Stars Hocus-pocus .... poof, and the money is there

[Nakamura]

I get this from Stars support and $10.00 gets credited into my account.

Hello,

PokerStars has become aware of two players who were working together in our Sit & Go tournaments to the detriment of other players. You were involved in at least one tournament with these players and as a result you may have been adversely affected.

The players' accounts were closed and their funds frozen pending a thorough investigation, which is now complete. Fortunately the problem was identified quickly and they had only played in a few tournaments before the accounts were closed.

In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders' winnings or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible. To confirm your credit, log onto your PokerStars account, go to the 'Cashier' screen and click the 'History' button. Your share will be shown "Credit Purchase", followed by the amount of the credit.

I regret that we will be unable to answer questions as to how your specific credit amount was calculated. Likewise, we are not at liberty to identify the specific games or players in question. Suffice to say that they have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.

The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to us and we will not abide cheating or collusion in our games. We work hard to police our games and prevent such instances. In the rare cases where collusion has actually occurred, we make sure that any players affected are compensated appropriately.

Thank you for your continued play here on PokerStars. Please do not hesitate to let us know any time we can be of help.

Best Regards,

Stuart W
PokerStars Support Team


Firstly, there seems to be less collusion these days, either that or Stars are getting much more lax or less effective in spotting it.

Secondly, what are the odds of getting bang on $10.00? If you are going to use some non-transparent, secret algorithm to refund players at least make it look like you aren't just picking a nice, round figure to pop into everyone's account.

In the interest of fairness and transparency, I'd like to know how they arrive at this magical figure and how much of the money actually get distributed to affected players'. Anyone know how they arrive at this number?

[taipan168]

Just be glad that you got something back and that Stars is still looking out for this (I think I read somewhere that their collusion algorithm is very sophisticated).

Stars customer service is the best on the net. Several months ago I got disconnected because my fucking ISP went down and I blinded out on 3 tables. I e-mailed Stars and they gave me all three buyins back!

[Taicho]

Do you play $10(+1) SnGs?

[Muzzard]

stop being a whiney pussy.

Stars have the best support of any site and do the most to spot collusion/hacking/etc.

You got $10 back, that's a bonus. If you played anywhere else you probably wouldn't get anythign back and they definitely woudl be trying as hard to stop collusioin.

[Nakamura]

stop being a whiney pussy.

Stars have the best support of any site and do the most to spot collusion/hacking/etc.

You got $10 back, that's a bonus. If you played anywhere else you probably wouldn't get anythign back and they definitely woudl be trying as hard to stop collusioin.

Granted, I just don't like the black-box approach. I'm just advocating a clearer, more transparent system (but then again, this would be open to criticism).

[Nakamura]

Do you play $10(+1) SnGs?

No, the $10+0.40 double or nothings lately. If they are refunding 1 BI, what happens to the 0.40c rake?

[Muzzard]

Do you play $10(+1) SnGs?

No, the $10+0.40 double or nothings lately. If they are refunding 1 BI, what happens to the 0.40c rake?

0.40c paid for all the software/support staff iut took to a) recognise that collusion was maybe happening b) Investigating deeper c) concluding it was happening d) refunding all the players it affected.

Fair price I'd say.

[Taicho]

You play $10 tournaments and were confused on where they got that "magical number" of $10...?

[Nakamura]

You play $10 tournaments and were confused on where they got that "magical number" of $10...?

Previously, reimbursement amounts have been odd amounts, like $5.43. As far as I understand the algorithm they use, it's not a simple refund of tournament costs in which there has been collusion.

[jmpca]

One of my buddies was playing in a 9 person SNG and there were 2 players who appeared to be in collusion. It was either that they were in collusion or they were the 2 biggest donks ever. My buddy filed a complaint and PS informed him that they were investigating the situation. PS informed him a few days ago that the two players in question were indeed in collusion. The two players have been banned and players affected by these two were to be compensated.

[taipan168]

Granted, I just don't like the black-box approach. I'm just advocating a clearer, more transparent system (but then again, this would be open to criticism).

I don't think they can publicise exactly how they calculate your payout. If you're playing DoNs, I suspect that the collusion occurred too early in the tourney for them to apply an ICM-based calculation so they just gave you your buyin back (less the rake of course).

[davekp2003]

I'm the guy that complained, I got a refund as well. How they calculated mine is that I finished 5th but after kicking the two bad guys out I ended up in third giving me $9 for a $5.50 buy in 9 person sitngo.
The play of the two in question was ridiculous, they ended up first and second in the tournament I was in. I saw them later playing at other tourny tables together.

Good for Pokerstars!

[mslele40]

Well please allow me to first state that I don't believe you are being a puss or whinning about anything, you've asked a very fair question and that is how do they come about the fiqure for refunding you, and it's a question that you should be able to ask of Stars, instead of what they gave you, basically you were cheated heres some money back syonara. If you had been notified of in some way by an officer of the law of being cheated you would have gotten more details then this and provided with a breakdown of how much you were owed back in restitution and a breakdown on how they came to that fiqure, which is not a question on their customer service.