Cheating in Poker Unfortunately cheating in poker is fairly common. Most cheating happens in unregulated games but it does take place in licensed card rooms and casino. Cheating may be done by collusion between players, sleight-of-hand like dealing from the bottom of the deck, arranging cards in the deck and switching cards round. Devices that may be used are glims, marked cards and hold-out devices.
There is cheating in low and high stake games. Cheats may work alone but more often in groups, one will cheat the others acting as regular players often with a heavy as back-up. Sometimes if the game is outside in the street like a dice game there will also be a look out. Types Of Cheat Card mechanic - These manipulate the cards. Base dealer or second dealer -- One who deals from the bottom of the deck or the card below the top card. Paper player- One that uses marked cards. Hand mucker - A card cheat that specializes in switching cards. Machine player - A card cheat that uses mechanical hold devices. Crossroader - This used to be the name given to a travelling hustler but is now more commonly applied to a cheat that defrauds casinos.
Low Skill methods
The simplest things to look out for are miss-calling cards, shorting the pot and looking at others' cards. Often difficult to prove as they can be brushed off as honest mistakes.
The easiest way of dealing with this is to follow the rules and check the cards themselves to see who the winner is. If the player keeps making these mistakes sugest that they should leave for the night as they are obviously tired and although it was a mistake, he is in no condition to play poker . If he was cheating he won't return.
A very simple trick is for the cheat to pretend to count, sort and deliver the pot to the winning poker player, but in doing so palms some of the chips .This is called check-copping and is quite common. Some even literally have sticky fingers in that they use glue to make this easier.
Again follow the rules no-one touches the pot but the winner and at the end. Also additions to the pot should not be thrown in to the pot ( splashing ) but placed to one side so that it can be checked.
A cheat can manipulate the cards even if they aren't dealing. In Draw Poker a player will claim to discard three cards either to a pile or onto another players discarded cards but instead of three throw only two down thus keeping an extra card to make up a better hand. Often they will hold an extra card throughout the game. It is up to the dealer to regulate the number of cards in play an guard against this.
Cheating with Marked Cards
This is a legendary way of cheating. A marked deck may have a round design with marks on the edge so that the card's value may be known from the position of the mark in relation to a clock face Ace at the top and so on. A deck may be tampered with by fading the card in the sun or scratches with a blade.
Some decks may have a special colour such that through tinted glasses or contact lenses they look a different colour. These are usually red and if the contact lens slips a rim will appear as the cheat blinks.
A deck may be marked with Juice or ink so that they can be identified. Flicking through a deck like a flick book will make these marks apparent. Another subtle way is to bend the cards during the game so that they bulge in a certain way. If you suspect foul play request a new deck.
Medium Skill Cheats
A more experienced cheat is the Hand Muck who will switch an entire hand for one hidden either under the table in a clip or some such device, often in collusion with a fellow cheat. Keep to the hands above the table rule. These cheats run the risk of playing the same card as another player at which point it will not be obvious which of the two players cheated. Indeed the extra card/s may have entered the pot in an earlier round. The best policy here is to leave the table.
High Skill Cheats
A skilled cheat can deal from anywhere in a deck, the top, bottom, next to the top or bottom and even the middle. If for example there are four nines in the discarded cards after a game and the cheat is next to deal, they may pick up the cards putting all four cards in their favoured place in the deck , shuffle the cards falsely and then deal all four cards to themselves or a player with whom they are colluding.
How to Spot a Cheat
A dealer holding the deck with their index finger across the front of the cards. Along with the surface of the top card it obscures what they are doing to the body of the deck.
Watch out for a dealer cutting the deck after shuffling as they may only be shuffling a part of the deck in reality and cutting undoes most of that to leave their favoured part of the deck unaltered.
Dealing mechanics
These are highly skilled. The idea is tobe sure of winning by giving the targeted player a great hand but an even better one to a colluding player. It is done by collecting eight cards and putting then all at the bottom of the deck in alternating sequence. e.g. KQKQKQKQ. The deck is shuffled as explained above and the cards are dealt so some players are dealt from the top as normal but the mark and the accomplice from the bottom. This trick is called the Double Duke.
A good option here is to scrutinise the cheat and ask to cut the deck yourself after which the dealer is prohibited from a further cut. Beware that they don't bend the deck to identify where the cut was made or that an accomplice doesn't undo the cut.
The Deck Switch
Here after al the fuss of collecting the cards shuffling them and cutting and everyone is happy the dealer switches the whole deck for a completely new one that has already been stacked to deal great hands but a winner to the cheat or his accomplice. A variation is that this stacked deck still needs a further cut to activate it. This cheat usually needs a distraction to make it work. To guard against it watch the dealer until all the cards are dealt. This is probably a good idea anyway as you will pick up on the reactions of the other players to their hands.
Player Collusion
Collusion involves playing differently against one player than another either for psychological reasons or worse.
For example they may not raise or bet against a player with whom they are colluding hoping that you do the same. To whipsaw is to raise and reraise from each end of the round to trap players. To dump is to deliberalely lose to another player. To Signal is to pass information to a partner to give them an advantage.
Be careful if you are playing against people you like. If you go easy on a friend because they keep losing the others may accuse you of soft play.
The obvious advantage of collusion is that the two players decide which of them has the best hand and that player plays the pot. Signalling must go unnoticed by the other players and includes things like the position of the chips on the table on tapping the cards. Sometimes their system can be rumbled and they can be taken to the cleaners if their system includes giving away the actual value of their cards.
Online poker is open to collusion as players can be in phone contact or in the same house or one player may have two computers. Many online poker sites only allow one account per household to combat this and have software to pick out the tell tale patterns of play. To avoid itt completely go for head up games against just one other player.
A similar problem in online poker is the use of so called bots. These are software programs that make the play for the cheat. As these programs improve they will become more of a problem.
Collusion may involve two players sat next to each other simply switching cards between themselves to get a better hand. This is also common in Blackjack.
A fairly common way to cheat is to have a gang of cheats all working together who invite a new victim to a weekly game. They all know a well worked routine to relieve the newcomer of his money which they split between themselves after he has gone.
If you are at poker games where people are cheating you can just get up and leave. If you decide to stay and use your knowledge of what is going on without informing other innocent players are you not beginning to collude yourself?
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