![Poker cheating 20170611](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Poker_cheating_20170611.jpg)
Cheating in poker is any behavior outside the rules of
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
that is intended to give an unfair advantage to one or more players.
Minimal-skill methods
The easiest and most common types of cheating require no skill of manipulation, but rather merely the nerve. Such methods include shorting the pot, avoiding house fees, and peeking at other players' cards. It is very difficult to prove because when confronted, at least the first time, the cheat often calls the cheating an honest mistake.
One minimal-skill method that occurs in non-casino and casino games happens when a player who has folded appoints themselves the tender of the pot, stacking chips, counting them, and delivering them to the winning player. ''Check-chopping'' is when such a "helpful" player palms a chip. Odorless adhesive can be used for this purpose.
Another minimal-skill method is
going south (also known as "ratholing"), where a player covertly removes a portion of their chips from play while remaining in the game, normally in order to preserve the winnings as profit, or prevent a major loss in
"big bet" games.
Skilled methods
A cheat may ''hand-muck'' a card or more than one card. When a cheat is "mucking" the cheat is cleverly hiding cards in their hand, to later switch their hand for. This may also be done with a confederate.
A skilled cheat can deal the second card, the bottom card, the second from bottom card, and the middle card. The idea is to ''cull'', or to find the cards one needs, place them at the bottom, top, or any other place the cheat wants, then false deal them to oneself or one's confederate.
One sign of false dealing could be when a dealer grips the deck with the index finger in front of it or their pinky and pointing finger on both short sides of the deck while the other fingers support the deck while the cards are being beveled slightly. This is referred to as the "
Mechanic's Grip
The mechanic's grip is one of many ways to comfortably hold a deck of cards.
The standard grip taught in many dealer schools around the world, it is also widely used by magicians and card cheaters as it provides a sturdy and versatile means by ...
". It not only allows better control of the cards, but provides cover by showing the back of the top card, and without moving the hand holding the deck.
A cheat can place certain cards in a position favorable to the card cheat. This is called "Stacking". Stacking is more often done than "False dealing" because it doesn't look suspicious. There are a couple of techniques for "Stacking" cards. The most famous are: Riffle Stacking and Overhand Stacking. By Riffle Stacking the cheat stacks the card(s) while doing a Riffle shuffle. This form of stacking is the most difficult to master and the most respected under the card sharps and magicians. The Overhand Stacking method takes little practice, and is more likely to be done in a situation with a cheat. The cheat does a (what looks like) normal Overhand Shuffle. But while the cheat is shuffling they keep track of the cards they want to stack, and with a little practice they can manage to put the exact number of cards in between the cards they want to stack to make the next round of dealing favorable for the cheat.
Even if a cheat deals themselves a powerful hand, they may not win much money if every other player has nothing, so often the cheat will stack two hands, with one player receiving a strong hand and the cheater getting an even stronger one. This is called a "double duke".
A slight advantage for a cheat can be to know what cards are placed both on the top of the deck as well as the bottom card, so that information can then later be used to bottom deal or second deal themselves that card. The looking at the top or bottom card without the other players knowing or seeing it is called "Glimpsing" or "Peeking". There are a lot of methods for reaching the same goal. A method that is used most is called the "Shiner". A Shiner is a reflective object (such as coffee, a lighter, a blade etc.) that is placed under the deck, so when the cheat is looking into the shiner the bottom card is exposed, and every card that is dealt over the shiner can easily be peeked by looking in the shiner.
One method of cheating that involves both great risk and great potential pay-off is the
cold deck—so called because it has not been "warmed up" by play (and thus randomised). Such decks are usually pre-stacked, and are introduced either at the deal, after the real deck has been shuffled, or before the deal, where a card sharp will make a false
shuffle
Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome.
__TOC__
Techniques
Over ...
using sleight of hand. The latter method may require
collusion
Collusion is a deceitful agreement or secret cooperation between two or more parties to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others of their legal right. Collusion is not always considered illegal. It can be used to att ...
or a
pass
Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to:
Places
* Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland
* Pass, Poland, a village in Poland
* Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits
* Mountain pass, a lower place in a moun ...
if the style of play or house rules call for a cut. The skill lies both in convincing other players that the shuffle is legitimate and in ensuring that other players receive hands that are good enough to entice them into play, but not too good to arouse suspicion.
Marked cards
Marked cards are printed or altered so that the cheater can know the value of specific cards while only looking at the back. Ways of marking are too numerous to mention, but there are certain broad types. A common way of marking cards involves marks on a round design on the card so as to be read like a clock (an ace is marked at one o'clock, and so on until the king, which is not marked). Shading a card by putting it in the sun or scratching the surface with a razor are ways to mark an already printed deck.
''Juice'' and "daub" are two kinds of substances that can be used to mark cards in a subtle way so as to avoid detection, when done properly. While a "juice" deck is premarked and introduced into play by the cheater, "daub" is applied during play to any deck. Once trained, cheaters can read the cards from across the table.
Decks can be marked while playing using fingernails, poker chips or by bending or ''crimping'' the cards in a position that the cheat can read from across the table. The practice of burning the top card, or cards, is to prevent a cheat from knowing that top card and dealing "seconds" to either give a confederate a card that helps their hand or an opponent a card that hurts theirs.
Collusion
Collusion
Collusion is a deceitful agreement or secret cooperation between two or more parties to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others of their legal right. Collusion is not always considered illegal. It can be used to att ...
is two or more players acting with a secret, common strategy. Some common forms of collusion are: ''soft play'', that is, failing to bet or raise in a situation that would normally merit it, to avoid costing one's partner or friend money; ''whipsawing'', where partners raise and re-raise each other to trap players in between; ''dumping'', where a cheater will deliberately lose to a partner; and ''signalling'', or trading information between partners via signals of some sort, like arranging their chips in a certain manner.
In a
poker tournament
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a "heads up poker, heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on th ...
, when one player is all in and two other players are active in the pot, it is common for the two players with chips left to "check it down", or
check
Check or cheque, may refer to:
Places
* Check, Virginia
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Check'' (film), a 2021 Indian Telugu-language film
* ''The Checks'' (episode), a 1996 TV episode of ''Seinfeld''
Games and sports
* Check (chess), a thr ...
on each round of betting through the end of the hand. Unless they explicitly communicate an agreement about checking it down, this is not collusion.
Online specific
Online play has allowed for new methods of cheating while other methods based on physical objects such as cards or chips are impossible.
One new form of cheating is the use of
bots
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
. These are programs that play instead of a real human. Though their accuracy and their ability to win are disputed, their use normally violates the rules of online cardrooms, so using them is, by definition, cheating.
Collusion in
online poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...
is relatively easy and much more difficult to immediately spot if executed well. Cheaters can engage in telephone calls or instant messaging, discussing their cards, since nobody can see them. Sometimes one person may be using two or more computers to play multiple hands at the same table under different aliases (since many broadband plans offer customers multiple
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
es, this can conveniently and cheaply be done without the likelihood of immediate detection). Such tactics can give cheaters an advantage that is difficult to work against. Online poker cardrooms keep records of every hand played, and collusion can often be detected by finding any of several detectable patterns (such as folding good hands to a small bet, as it is known that another player has a better hand). Users who frequently sit at the same tables will be flagged by poker rooms and their play will be closely monitored. Often, such users will be warned they have been flagged, in an effort to deter collusion.
Another online method of cheating is "multiaccounting", where a player will register several accounts to their name (or, perhaps more commonly, to non-poker-playing friends and family members). This might be done to help enable the collusion previously mentioned, or perhaps to simply enable a well-known player to play incognito. Another common motive for multi-accounting is to facilitate chip dumping and other methods of equity maximization in online tournaments. A major difference between cash games and tournaments is that tournament winnings tend to be much less consistent over the short to medium term. Because tournaments tend to pay prize money only to the top ten percent of entrants on average and tend to pay the majority of prize money to a very small number of top finishers, in tournament play even the best players are prone to relatively long streaks of overall net losses (or even no winnings at all) between sizable wins. Therefore, for high-stakes players who specialize in tournament play, multi-accounting is one possible means to allow a player to play more entries in major tournaments than they would otherwise be able to, potentially multiplying the player's earnings and, just as importantly, making earnings more consistent over a shorter period of time. This risks a large win by a hitherto unknown "player" attracting scrutiny from the host (and other players), especially if the winner has no known previous poker experience but does have clear ties to a better-known player. In addition, some sites now offer multi-table tournaments where the same player can enter multiple times under their own name, so as to reduce the incentive to multi-account.
Another concern is
datamining. This is the systematic collection of hand histories, enough of which can be used to profile opponents using specially designed software. Two or more players may agree to share their individual hand histories amongst themselves; alternatively some websites offer large quantities of previously-played hands (even millions) for a fee. Using software to analyze one's own histories is generally accepted. Acquiring histories of hands in which a player did not participate violates the rules of most cardrooms.
Poker software, like all software, cannot be assumed to be reliable. It is always possible that a person is exploiting the software to win money from victims. The software may even contain a
backdoor
A back door is a door in the rear of a building. Back door may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Back Door (jazz trio), a British group
* Porta dos Fundos (literally “Back Door” in Portuguese) Brazilian comedy YouTube channel.
* Works so title ...
which allows a person, perhaps an employee, to view cards.
Absolute Poker Absolute may refer to:
Companies
* Absolute Entertainment, a video game publisher
* Absolute Radio, (formerly Virgin Radio), independent national radio station in the UK
* Absolute Software Corporation, specializes in security and data risk manage ...
was engaged in such a scandal along with site consultant and notable poker player
Russ Hamilton. As of 2007,
Ultimate Bet
Cereus Poker Network was an online poker network comprising Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The site is now insolvent and not processing player withdrawals. Cereus is owned by a private company, Blanca Games. Blanca Games bought all Network asse ...
faces a lawsuit with allegations of employees exploiting the software. The user agreement of the two online poker sites owned by
Tokwiro Enterprises
Cereus Poker Network was an online poker network comprising Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The site is now insolvent and not processing player withdrawals. Cereus is owned by a private company, Blanca Games. Blanca Games bought all Network asse ...
, ''Absolute Poker'' and ''UltimateBet,'' state they reserve the right to cancel an account if a player plays "in a professional sense" (and not for personal entertainment only). This is not a standard prohibition. For example, it is not in the end-user agreements of the three largest online cardrooms:
PokerStars
PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the large ...
,
PartyPoker, and
Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...
.
Angle shooting
Angle shooting is engaging in actions that may technically be within the scope of the rules of the game, but that are considered unethical or unfair to exploit or take advantage of another player. For example, an angle shooter might motion as if they were folding their hand to induce other players to fold theirs out of turn.
One form of angle shooting which is exclusive to online poker is to abuse the disconnect protection (DP) rules most sites have in place. DP is a rule exclusive to online poker whereby if a player is disconnected from the site in the middle of the hand their hand is played out as if they were all-in without the player actually having to put any more money in the pot. The online poker rooms that offer DP usually have specific tables set aside for this so that all players at the table are aware that the special DP rules will apply.
Bill Rini: The Definitive Guide to Online Poker Cheating
/ref>
How this is used by angle shooters is if a player is in a hand that they are unsure if they have the best cards and don't want to invest any more money to find out. They can unplug their internet connection and then wait for the hand to play itself out. On a DP table the remaining cards in the hand would be dealt and the pot would be awarded to the player with the best cards. If there were multiple opponents in the hand then they would be eligible for a side pot.
Another example is when a player says nothing when betting, pushes in a raise, then says he made an error (a/k/a "misclick") & meant to just call. The opposing player(s) may take this as a sign of weakness and then re-raise or simply call when they shouldn't, as the player may actually have "the nuts" (the best possible hand based on the cards in play). This could be done in reverse via a bluff by betting without announcing the bet & betting less than the minimum call, then when the underbet is realized by the dealer, the player can claim they thought they raised, but the player apparently miscounted and bet less than the required call, which is then required to be increased to become a call. This makes the player appear strong and may induce a fold to the player's weak hand.
Notable cheaters
* Soapy Smith
Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier.
Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States, and had a large hand in organized crim ...
(1860-1898)
* Titanic Thompson
Alvin Clarence Thomas (November 30, 1893 – May 19, 1974) was an American gambler, golfer and hustler better known as Titanic Thompson.
Thompson traveled the country wagering at cards, dice games, golf, shooting, billiards, horseshoes and propo ...
In popular culture
* ''The Cincinnati Kid
''The Cincinnati Kid'' is a 1965 American drama film directed by Norman Jewison. It tells the story of Eric "The Kid" Stoner, a young Depression-era poker player, as he seeks to establish his reputation as the best. This quest leads him to chal ...
''
* ''The Sting
''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw).''Variety'' film review; December 12, 1973, page ...
''
* '' Shade''
* ''Rounders
Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running aroun ...
''
* ''Tilt
Tilt may refer to:
Music
* Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992
* Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993
* Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979
Albums
* ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981
* ...
''
* ''Maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Burea ...
''
* ''Red Dead Redemption
''Red Dead Redemption'' is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. A spiritual successor to 2004's ''Red Dead Revolver'', it is the second game in the ''Red Dead'' series. ''Red Dead Redempt ...
''
* ''Casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
''
* ''Lucky Luke
''Lucky Luke'' is a Western ''bande dessinée'' series created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946. Morris wrote and drew the series single-handedly until 1955, after which he started collaborating with French writer René Goscinny. Their par ...
''
See also
*Bottom dealing Bottom dealing or base dealing is a sleight of hand technique in which the bottom card from a deck of playing cards is dealt instead of the top card. It is used by magicians as a type of card illusion, and by card sharps and mechanics, and as a met ...
*Card counting
Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters are advantage players who try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low ...
*Card marking
Card marking is the process of altering playing cards in a method only apparent to marker or conspirator, such as by bending or adding visible marks to a card. This allows different methods for card sharps to cheat or for magicians to perform magi ...
*Casino security
Casino security refers to the measures that are taken at casinos to protect the establishment's money, property and patrons. The security protects the casino and its customers from violent crime, theft, and other inappropriate behavior.
Given the ...
*Cheating in baseball
Forms of cheating in baseball, deliberate violations of the game's rules or other behavior designed to gain an unfair advantage against an opponent, include doctoring the ball, doctoring bats, electronic sign stealing, and the use of performan ...
*Cheating in casinos
Cheating in casinos refers to actions by the player or the house which are prohibited by regional gambling control authorities. This may involve using suspect apparatus, interfering with apparatus, chip fraud or misrepresenting games. The formally ...
*Cheating in chess
Cheating in chess is a deliberate violation of the rules of chess or other behaviour that is intended to give an unfair advantage to a player or team. Cheating can occur in many forms and can take place before, during, or after a game. Commonly c ...
*Muck
Muck most often refers to:
*Muck (soil), a soil made up primarily of humus from drained swampland
Muck may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Muck, Scotland, an island
* Isle of Muck, County Antrim, a small island connected by sand spit to Portmu ...
*Second dealing Second dealing (also known as ''dealing seconds'') is a method of manipulating a deck of cards during a card game by way of dealing the second, rather than the top card of the deck, usually for the purpose of cheating. Second dealing and bottom dea ...
Notes
External links
Poker Cheating
by Arnold Snyder
Arnold Snyder is a professional gambler and gambling author. He was elected by professional blackjack players as one of the seven original inductees into the Blackjack Hall of Fame which is hosted at Barona Casino for his record as a blackjack pla ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheating In Poker
Poker gameplay and terminology
Deception
Cheating in gambling