Very suspicious ClubGG clubs
I decided to dust off this old account to access 2+2's legendary anti-cheating abilities and try to figure this out. I've been a professional online player for 14 years and mostly scoffed at cheating/rigged/scamming accusations but this is way different.
I don't know how to talk about it because I dont want to give away too many specific details to the people running it.
Club A same name as a middle eastern city
First very strange thing is the lobby, about 1 table per limit from PLO5 25/50 down to low stakes. Almost no full tables and almost only different nicks. So there would be a 5/10 table with 4-5 seats filled, and then a 10/20 table with 4-5 seats filled but none of same players. And then the whole lobby looking like this, open seats in games running at whatever stake you want. As a experienced player this immediately looks way off.
You guys all know the normal situation, same nicks across a range of limits with some odd names mixed in. Tables are often full with waitinglists or empty/1 waiting. I have NEVER EVER seen anything even close to this clubs lobby.
Gameplay between villains was extremely crazy and some very strange betsizing patterns. I dont want to go into details here but there are specific things in PLO that I would react to as very odd if a player did it ONCE, and here it was that same sizing thing over and over.
I didn't trust it and left after a few sessions and small losses.
Club B name sounds a bit like a famous streaming site
Same currency as Club A. Not as strange in the lobby but still a surprising amount of action and open seats. I immediately noticed weird sizing patterns again and villains again playing crazy against eachother and making unexplainable plays.
The sizing thing might not sound like much but if you know PLO and I gave you the details you would immediately agree. Because the sizing is so strange, and so consistent over many different opponents it is imo a very strong datapoint.
Left again after small losses.
Hypothesis would be that they get people to play there since games look very soft and are always running. I havn't figured out exactly what the mechanics are from there on but probably mass collusion wich would be extremely powerful in PLO5 knowing so many cards. Perhaps some bot network doing this automatically, or bots playing eachother and then the person grabs the controls when playing against the victim. This would explain the seemingly full lobby and horrible strange playing going on between the villains. I don't know but it sure is something going on.
Let's figure this out.
16 Replies
I think one of those clubs is Israel Kingdom Union
I played some of the bigger plo4 games they run in there. Very similar experiences.
Weird lobby, unconventional villains that play tough/good postflop against hero.
I think one of those clubs is Israel Kingdom Union
I played some of the bigger plo4 games they run in there. Very similar experiences.
Weird lobby, unconventional villains that play tough/good postflop against hero.
yes this is definitely among the worst. pretty much everybody knowledgeable around the app circles says its a collusion fest.
I know that on platforms like ClubGG, GGPoker, and others, poker bots and entire clubs of bots are thriving. Guys from a bot provider once offered me a service as a club owner, using AI bots to maintain the 24\7 game at the tables, play with near-zero profit, and generate rake. I'm sure you've come across them.
Club GG in general isn't bad. I personally only play myself tough in Private Clubs, where i atleast know something about the Owner, mostly it worked out pretty well yet.
Also as well here counts for me, if something is too good to be true, it's probably. Meaning if the Action is so wild, while i am not part of it, don't believe it.
Israeli clubs. Thus all the ones with shekels host israeli players.
Israeli players play 'israeli poker', which means raise/pot every hand, gamble , gamble , no foldem.
This "strange/suspicious" behavior is identical in their live games.. they are not bots, but just crazy gamblers.
I actually know many of these players.
Still, there can always be some users running bots or colluding, but nothing that i see regularly
Just want to give everyone a heads up, and perhaps someone will have more information.
Olympians - Club ID 884857 on ClubGG
Wild Wild West - Club ID 977300 on ClubGG
Both these clubs are entirely a façade to lure players in and they're filled with 4-5 bot accounts per table.
I've linked an imgur with some pictures of lobbies & the owners as something to be careful of.
The owners are Flying Fox & Gobuytrex
one club says it's currency is in AUD and all the player flags are aussie, the other one says it's malaysian and has all malaysian flags.
There is no legitimate club here, it is all a honey pot. Please beware.
My honest opinion is that it's best to stay away from any appgame. As we have seen even the big sites that are worth multimillion figures and have security teams struggle to keep games clean. On top of that many juicy apps have unbeatable rake structures. I know a bunch of strong hs regs in different formats (some who are litterally some of the best. To me it seems like no one manage to do well long term in these games. The few people i know that had success in live games are very big names from live poker that got some outrageous good spot where you don't have to doubt the legitimacy at all.
My honest opinion is that it's best to stay away from any appgame. As we have seen even the big sites that are worth multimillion figures and have security teams struggle to keep games clean. On top of that many juicy apps have unbeatable rake structures. I know a bunch of strong hs regs in different formats (some who are litterally some of the best. To me it seems like no one
These are the 6 biggest winners pre rakeback in my PPPoker club.
All of these guys are on 50% also.
All hands should be $2/$4+
App poker is very much alive. Playing in Unions isn't as good as it once was.
https://imgur.com/a/LQW3z6u These are the 6 biggest winners pre rakeback in my PPPoker club.All of these guys are on 50% also. All hands should be $2/$4+App poker is very much alive. Playing in Unions isn't as good as it once was.
Is this in usd ? From my understanding there arent many ppp clubs still operating with a 1:1 usd to chip ratio on ppp, they're using yuan or Brazilian (pesos?) that are at a much higher ratio. Theyre crushing regardless, just look at their bb/100 haha but curious if its usd or not.
50% rb is very generous on PPP. I was an agent back then and the overhead was so much costlier due to the price of diamonds to buy chips run tables and so forth. Especially if these games were played in a union and having to pay those fees as well. Very generous club owner you are sir.
*Tip of the hat*
Is this in usd ? From my understanding there arent many ppp clubs still operating with a 1:1 usd to chip ratio on ppp, they're using yuan or Brazilian (pesos?) that are at a much higher ratio. Theyre crushing regardless, just look at their bb/100 haha but curious if its usd or not. 50% rb is very generous on PPP. I was an agent back then and the overhead was so much costlier du
Aud
Costs are very expensive on PPP yes.
No union costs, that's a private club.
I was about to join a club in this same group/union, I didn’t deposit anything yet but just used the test account to go into Israel Kingdom whatever. I am just watching a few of the tables and it’s complete bullshit. Full of bots. No way it’s a real human playing like that no way!
I am done with PokerStars it’s complete garbage. However it seems to be very difficult to find a legitimate good club on ClubGG.
It is exactly as you suggest on ClubGG.
There is 0 security so its free-for-all.
Just avoid ClubGG.
Im pretty late to post on this thread but I just wanted to give my opinion.
I've played in most ClubGG unions, only been bad experiences. Been scammed a couple of times by agents that club managers referred me to, that's my fault I guess for trusting a random person to not only give me my deposit but pay me out if I won. Botting and collusion is something that is pretty obvious with big unions. Most claim to have good bot security the only problem is the bots are usually never detected right away meaning they still can take your money and you will never be reimbursed because the Union is the one that confiscates and keeps the bots winnings. Also most unions have some pretty ridiculous rake structures. Brings up the question if it is possible to play profitably in unions long term.
Anyways my experience with ClubGG has felt super unsafe in the year or so that I have played. Im thinking about possibly making a website to inform new players about stuff like this so they don't have to learn the hard way like a lot of you guys have im assuming. Definitely could use peoples opinions and experience to make this website possible. Anyways thanks
Im pretty late to post on this thread but I just wanted to give my opinion.I've played in most ClubGG unions, only been bad experiences. Been scammed a couple of times by agents that club managers referred me to, that's my fault I guess for trusting a random person to not only give me my deposit but pay me out if I won. Botting and collusion is something that is pretty obvious
its the biggest farce to date bc theyve convinced so many ppl who previously were on the edge about app games that its legitimate bc it falls under the GG name. Ive yet to find a real, fair game on there and Ive shopped around a ton
Been grinding the app scene for a few years now - name an app or club there's a good chance I've been in it lol. Agree - only terrible experiences for most part.
High rake, bots left and right and many club owners themselves are even running ecology bots as well as exploitative collusion bots - can explain more if anyone wants.
I realise this is a bit of an advertisement (sorry in advance lol) but big reason why im actually trying to get an honest club off the ground with as much transparency as possible.
Club will be tied to my youtube so the owner can't just dissapear as well as zero tolerance for bots/cheating/rta of any sort and zero politice for regs who play fair and just want to grind.
That being said having a trusted agent or knowing the club owner is crucial imo.
Even had the owner of donkeyland2 try removing anyone who didn't answer his silly quetions immediately cause he was so badly in debt - tried saying "if you didnt answer right away you're a bot" so removed... lol.
Wild stuff
