Online poker question (cheating)

[yyz]

Of course, there has been a mass proliferation of poker sites, and people getting involved with the online game.

I had a few bucks in an account a couple years back, but never really took it too seriously. I still have tremendous apprehension over playing gambling games on a computer. (The whole cheating thing)

I was bored last night, and went to a poker site to play for fun. The bad thing about that is, everyone there stays, raises, and reraises, on nothing, making it a very unrealistic and unenjoyable game. I got to thinking, though.

How hard would it be to 'cheat' someone on these games?

Let's say nine people get together and sit at a table. (Real $ of course!) You all know each other , so you IM each other with your hole cards, and play to bust the other dopes who take the last chair at the table. Seems to me that this could be, and probably is, a tactic some cheats would use.

I would think that a decent hourly wage could be had by some folks.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[dawgball]

yyz--not an expert here, but I know the major poker sites use algorithims to watch players that "happen" to play at the same tables a lot. I started keeping tabs on everyone I played in a tournament with almost 1 1/2 years ago by placing a mark in their Notes section. It's amazing how little I end up at the table with the same folks. There are just so damn many people on these sites now to sit at the same table as another player on a frequent basis is tough. This, also, is in light of the lower limit tables. I believe the higher limit ($100 and up tourneys) are probably the same cats all the time.