From playing poker several times and participating in various poker tournaments in different places, I often think about the possibility of players working together to cheat one player. In other words, collusion, which is unethical and should not be done.
Perhaps for most gamblers here, collusion in poker is nothing new. But I'm curious and would like to know do certain poker sites have sophisticated tools to detect and prevent this kind of cheating?
What should be done to ensure the game remains fair and based on fair play?
You're usually quite safe playing poker in casinos or online poker rooms, it's when you're playing in underground or unlicensed establishments that you really need to watch out for. Of course you should always assume the worst, but there are usually a dozen cameras on you in a physical casino and the operators have spent a long time picking out suspicious behavior, which can usually prevent collusion. Online game platforms won't just use the basic checks like seeing if two players are in the same geographic area, but they'll do pattern matching to figure out if the same players keep joining tables together or bully other players in tandem. You might be able to get away with it for one or two sessions while they profile you, but beyond that you're likely to get sussed out.