Gambling terms, explained straight

Advantage Play & Game Integrity

Collusion poker

Collusion in poker is secret cooperation between two or more players who share information or coordinate actions to gain an unfair advantage over others at the table.

Common methods
Soft play, whipsawing, chip dumping, and signalling16
Online vulnerability
Online poker is especially vulnerable, including use of multiple accounts by one person63

Key points

  • Colluders exchange hole-card information or coordinate betting to trap opponents, often through raising and re-raising.16
  • Chip dumping is a specific form where one player deliberately loses chips to a partner.14
  • Tacit collusion involves no explicit communication and is distinct from active collusion described here.25

Where this term is used

Sources

  1. Cheating in poker en.wikipedia.org Defines collusion in poker and lists common methods such as soft play and chip dumping.
  2. Collusion en.wikipedia.org Distinguishes collusion from tacit collusion.
  3. Online poker en.wikipedia.org Explains online poker's vulnerability to collusion and multi-accounting.
  4. Betting in poker en.wikipedia.org Describes chip dumping as a betting-related collusion method.
  5. Tacit collusion - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Clarifies tacit collusion as distinct from active collusion.
  6. Ask the Wizard Column 165 Addendum wizardofodds.com Details collusion methods including multi-accounting and coordinated betting.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.