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Texas Hold ‘Em
On-line Cheating
This
is on how to spot cheating in Texas Hold 'Em, not on how
to cheat. Online
poker rooms are probably the safest place to play at
right now. Playing online limits the number of sneaky
people you could potentially be dealing with. The dealer
is a program and programs do not cheat. You don't have
to worry about any sort of illegal card handling. There
are no "cards" online. If you are worried about
hackers, don’t be. It's been many years since the last
major instance of hacking affected anyone wagering money
in an online Hold 'Em game.
The
most common form of online cheating is player
collusion. That is when two or more players tell each
other what cards they hold. Playing online gives
players the chance to have a fellow player on the phone,
or sitting next to them at another computer. These two
players must coordinate well together, which takes a lot
of practice. Online poker rooms not only look for signs
of collusion, but check to see if two players always
play at the same table together. They would have to use
"hit and run" tactics when using this form of cheating.
Colluding players would have to hit up a high-limit
table, and then flee to another online poker room with
their winnings.
Here are a
few things to watch out for:
1. Players try to "steamroll" other players out of the
game. They reraise each other to make non-colluding
players call multiple bets at once.
2. Players who never play fast pre-flop. That is when
they take time to talk about what they hold. Watch
whoever is under the gun and be notice their reaction
time.
 3. A group of players who jack up bets by reraising with
someone in between them. This gets the maximum amount
of bets out of a third party. Watch to see if one of
those reraising players has a shitty hand, or if one of
them folds with only one bet to go even though there’s a
huge pot. There's a time to bluff and a time to fold and
most people generally have an idea when that is, so
beware of players who exercise horrible judgments like
that. Identify that person as a potential goldmine for
yourself or a potential cheater.
It's
very rare for someone to even attempt these things.
Never the less, do not accuse anyone of cheating.
Simply contact the poker room's administrators or leave
the table.
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Bones McCoy,
www.gambling911.com
originally
published July 3, 2005 9:32 pm EST
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