Brian Hastings posted a series of videos last week showing what he saw as incontrovertible proof of collusion in a $1,055 tournament on Ignition Poker.
It's not the first time he's posted about Ignition and it probably won't be his last. For Hastings, it’s just another day at the office.
"It's always been like that for me at Ignition," Hastings said. "It has the softest player pool of the US-facing sites available to me. The fields are good enough to continue to play there despite some of the stuff going on, such as collusion."
One of the videos he posted last week showed a table of players seemingly soft-playing and colluding to ensure other players didn't bust ahead of the bubble.
Even after things he's witnessed before, it surprised him. "I was very surprised but not shocked," he said. "I hadn't realized that players who late-reg at the same time would be seated all together.
"There were hands where four or five of them would limp and then check to the river. Then, someone would bet and win the pot. It's very obvious stuff.
"I recorded one hand where a player was forced all-in, and the other three players checked to the river. One player bet (he had ten-high), causing the other players to fold, allowing the all-in player to survive with a pair of fours. There’s no explanation besides sharing hole cards between themselves."
Many players reacted to his posts, including the CEO of Octopi Poker, Victoria Livschitz, who said Hasting's thread was "insane."
Hastings: Risk worth the reward
US players don't have a lot of choice when it comes to playing online. If you sit outside of one of the four States where poker is currently regulated (Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan), you have to stop playing for real money or take your chances on an unregulated site.
Hastings isn't planning on stopping playing online, and he plans to carry on playing on Ignition.
"It’s the risk you take, I realize that," Hastings said. "I'm definitely extra vigilant playing on Ignition for anything that seems like it's not right.
"My overall results on Ignition have been very good. It's not like I'm getting super-used like Russ Hamilton 2.0 or something. These colluding players are stalling the maximum and colluding to keep each other alive. I believe seven of the nine players who late registered together made the money. But most of them busted soon after the money bubble. Still, it was good enough for that group to profit."
Cash is a different matter.
“I’ve played cash in the past on Ignition but not recently," he said. "I think a few months ago, I observed some play I thought was a bit suspicious. I wasn't sure if it was foul play or not. But after that, I decided I wouldn't play cash there anymore because it didn't feel right."
He put it succinctly in a post on X. "Basically, if you continue to play Ignition like me, a very smart person, just know you’re getting cheated and decide if you’re able to win anyway."
Ignition responds to Hastings
Hastings heard back from Ignition’s customer service after posting the collusion videos. But the long-time pro seems pretty confident there won’t be any positive changes or crackdowns on collusion anytime soon.
PokerOrg contacted Ignition about the issue and it responded in fairly generic terms. Its statement read:
"Protecting our players is of the utmost concern to us. All that we do is to protect our recreational poker players, and any behaviors that contradict this go against our philosophy, our business model, and our responsibility to players. While we cannot comment on the specifics of individual cases regarding other users, collusion is not tolerated at our poker tables, and players exhibiting this behavior are dealt with according to our Terms of Service."
As players are anonymous on Ignition, it's impossible to know whether any action has been taken or not.
