The End of Online Poker.

Enough of this optimism and anticipated bankroll increases. Time for moaning, tales of bad beats and allegations of cheating.

Not able to give poker my undivided attention I spark up a $6 tourney while chatting to the Moll and her friend. 5 left and I get all in with two pairs and get called by middle pair. He hits runner runner flush. Bah.

Decide to switch to 10NL cash game as I chat away.

I call an allin for $6 with QQ and lose to A10.

I reraise with KK preflop. Flop 332 (2 hearts). I bet out get min raised. Reraise for all but $2. He calls. Flop 8 spades and I push. He calls and flips over 88.

In the big blind I call with 92 and flop comes A 9 2 rainbow. I check-raise a short stack and get allin on the turn. 10 hits on the river and he shows 9 10.

Running bad I make this play.

AKs in the small blind facing a raise of .40c. I reraise to 1.20. Which is called.
Flop comes KJ8 (two hearts). I bet $1.90 and get reraised to 3.50 with $5 behind.
I push and he shows JJ. Could I find a fold there? He was tight aggressive.
Could have been AA, KK, QQ trying to find out if he was good, JJ, 88, AK.
Can't see him making the play with much else. Bah.
-$20 down on the night.

So I lose a few dollars and declare the end of online poker. A bit drastic not.

No I also bring tales of online fraud. Not due to any of the above. I'd happily play against all of those opponents (well maybe not the last guy) any day.

Many tales of internet cheating are friends of friends (of friends?).

This is none other than our very own Moocher666. Playing in a US$10+1 SnG last night and holding AQ he raises and sees a flop of Q92 rainbow.
His opponent types in the chat box. "Your AQ is no good" before any action.
Thinking this is speech play he continues and gets to a showdown with his opponent showing two pairs.
A little later he declares to another opponent "your pocket 8's are no good". When betting continues he mucks but shows the rest of the table that he does indeed hold 88.
This happens no less than 5 times before Moocher departs the tourney. Each time with him correctly stating the opponents hole cards. No incorrect guesses were made either.

This caused uproar at the table and chat was continued into the lobby with support being contacted. A number of regulars were highly suspicious of recent activity and a potential exodus is threatened.

I'll ask Moocher to get the tournament hand history as this is already second hand information and even first hand info is potentially flawed. None the less this is the first instance I've heard of that is believable.

So a tabloid headline above or a possibility - what say you?