A Scandal or Everyday Occurrence?!?!?!?!

In the last few days a very weird occurrence has happened. Brian Townsend has had his FullTilt Poker account suspended for a month. Reason being, is that he violated the terms of Tilt's agreement on play. The rule that he has broken is this:

"Full Tilt Poker defines an unfair advantage as a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play."

This was taken directly from their website. For full list see this.

Brian Hastings took $4 million off of Isuldir1 and then publicly stated that Brian Townsend helped him with his own Hand Histories. They dissected Isuldir1's play and found his range when he made certain plays. Now obviously the two do not think anything is wrong with what they have done. Otherwise they would have not publicly discussed this. This did lead to the suspension of only Townsend. For one month though? We don't even know the details. Hastings has not been penalized as of yet.

Hand history sharing is no different than information about an opponent in a live game. Many times you see player's taking a break off the table and discuss a "fishes" tendencies and give a heads up about a "rock" at the table. In poker, every edge that you get is key. Switching up your game and not allowing a pattern to be set with your opponents will make you money (if your making correct decisions).

Isuldir1 has not yet made a comment about this situation. This is most likely because he knows he was beat. Anyone who plays online and knows that they are playing against a CardRunner's player should know that they do a lot of hand history teaching. If you don't know your opponent, you deserve to lose your cash. It's just another thing to take into account now when playing poker.

SHODOWN