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"Those Cheating Games"
By Paul McGuire
20 May 2005
Do you know all there is to know about the cheating game? Well, first there's kisses, apparently; then... Oops. No, it seems we've been misinformed. But there's more than one crying game.
I have been told that if I find myself in a fixed poker game crawling with cheaters and suspect that something is going on, I should get up and walk away immediately. But how can you tell if you are getting conned? There are three categories of cheating in poker which I will discuss: online, casinos, and home games. Hopefully I will be able to clue you in on a few tricks that cheaters employ.
Online cheating probably gets the most attention because there are so many factors involved. I rejected the idea of playing poker online for several years because I was afraid of collusion between players. I was also paranoid that a computer geek could easily hack into an online poker room site and gain access to everyone's hole cards, or even change the algorithm to deal himself winning hands.
The bottom line is this: The majority of cheating in poker takes place in cash games, not online. It's a lot harder to cheat online than you think. Every major site assures their players that they go out of their way to catch cheaters. Some sites have the restriction that you cannot use another player's computer to log into your account. If you do, the IP address is quickly flagged and you are forbidden to play at the same table as your friend.
Unfortunately, there is no 100% foolproof way for any online poker room to insure that two players are not on the phone with each other calling out their hole cards. The only way to combat that possibility is to pay attention to betting patterns and try to recognize the players who are working as a team. It is much easier to pick out betting patterns (constant raising, then a suspicious fold on the river) when playing online, especially since most sites provide you with detailed hand histories. If you play low limits you should not worry -- if any collusion occurs, it will be at the highest levels.
I used to think that casino games were more legitimate than online games. You might be in a safe environment, but there are sharks and cheaters circling everywhere. The father of a friend of mine, a longtime Las Vegas local, has told me plenty of stories about poker cheats. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, cheating in casinos reached an all-time high. Since then, casinos have done a more vigilant job of catching cheats by using advances in video surveillance. Most of the cheating is so subtle that you never see it happening, yet it appears right in front of you. However, the cameras catch everything.
Most casino poker cheats are working in teams. The slang for the collusion of two players is sharing a "kit." The most common form of kitting is touching your thumb to one of your four fingers, each representing a different action; bet, call, fold, and raise. Cheaters employ all sorts of other signs to relay information to their partners using body language, verbal clues, chip placement, and diversionary tactics. Obviously, you have to be a skilled player to be able to sit in these games to begin with and hold your own until the right opportunity comes along to cheat at a big pot.
The best way to prevent cheating at your table is to pay attention to the other players. If you suspect something is wrong, then get up and leave, and mention your suspicions to the floor manager. You can also cut down on cheating by protecting your hole cards. I don't know how many times I've seen the cards of the players sitting next to me, just by accident. Beware of the peekers. If two players are working as a team by peeking at cards, then at any given moment, they know the hands of six players at the table. That's a tremendous edge.
Dealers can also be involved in cheating. The most common instances involve bad beat jackpots. During non-peak hours, dealers have a better opportunity to run a cold deck and deal out the money hand to one of their partners. Because the jackpot comes out of the rake, most casinos don't have a huge interest in who wins. When the dealers get greedy and make a mistake, they are almost always caught soon after. During the graveyard shift at one casino, the bad beat jackpot was taken down twice in one week. That made management suspicious. In a separate incident, Sam's Town Casino discovered that a team had rigged a $54,000 jackpot. They were caught on tape and sent to prison.
Dealers can also assist a player by flashing mucked cards, peeking at the next card, or showing the mucked winning hand. Dealers can also steal from players by palming chips from the pot. Players can cheat other players by doing the same thing. Again a cheater has to be super quick, otherwise the eye in the sky catches him eventually.
Cheating in tournaments is not uncommon either. Players can hand off chips to another player during breaks so they can add them to their stack. They can also move all in and dump their chips to their partner. With the introduction of smart tables and electronic transmitters imbedded in the actual poker chips, the chances of cheating have been reduced significantly. With the new advances in microchip technology, tournament directors will know if any chips leave the table.
Cheating in home games usually involves the dealer and possibly one other player. Make sure you cut the cards, and keep an eye on suspicious hand movements from the dealer. The deck should be kept on the table at all times. A dealer can manipulate the cards by using sleight-of-hand and bottom-dealing or using marked cards. Get acquainted with the "mechanic's grip," the most popular way to manipulate dealt cards. Be suspicious of anyone gripping the deck with their index finger in front of the deck.
In order to prevent cheating at your poker table, you really have to pay attention to the signs. Although cheating occurs a very small percentage of the time, there will be people who will do anything to gain an extra edge against the field. Play smart and keep your eyes open and you should be fine.~~