If you were to mention the game of poker to a person who doesn’t play the game regularly or might not even know the poker hand rankings, cheating would probably be one of their main concerns. While cheating in poker has certainly been blown out of proportion in mainstream media and popular culture, the game is not free of cheating either.
Compared to poker games some decades ago, poker is a much cleaner game these days, but shady characters and cheaters are still attracted to the game on a semi-regular basis.
If you plan to play poker regularly, either online or live, you should be aware of the main methods cheaters apply and how to make sure you are not too affected by cheating in poker.
We are going to look into the most popular cheating methods in both live and online poker and the things you can do to protect yourself in the best possible way.
Live Poker Cheating Methods
Poker cheating was invented in brick-and-mortar games and remains most prevalent in this arena, although online poker games have become susceptible to cheating as well.
In live poker, there are many different ways players can cheat, ranging from relatively innocent angle shooting to flat-out cheating that borders criminal behavior.
If you play poker in casinos and official poker rooms, you will encounter fewer poker cheaters, especially because many of them get banned for trying to pull off their tricks.
In private games, on the other hand, you will encounter poker cheating more often, and you will have to be aware of all the possible cheating methods that are commonly used.
So, let’s get into the common live poker cheating methods and how to protect yourself against them.
Card Marking
Perhaps the most common cheating method cheaters use in live poker games is card marking. This method allows a cheater to mark certain cards and be able to recognize them in hands to follow so they might know your exact holdings instead of relying on trying to understand your entire poker range.
Card marking techniques range from old-fashioned card twisting and breaking to modern methods that involve invisible ink and special sunglasses to see the ink on the cards.
Recognizing players marking cards can be difficult, especially if you are not actively looking out for it, but there are some signs to look out for.
For starters, if you notice some of the cards are bent on their edges or across the middle, simply ask for a new deck of cards right away.
While these things can happen even if no one is cheating, being safe is always better than being sorry.
Secondly, if there are players in the game playing with sunglasses, pay special attention to how they play, where they look during hands, and look for any unusual betting patterns.
If you spot something, don’t be afraid to alert the game organizer discreetly or even confront the player straight up if things go too far.
At the end of the day, a player who is not cheating won’t have a problem proving it by allowing another player to look through the glasses.
Collusion
The most typical way poker players cheat in live poker games is by colluding. While collusion is not flat-out cheating, it is against the rules of the game.
The term collusion refers to two or more players playing in ways that benefit them at the expense of other players and is usually encountered in poker tournaments.
For instance, players could “soft play” each other, which means they don’t try to take each other’s chips and simply check down most of their hands.
When players do this in a poker tournament, especially in the late stages, they reduce the chances of either of them being eliminated, thus increasing their overall EV.
Furthermore, players can play aggressively while other players are involved in the hand, but then soft play or even allow the other player to take a pot that lets them survive in a tournament despite not having the best hand.
If you notice players colluding, don’t be too fast to start trouble. However, if you see it happening again and again, alert the tournament staff or confront the players flat-out and let everyone at the table know what’s going on.
Angle Shooting
Unlike clear cheating, angle shooting refers to the various methods players at the table can use to bend the rules of poker without actually breaking them.
For example, a player might make a hand gesture suggesting he checked. If you respond by checking back, they will claim they did not check in the first place.
In another example, a player may throw out just one chip, making it unclear if he is trying to raise or call, prompting reactions from their opponent.
An angle shooter might act out of turn to see how you respond or to stop you from firing a big bet at them on the river.
All of these and other plays that are on the fringes of the rules of poker fall under the umbrella of angle shooting and are frowned upon by serious poker players.
If you spot an angle shooter, play more carefully against them and alert the poker room staff in order to get any possible penalties issued against the player.
Online Poker Cheating Methods
As early as the first online poker games started running, some players started looking for ways to exploit the games and get an unfair edge in them.
Over the years, cheating in online poker has evolved, and new methods, such as ghosting, have been invented. Many of them are very sophisticated and hard to detect.
If you are an online poker player, you should be very careful when playing online poker, both of the classic cheating methods that exist in live and online games and the more sophisticated cheating methods that only apply to online poker.
Here are some of the most common ways people might try to cheat you at the online poker tables.
Card Sharing and Collusion
Collusion is one of the most dangerous things in online poker, as players might sit at the same table but work together to beat the other players in the game.
For example, imagine sitting in a Pot Limit Omaha game in which four of the six players are sharing their cards and splitting any profit they make.
These players now have a massive edge against any other players who sit down in the empty seats, as they know which cards are already out of the deck, which cards are more likely to hit the turn and river, etc.
Sharing cards can help a group of cheaters create an unbeatable edge in some games. While online poker sites don’t allow players to collude in this way, it can sometimes be difficult to detect these groups if they play it smart.
At bigger online poker sites, players playing together too often and potentially sharing cards will get detected after some time, but on some of the smaller sites, it is possible for them to never get caught.
If you spot a group of cheaters you believe are working together, your best bet is to stop playing at the tables with these players and contact the operator, informing them of your suspicion.
Hacking and Super Users
More technologically advanced poker cheaters have found ways to exploit online poker in ways that go way beyond simple collusion.
For example, some high-stakes players have had their computers hacked by cheaters who would then sit down and play against them while having full access to their screen and hole cards.
In other instances, players were able to exploit weaknesses in the poker platforms themselves, which happened with sites like UltimateBet back in the day but also GGPoker relatively recently.
These players, known as super users, had access to either all the hole cards in play or the odds of each player’s hand winning at showdown while the hands were happening.
Detecting hackers and super users is nearly impossible in live play. Instead, the poker community has had some success in detecting these players by looking at their stats and realizing they were winning at win rates unachievable by any other real players in the games.
Online Poker Bots
A recent scandal at a big unregulated poker site facing the US market demonstrated just how dangerous bots have become in modern online poker games.
While bots used to be very bad at No Limit Hold’em, they have gotten a lot better recently, and they are now actually capable of beating the games for a solid win rate.
Playing against bots is extremely hard, as these computer-powered opponents don’t tilt and don’t deviate from the strategy that they play.
Since this strategy is now based on GTO poker solutions, their play is mostly strategically sound, and beating bots can be a very difficult task.
When you encounter players that seem like they may be bots, make sure to raise some flags, but also be careful not to go too far and accuse every winner in the game of being a bot.
Real-Time Assistance
Another method of online poker cheating that has become fairly popular in recent years is called real-time assistance (RTA).
This type of cheating refers to players using computer software to help them “solve” poker hands in real time and produce GTO poker solutions while hands are being played.
When this happens, you are effectively playing a hand against a poker bot instead of a living opponent, which means they can have a big advantage that they normally would not.
RTA is banned on all major poker platforms, so if you have suspicions of players using it, inform the operators, and they will have ways of finding out if the players use RTA on a regular basis.
If so, the player will get banned from the platform, and you may even be refunded some money from the games you played against them.
Be Careful of Poker Cheaters
Giving people the benefit of the doubt is always a good idea, but you should also not be naïve and assume that everyone is playing the game fairly.
In fact, poker is definitely a game that tends to attract quite a few unsavory characters, which is why you should always be on the lookout for any potential cheats.
Most players you meet through poker will be honest men just trying to beat you at a game, but some will use any means at their disposal to do so.
When you detect a cheat, make sure not to get into a confrontation but inform the people in charge of the game and allow them to handle the situation without creating a scene.
