Here’s an alarming but undeniable truth about the world in which we live: there are a lot of poker cheats out there. That’s right, for all of us who enjoy a nice, honorable game of poker, there are more than a few slimy, unscrupulous individuals who will employ any means necessary - no matter how devious or derelict - to take what we rightfully have a chance to win.
(For any of you poker cheats reading this who may be offended by descriptive words like “slimy,†perhaps it is your own guilty conscience producing these feelings of negativity. Clean up your act, fellas. It’s never too late to live a respectable life.)
Well, nobody likes to listen to a droning, self-important sermon, so rather than continue to castigate all those poker cheats out there for being the lowdown, worthless dregs of society that they are, let’s shift our focus to look at some of the ways in which poker cheats go about their foul business.
Poker cheats have many tools to work with. They can count cards, either with a partner or on a solo basis. They can use phony gambling chips or load the deck when it’s their time to deal. The way a player will cheat depends to a huge extent up on the venue in which he or she is playing. In other words, it only makes sense that in order to rip off an Atlantic City casino, you would need to employ slightly more sophisticated techniques of malfeasance than would be required to pull a fast poker cheat at your next-door neighbor Lenny’s weekly $10 Texas hold’em game.
What do we typically see at the online poker table? Obviously the main problem is collusion, in which multiple players working together will tell each other what they are holding so no one makes a poor decision against one another. An easy way to determine whether someone is colluding with another is the dumping of chips to a buddy deep in a tournament. I’ve seen players go all the way to the end of the hand, putting all their chips in the middle save a few, and then fold when the partner in crime bets out. They do it this way because it is impossible to get drawn out if the other player folds. If you know anything about pot odds, you’ll be able to tell when this may be going on, because the odds will be screaming for a call and the player will fold.
Another problem is players asking for a loan. Obviously, you let someone borrow money at your own peril, but many of these players do not honor their word when they promise to pay you back.
But whatever technique is used, nothing can change the fact that all poker cheats are secretly looking to lose. Before long, their cheating ways will catch up with them, and then it’s time to pay the piper. The price can be quite high, indeed.
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