarian speaker. You can be 100% sure that nothing bad happened. I don't even know how do you call such a specific "scanner" in Hungarian. It's sure that we don't have a separate word for that. If you have the logs, the word for original computer scanner is simply "szkenner" in Hungarian. But we never use this word for anything else than scanner in terms of a device for scanning documents. So the English speaking guy WAS SURELY WRONG , because he COULD NOT KNOW that the Hungarians are speaking about such a scanner. Even a native speaker in Hungarian doesn't know Hungarian words for anything else than a simple scanner. How could than a native English then realize that they were talking about such things (which would have been some phrase or kind a "workaround words" for the English term in Hungarian)?

I really hate anyway that some of the rookie Hungarian poker players chat in Hungarian. If you post the chat logs here or PM, I can tell you what they were talking about. If I have to guess, it was about scanning in documents for verification for some poker sites. It is always a problem for rookie Hungarian players, who participate on a freeroll.

Thanks for piping up. I don't recall anything even similar to "scanner" being said but I didn't keep the chat log. Wingows has yet to get back to me about their investigation. If they do I'll post here.

cc