partypoker Player Exposes Collusion Ring in High Stakes Tournaments

A high stakes player who has played online poker for 13 years and currently playing under the screen name ‘DukeOfSuffolk’ at partypoker has unveiled suspected collusion at partypoker's high stakes tournaments through his thread titled ‘Huge collusion ring in High Stakes MTTs at PartyPoker’ which he posted on the popular TwoPlusTwo forum. This has prompted a response and further action from the online poker site.

In his thread, the ‘DukeOfSuffolk‘ detailed two situations that occurred during play in which the suspected collusion took place and prompted him to do some investigation of his own.

The collusion was later confirmed by a partypoker spokesperson and an investigation soon followed resulting in the bans of those involved and the reimbursement of funds to affected players.

According to the TwoPlusTwo thread, the first incident where a collusion was suspected took place in a Turbo Highroller final table on Oct. 18. which the ‘DukeOfSuffolk’ played in. From his own investigation, he identified the screen names of the six suspected players.

Two days after the first incident, on Oct. 20, the ‘DukeOfSuffolk’ noticed that these six suspected players were one again enrolled in a high roller event. He discovered and added eight more players with similar tournament histories as the above six players to the suspected collusion ring. He also provided proof in his thread that included links to the tournament history of each of the suspected players along with a text file containing hand histories from the Turbo Highroller final table where collusion was suspected and also a video from the two-table bubble play of the same tournament.

The ‘DukeOfSuffolk’ made another post on Oct. 22, saying that even though he was told by partypoker that the accounts of the offenders were suspended, he could still find one of the offenders, ‘PowerCarl’ participating in a $215 multi-phase tournament.

partypoker Managing Director Tom Waters confirmed the collusion case and admitted some accounts remained active by mistake. The online poker website has since made sure that all suspected accounts have been suspended but have not been deactivated so far. Waters elaborated on the importance of carrying out a detailed investigation before these accounts were closed for good.

A new email address called collusion@partypoker.com has been set up to which players can use to send in their suspicions. A special player panel has also been formed to review these collusion complaints and they will be responsible for making a final decision in these cases.