Mike Matusow Cheating?

[CBrownOSU04 0]

on the mouthpiece on cardplayer.com under multimedia and cardplayer tv mike matusow admits that he took over a tournament for one of his friends but won't say what site because his friend has trouble closing. uhhh...isn't this cheating? he said they got third. Daniel you talk a lot about the cheating that goes on in the online world well one of your best friends does it because how would you feel if you were playing a big buy in tournament and played great for 6 hours against a top notch player...only to have mike matusow come in freshly rested and take his seat and you have to get a whole new read on this new player whereas i am sure whoever the friend was told mike what you are doing. bullshit if you ask me

[MyPlayIsRAB 0]

[TheCinciKid 0]

I absolutely do not consider this cheating. It's an aspect of online poker that you just have to live with. In fact, in an online game, I don't see why you couldn't have a whole room full of people sitting around the computer making decisions. So long as you can't see more than one hands' hole cards, it's not cheating imo.In fact, I've played in tournaments, where I'll be at the final table and be chatting on AIM with someone who's on the rail and we'll be discussing hole cards and decisions and everything. I don't consider it cheating.

[CBrownOSU04 0]

one player per hand...but i guess with your logic its ok for phil hellmuth, negreanu, matusow, benyamine, harman, antonius, ivey, juanda, cunningham, etc... to all sit behind one player and make a collective decision if you are playing them heads up for a WSOP bracelet...should not be different rules for online and live, this in fact is ABSOLUTELY cheating

[TrueAce13 18]

I definitely agree with Cinci Kid. I have spoken on the phone with people while one of us was in a tourny, telling either one our cards, so whoever can sweat the cards. Thats just my .02 on the situation

[CBrownOSU04 0]

in fact now that i think about it, this has happened live before and negreanu got pissed, the poker after dark episode where he flopped the straight with 10 7 vs MATUSOW and david grey and david grey goes "you think he has the straight mikey?" and negreanu says "by the way you can't do that, just discuss amongst yourselves" etc...shouldn't be tolerated

[CBrownOSU04 0]

i find it sad you all cheat like this and can't even make a legitimate case to support your reasoning

[TrueAce13 18]

Now actually reading the situation again, how that sounds, yes. That sounds like cheating. But I didn't reply pretty much to the right person, I see where you are coming from on this. I don't think having people sweat would be, but completely taking over and playing, that could be consideredThat is just something you will never know who is actually behind the computer

[freak2304 0]

Whether you like it or not, the reason it's going to go on is because there is absolutely NO WAY to keep people from doing it. How could you ever regulate anything like this??

[finztotheleft 0]

That most assuredly is cheating !If this is true, Matusow just admitted to pulling a JJProdigy.

[CBrownOSU04 0]

i don't know how they could regulate...how about they just not do it? its wrong...whatever happened to people being good hearted, cmon people

[finztotheleft 0]

Whether you like it or not, the reason it's going to go on is because there is absolutely NO WAY to keep people from doing it. How could you ever regulate anything like this??

Can we catch everyone who does this ? Probably not. Can we make an example out of someone who was stupid enough to brag/get quoted publicly about it ? Hell Ya !

[CBrownOSU04 0]

edit

[CBrownOSU04 0]

thanks finz...that was very logical, make an example and maybe people would stop cheating the system just cause they can, thats degenerate thinking of the lower class to do something just cause you can

[freak2304 0]

thanks finz...that was very logical, make an example and maybe people would stop cheating the system just cause they can, thats degenerate thinking of the lower class to do something just cause you can

I'm not arguing against the fact that it's a form of cheating. I'm simply saying that it's impossible to monitor. For every person that get's "outted" for doing it, there's hundreds that don't. So most who are/will be doing it will continue. It's the same in cash games. Back in the DN vs DreamClown days, DN knew there was 2 different guys that more than likely traded back and forth during play. There's no way to keep it from happening, in reality.

[chaosnhavoc 0]

Not voicing an opinion but I do believe I have seen threads in forums in the past asking for people to take over because... Power is out, Computer took a sht, Got hit by a bus, Kid is sick needs to go to hospital, Grandma died.. Etc.. There is no way to stop "Situations" online so I guess we just move on.

[Royal_Tour 0]

yes. its bullshit.but online poker is bullshit.. infact, poker in general is bullshit.today i played a sng that had 2 brothers playing in it.1 brother pushes all in short stacked, the other folded QQ. he showed his hand to his neighbor and folded. and we found out it was QQ, but what can u do?I started calling them the softplaying brothers, and they knew what they were doing, and the table was pretty unsettled by it, but that was the end of it.

[Bshealey786 0]

Yeah its bascially considered cheating...but as already said it just comes with online poker. Risk your taking by playing...and it sucks, but nothing can be done to stop it.

[Fade2241 0]

I'm sorry but this is something everybody in online poker has to deal with. Pretty much everyone i know who plays online poker aim's hands n talks strat with other players. It's just the nature of the beast. I agree, taking over a tourney for a friend is wrong, but what are you going to do about it?? I just assume i'm playing against good players at the end of most tourneys usually unless they make plays to prove otherwise. Stats are something that ppl put too much stock in when playing because it's very possible that you aren't playing vs. the same player who put up those stats.

[psujohn 0]

There's no "one player to a hand" rule in online poker. Look it up. You won't find such a rule at the sites.Poker site rules explicitly permit you to have someone take over your tournament if you're unable to play it due to issues like losing a connection. They explicitly prohibit having someone who was also in the tournament take over. If Mike had played in the tourney and gotten knocked out it would be against the rules. If he hadn't it would probably be frowned upon anyway if the reason for having him play was that he was a better closer than his friend. Still if questioned it'd be easy enough to say "there was a storm in my area and I was afraid I was going to lose my connection". If Mike was actually in the same room there'd be no way to prove that he took over anyway.I have mixed feelings about the practice from an ethical standpoint but I see very little difference between chatting with someone and having them give you advice and having them sit in your chair and play your hands. If the first is legal (and I'm 99% sure it is online) then why shouldn't the 2nd be legal?

[TheCinciKid 0]

I'll grant you that the rule in live poker is one player per hand and that by that definition it would be cheating, BUT online poker in an entirely different animal. There's no way to prevent it, and it's not really collusion unless you're sharing information with someone who also has cards at the table. Furthermore, I think we need to make a decision between taking over a tournament for somebody who can't finish it and two people working together to play a hand. If you take over a tournament for someone, it's still only one player in the hand, and it's not cheating because there's no rule against. You can certainly argue that chatting about your hands with someone else is unethical and against the spirit of fair play, but it's still not really cheating because there are no rules against it and it simply cannot be policed. It's the nature of the online game and something you have to live with.

[HollywoodAFD 0]

Not cheating at all... because online, you have no idea who "BigBoy12A" is in the first place. Might be Phil or Mike to begin with.If someone made it to a final table...they know how to play poker to begin with. Are you aware of how many people use TeamSpeak, MSN Messanger and/or have multiple accounts at one table?Doubt letting the Mouth finish your tourney is much more "cheating" than that.

[SilentButDeadly3 0]

in fact now that i think about it, this has happened live before and negreanu got pissed, the poker after dark episode where he flopped the straight with 10 7 vs MATUSOW and david grey and david grey goes "you think he has the straight mikey?" and negreanu says "by the way you can't do that, just discuss amongst yourselves" etc...shouldn't be tolerated

There is a MONSTER difference between this example and the OP's example. Just sayin'. For starters, Grey is actually playing in the game.Now to the op's question. I'm not saying I agree with "taking over" for someone, but it happens all the time and it's not going to stop. The great players won't be affected that much by this as the key element in all great players (other than aggression) is their ability to adapt. And for everytime someone takes over with like 2 tables left and wins. There is at least 10 other times where they took over and lost. Just sayin'

[Nimue1995 1]

The reason that none of the poker sites have any rules against it is because they can't police it. And it's smart on their part not to make rules that they can't enforce.

[Acid_Knight 2]

today i played a sng that had 2 brothers playing in it.1 brother pushes all in short stacked, the other folded QQ. he showed his hand to his neighbor and folded. and we found out it was QQ, but what can u do?I started calling them the softplaying brothers, and they knew what they were doing, and the table was pretty unsettled by it, but that was the end of it.

This is just stupidity. This really doesn't hurt anyone except the stupid brother who didn't want to knock his brother out of the tournament. All this comes down to is that he made a very -EV decision for reasons outside of the game. It isn't cheating or dishonest, it's just moronic IMO.