Misc. Anti-Poker Cheat Articles

NY Times
For years, pundits have debated the relative merits of interaction in the real world versus interaction online. They appear to have missed a more pressing issue: where is it easier to cheat in poker?
The debate is of no small consequence to Sean Stephens, who oversees security for Paradise Poker, a popular virtual poker hall. Mr. Stephens is like a bouncer at a Las Vegas card room eyeballing the joint for cheats, the difference being that he can't actually see anybody.
"I suppose it is some disadvantage not to see personal interaction, but we have so many more tools to use," he said, referring to the data-collection devices at his disposal.
The growing popularity of gambling on the Internet is well documented, but the rise of interest in poker is a curious subset to the phenomenon.
Unlike virtual blackjack or slots, poker is played against other players, not a computer.
The actual players, far-flung in homes or offices, sit in cyberspace around a green felt table. A computer dealer doles out cards, then the players go head-to-head in games like 7-Card Stud, Omaha or Texas Hold 'Em; with a click of the mouse, they can call a hand, raise or fold.
"I yell at the screen, the game moves fast -- it's brought some of the fun of playing back for me," said Stephen Badger, 42, who in 1999 won the world championship playing the game Omaha, and took home the $186,000 prize. He plays poker professionally, a job that once entailed commutes to Los Angeles, but increasingly involves plopping down in his home office and competing against players worldwide.
Indeed, the electronic version of the game has developed a following, despite its questionable legal standing. Depending on whom you ask, the casino operators may or may not be violating federal and, in particular, state laws that regulate gaming activity, explaining why the casinos are typically based in the Caribbean.
At prime time, about 2,000 players compete in Paradise Poker, which is in Costa Rica, the majority playing at tables where the betting limit is $2 to $6 a raise, a modest sum by poker standards. At the high end, players can bet $40 a raise, still modest (considering that in Las Vegas or in Los Angeles, some tables permit raises of $800 or more), but the pots can still top $300.
The twist, poker aficionados say, is that the participants are not exactly playing old-world poker but are engaging in a mutated form of the game.
The Internet has eliminated the pokerface; it is no longer possible to study the players around the table to determine if they are fidgeting, nervously fondling their chips, or otherwise indicating they are excited, bluffing or distraught.
Mr. Badger, who has chronicled the difference between Internet and physical-world poker on his Web site, www.playwinningpoker.com, says the online world greatly eliminates the element of reading players, the emotional element of poker. In online poker, he said, greater significance is placed on math, on the pure value of a given hand.
That said, he has learned to pick up a person's bluffing or betting strategy with clues like how quickly players click the mouse to place a bet.
"Sometimes, people are habitually slow, and sometimes, they play like lightning," he said. "It's readable."
The absence of face-time has led to a debate about the relative ease of cheating on the Internet.
Two or more players, sitting at different computers, may be communicating by phone.
Wikipedia
Cheating is more common in poker than most people care to believe. Although most cheating occurs in private games that do not follow strict gaming procedures, it is also very common in regulated card rooms and casinos. Cheating can be done either by means of collusion, sleight-of-hand (such as bottom dealing, stacking the deck, switching cards etc), or the use of cheating gaffs (such as marked cards, holdout devices, glims etc).
Cheating is as common in friendly games as it is in high-stakes games. A card cheat may operate alone, but most of them operate in pairs or small groups. The groups are often composed of one card mechanic who is in charge of manipulating the cards, one or several shills who pose as regular players, and a muscle who acts as a bodyguard. Street gangs also often employ a wall man who acts as a lookout, however this approach is more common with three card monte mobs, and back-alley dice gangs.
Following is a list of terms used to categorize specific card cheats:
· card mechanic -- A card cheat who specializes in sleight-of-hand manipulation of cards.
· base dealer/second dealer -- Also called bottom dealer/second dealer is a cheat that specializes in bottom/second dealing.
· paper player -- A card cheat that exploits the use of marked cards.
· hand mucker -- A card cheat that specializes in switching cards.
· machine player -- A card cheat that uses mechanical holdouts.
· crossroader -- Originally, any kind of traveling hustler; but now the term is mainly use to describe cheats who specialize in hitting casinos.
Steve Badger
Badger has archived his RGP (rec.gambling.poker) posts and quite a few of them are useful regarding poker cheating. In this collection from late 2000, he addresses how Paradise Poker dealt with a cheater as soon as they were informed and at the end of the post, proposes a payout restructuring for tournament poker so as to diminish the motivation behind deal-making and haggling that occurs these days.In posts from January 2001, he argues that cheating occurs in poker everywhere but that he believes it to be more prevalent in ring games (real-world) than online because it's easier and more effective. Under the topic "Collusion Online or Poor Strategy" from April 2001, he talks about how the first two cheats he tends to suspect online are either collusion or timing-out cheating (where a player deliberately times out to misuse their "all-in") but also why he continues to play online despite the assertions of others that it's a losing game.In another collection of posts from August 2001, he addresses both online cheating and debunks many typical myths regarding online poker. Badger has been a strong proponent of online poker (which should not be taken as an endorsement by PokerTop10) and he responds to many concerns about online poker such as collusion as well as the belief (erroneous, in his mind) that one can't "read" tells online (his argument is that you can but it's very different from live play). He also agrees with Annie Duke (one of our top-10 women players) that it's easier to observe a player's betting patterns online than it is at a casino.In his Winner's Guide to Online Poker, his section on cheating discusses the one kind of cheat you should fear the most and both what you and the online poker rooms can do about them. Basic advice: walk away and contact Support.Finally, in this collection of posts from September 2001, he addresses the fear that online poker rooms cheat either by using bots (instead of real humans) or a human who, with the online room's help, has knowledge of all the cards. He argues that the diversity of winners, the existence of real humans who post and can be met in person, and the consistency of good players winning (and bad players losing) are all proof of the honesty of good online rooms. Whether you agree with him or not, many of his arguments are compelling and at least, food for thought.
Maryann Guberman of CasinoGaming.com
Luckily for us, an archive of Maryann's columns for 2000 and 2001 is available. She discusses shills, props, and backed players in one article and collusion in tournament play in another. (Note: this second article is hampered by formatting problems which place black text on a dark blue background, making it more challenging to read.) More articles include how "chatter" can be cheating, deal-making at tournaments, a poker-ethics test in the form of what-would-you-do scenarios (also challenging to read due to format problem), why a great poker player might cheat, and cyber-cheats (collusion)