My New Poker Ratings Are Up! / Online Ghosting

I have posted all my online poker and casino reviews to my review page, which I think can help you make decisions about where you choose to play online. I want to emphasize that unlike the various poker/casino review and informational websites out there, the twenty poker rooms and casinos I have compiled for my lists are there only because for the past several months, they have been the SAFEST online gaming establishments where incidents of collusion and other forms of cheating have not come to my attention. Thus it is of my opinion that these are the best sites to play at right now and should continue to be in good and honest standing for a long time to come. I will update these lists whenever the need to do so arises.

So choose any one of them freely and good luck while playing!

ONLINE GHOSTING:

What's this? If you guessed yet another form of online poker cheating, you're right, although it's not of the most nefarious kind, falling somewhere in the same sinister barrel as account-selling. If you've ever heard of the term "ghostwriters" used for behind-the-scenes authors writing books for celebrities who may not be capable of fashioning their own letters, you will see the connection to the word "onlineghosters" denoting those who...well, those who occupy a shadowy realm in online poker rooms. Here's a short description:

Ghosting occurs all the time in multi-table tournaments. An increasing problem with online poker is how many people are playing one hand? The ghosting cheating method uses another person to offer their opinion. First, the other person (the ghost) is watching the player in the tournament, and the player is telling the ghost what cards he has via telephone, instant messenger, or in person and offers advice as to what course of action the player should take during the hand.

Ghosting is nearly impossible to regulate or stop, and thus it is actively happening in nearly every tournament. Officially, the card room policies state that more then one player to a hand is ok because they have no way of knowing how to stop it from occurring. Ghosting is simply another way cheating and is not the way the game is intended to be played. You can imagine that ghosting can get out of hand very quickly, as players probably are already charging other players for their services to ghost them.

Ghosting is unethical and goes against the one player to a hand rule which was a founding principle of poker. As it is impossible to detect players being ghosted and using the expert ghost for analysis and decision-making it becomes tougher to win tournaments.

Well, at least these ghosts wear white.