Collusion and donkeys

I received an interesting e-mail today from Pokerstars. Apparently a couple of players found it necessary to collude, or share information, while in some of the games I was playing in. They didn't go into specifics, but apparently these players (two or more?) found it necessary to share information in order to try to get and edge up on the competition. Well thankfully Pokerstars found this out and they immediately closed their accounts and redistributed whatever funds they had between them to people that were in games with them. So I received a nice little bump to the tune of $3.60, or 2 of my 18 man games.

After I overcame my initial shock and fell out of my chair laughing, I was happy to find that they had caught these cheaters. To even think that people would resort to cheating at the level of games I'm playing in is just asinine! I mean it doesn't even take but minimal skills in these games to break even or maybe make a small profit. All these guys had to do is play what I call abc poker, or poker by the book. Essentially bet when you have it and fold when you don't. Now I have implemented a lot more thought into my game analyzing certain situations using a great tool called Pokerstove to know when to exploit small edges and thus make my play more profitable, but the foundation of winning these micro games lies in that abc principle.

That brings me onto the donkeys that play these games. As I said before, these games are almost laughably easy. Sure you are gonna take some terrible beats by some calling station morons who wouldn't know how to fold if their life depended on it, but those players are also the ones that allow you to run deep and win games. Yes even the donkeys will get lucky every once in awhile, but in the long run those players that live by the "it was suited" mantra and call k 2 in early position are the ones I'm busting up with A K in late position.

One of the things I don't understand in micro stakes games is most players unwillingness to learn, or play better. Numerous times I have seen these people chat when they get berated "Oh it's only a dollar" or "It's only a quarter". Well donkey's, I've built my bankroll from nothing on the only a quarter and only a dollar games. These can also be the players that claim every game is set up or rigged. Well if you hadn't defended your big blind and called that raise with q 3 suited then maybe you wouldn't have lost to aces!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not meaning to complain here. These are the types of players I thrive off of at these stakes, and even according to high stakes players these people show up in droves in higher buy-in's too. All I can say is thank you ESPN for turning everyone into instant gratification action junkie donkey's instead of what a good player is, patient and picks good spots.