Is this Legal?

[silverfist]

Near the end of the tourney. I'm pushing since I'm way low on chips after a nasty beat. Anyway, in chat, this turns up:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (3 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

saw flop|saw showdown

Button (t7535)
SB (t4965)
Silverfist (t1000)

Preflop: Silverfist is BB with J, J.

Button said, "next time hes all in we should both call and check it to the river"
Button said, "so he gets knocked out for sure"

1 fold, SB completes, Silverfist raises to t1000, SB folds.

Final Pot: t1150
Main Pot: t275 (t275), won by Silverfist.
Pot 2: t875 (t875), returned to Silverfist.

I thought it was a breach of the rules for people to openly cooperate in poker. As far as I can tell, the SB ignored him. I didn't feel so bad, though, since I ended up winning.

[badandy519]

I had pretty much the same thing happen a while back, except when I pushed all in the comment was "if you don't call, I will". Anyhow, I just reported the names to Party and told them I was pissed about the table talk and this is the response they sent:

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for bringing this to our notice. We do see that the
conversation between these players was indeed inappropriate.
Hence we have conducted a detailed investigation on both the
accounts to check for any possible team play between them.

We have looked into all the necessary aspects of their history
in our card room and we would like to share with you these
important facts that helped us arrive at a conclusion:

1- Both these players are coming from different states in USA.

2- This is the only tournament where they have shared tables, in
their entire association with this card room.

3- We have gone through all the game records of this tournament
and confirm that there is no sign of collusion involved. Also
note that we have focused not only on the hands in which the
player has been involved, but also all the hands in which they
have been together by themselves.

However, we do agree that the table conversation that transpired
between these players is inappropriate to say the least. As a
result of this report and consequent investigation, we have now

1) Blocked the chatting facilities of both the players
"DarkStar9" and "PegPlaying".
2) Barred both the players from sharing the same tables in this
card room.
3) Flagged their accounts to periodically review the activities
in these accounts.
4) Issued stern warnings to both the players, informing them
about possible sterner actions in case such activities are
repeated in their account.

Andrew, we thank you for getting this to our notice, as this is
in keeping with our priority of keeping up the integrity of this
card room. It indeed is heartening to have players like you in
this card room who care about the integrity of our games.

Best Regards,
Olivia Cooper
Investigations Team

[TLR]

Silverfest

If this bothers you then you better report them

I think it is inappororiate behaviour by the button

[Khabbi]

Wow Andy, even though you didn't benefit from the situation, you got a better response than when the same thing happened to me on Paradise.

At least PokerStars admitted that the behavior was not acceptable.

Paradise simply told me the two players had not history together and nothing would be done. They didn't even acknowledge that there was a real problem.

I have been thinking about moving to Poker Stars. I might consider it even more now.

[PokerPatNEU]

What happens if they both join a MTT and make the FT? They are banned from being at the same table...Hmm

[Fortune 500]

Would it matter, with no chat priveleges? I mean the check down is a conspiracy play, to be certain.... but it's gotta be an UNSPOKEN conspiracy.