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Over the years, various cheating scandals have been discovered, and some probably remained a secret forever. The definition of what’s considered cheating in the game has also dramatically changed over the years, especially with the introduction of online poker.
The idea of one player per hand has been well agreed upon in live games for decades, but online poker opened up new opportunities for people to play together without anyone knowing.
In fact, in the early days of online poker, playing together, sharing accounts, and getting help from friends were considered fairly normal and were not often questioned.
As online poker became more mainstream and the games grew, the poker community realized this could greatly hurt everyone involved. One concept that really sticks out in this sense is ghosting in poker, a phenomenon that has recently been scrutinized.
So what is ghosting in poker exactly, and why should you not do it? Keep reading to find out why and how you can ensure you are not breaking the rules of online poker without knowing.
Ghosting is a form of poker cheating that only exists in online poker, as it involves a more experienced or skillful player taking over for less skillful players in key moments of the game.
Ghosting is usually done in tournament poker, with tournament specialists waiting until one of a number of players in their “stable” makes a deep run, final table, or reaches a satellite bubble phase.
At this point, the expert takes over and uses all their skills to ensure the best possible result and make as much out of this deep run as possible.
You may still be wondering why this is a big deal, but you would only do so if you don’t fully understand the impact of skill in poker.
A mediocre poker player reaching a final table of a major poker tournament will often play timidly, be afraid to call bets or make big bluffs, or simply not aware of when they should do it.
On the other hand, the expert that comes in their place may be one that’s been in the situation hundreds of times and knows exactly how to act against others, many of whom may be recreational poker players.
This gives the team a massive advantage because the new player is skillful, and other players may have seen the weaker player play earlier in the tournament and picked up on certain reads and patterns. All of these are no longer applicable, as the playing style the expert will use is significantly different and will be much harder to play against.
With all this said, all major online poker rooms have banned ghosting in poker and consider it cheating, which means you could get banned from the platform and lose any funds you made by applying this technique.
Ghosting in poker would not be a massive problem if it were done occasionally among friends, one of whom may be slightly more skillful than the others. However, the ability to ghost people at poker tables has created a whole separate industry within the online poker world.
Professional poker players have repeatedly gathered stables of mediocre players around them, in so-called "stables," staking all the players for tournaments of all buyin ranges.
The idea of such stables is to have players play the early stages of big online poker tournaments and try to run up big stacks. With so many fish in the early stages, running up a stack is possible for virtually anyone.
Whenever a stable member would go deep in a major event, a pro would take over for them and start playing the final table instead, significantly increasing the account’s value at that final table.
By ghosting dozens of players, “grind houses” worldwide have potentially made millions from online poker, effectively cheating other players who were playing in the games without any assistance.
While some stables tried to run a more ethical business and make sure players play their own games throughout, the epidemic of ghosting has left its mark on the online poker world.
Most recently, major ghosting accusations were made against one of the best tournament players of all time, Bryn Kenney, and an alleged stable of players he ran where ghosting was rampant.
While no conclusive evidence was brought forward, many in the poker world believe that Kenney’s and many other stables ran off the back of ghosting and made millions while doing so.
Ghosting in poker is a significant problem that's been pointed out on numerous occasions, but the big problem is that it is very hard to detect and even harder to prove.
Technically speaking, players have the right to change their playing style as often as they want to, and many players do this to throw their opponents off and exploit others, which is totally within the rules of the game.
Simply recognizing that a player’s playing patterns have changed at some point in the tournament may not be enough to prove a player is cheating. However, online poker operators don’t need conclusive evidence to ban players, which is why some of the biggest sites have begun trying to detect cheaters using AI.
AI is being used to detect any anomalies in the behavior of players, which can lead to the detection of ghosting and other forms of cheating such as real-time assistance (RTA).
GGPoker, PokerStars, and other operators have taken on a campaign of detecting and putting an end to cheating in online poker, which has led to hundreds of players being banned from these major poker platforms.
In fact, quite a few big names in the world of poker are apparently no longer able to play at these sites exactly because of cheating, which sets a great precedent for the future of online poker.
Ghosting in poker can sound like a pretty good idea to novice players who make a deep run in a poker tournament. After all, who would not want expert help in a spot worth a lot of money?
However, the truth is that ghosting in poker not only hurts other players in the game, making it extremely unethical, but it also hurts you in the long run.
Should you decide to give up all your deep tournament runs to a friend or a pro player to play instead of you, you will never learn how to play in such spots.
This means that you will be left to your very meager skills if you make a final table of a live tournament in the future or do not have your friend by your side in future online poker events.
Repetition and experience are crucial in terms of getting better at poker, and you will not be getting the experience you need if you let someone else play your deep runs.
Engaging in ghosting will also very likely get you banned from major online poker platforms sooner or later, which means you will be left without the ability to play the best tournaments around.
Major live poker tours have also begun the process of banning players who are proven online cheats, which means a time may come when such players won't be able to play anywhere.
For all these reasons, I highly recommend you avoid cheating of any sort, including ghosting, and focus on getting better at the game and playing the best you can in all situations without any help while playing.
If you are playing online poker and doing so fairly, you should also be on the lookout for other suspicious behaviors to protect yourself.
For the longest time, cheating methods like collusion and chip dumping have been used in poker tournaments to give players an edge over the rest of the field. If you notice players playing soft against one another repeatedly or making plays that don’t seem to make too much sense to dump chips, there is no reason you should not report it.
The support staff at the online rooms will look at your allegations, and if you were indeed cheated, you will often be refunded some of your losses.
Another cheating method that's more recent in date and can be very dangerous is the so-called real-time assistance (RTA), which constitutes software to instruct a player on the best play possible in a particular spot.
Basically, if you are playing against a player who is using RTA, you are playing against a poker solver, which is an extremely advanced piece of software designed for post-game analysis.
RTA is 100% banned on all sites, but some players still try to get away with using such software to dominate the games and increase their EV.
It is this form of cheating that the likes of Ali Imsirovic have been accused of and apparently banned from GGPoker, so this is something to take very seriously.
Of course, it can be extremely difficult for a player to recognize another player using RTA while playing, but you can feel somewhat more secure now that major operators are doing more to detect RTA use and ban, such players.
Ghosting in poker, along with a number of other immoral and unethical activities, are the modern forms of cheating that you must look out for. While there used to be a day when players would pull cards out of their sleeves, these days, players cheat by using a lot more sophisticated tools.
If you are an online poker player yourself, make sure to always be aware of such things being a possibility, report any potential culprits, and make sure not to let anyone convince you to engage with such things yourself.
Any short-term gain you may get from cheating will be annulled in the long run when you get banned from platforms, your money gets confiscated, and your reputation in the poker world gets ruined forever.
If you have the feeling you need to sharpen up your game then Pokercode is a great place to start. Sign up for a free account and set your first steps towards becoming a better poker player.
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