1.1 Marked cards

The most known method of cheating is using marked cards. The cards are printed or altered such that the cheat can know their value while only looking at the back. The ways of marking are FAR too numerous to mention, but certain broad types can be mentioned. 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.

Much talk and advertisement has been about concerning "colored readers", that is, marked cards that can only be read with the use of color filtered glasses or contact lenses. While such decks are available, they are painfully obvious to the observant poker player. Many cheating authorities mention the idea that while wearing contact lenses they always slip off-kilter to the pupil, therefore a red (the most common color) cresent will be visible on the sclera around the iris.

"Juice" is a substance used to mark cards in a subtle way so as to avoid detection. Apparently one has to be "taught" to read juice patterns, but once taught, one can read (hence the term for marked cards "readers") them from across the table. An easy way to protect yourself from marked decks is to as the cheats say "go to the movies". The idea is to flip through the cards rapidly, treating the deck much like a movie flip-book. If there is any difference in the cards, they should become rapidly apparent. Decks can also be marked while playing. A cheat can hold his hand in such a way that it will bend or bulge in a position that the cheat can read from across the table (called a crimp). In this case one should remember it is stipulated in the rules that any player may at any time request a new deck.

2 Moderate-skill methods

A cheat with moderate skill always has the option to hand-muck, that is, switch their hand with one they have secreted on them elsewhere. This may also be done with a confederate (see Collusion). Mechanical devices have been invented for the purpose of switching hands. Though such machines are outdated, the modern equivalents (clips that hold cards on the underside of the table) should not be overlooked. The "hands above the table" house rule is recommended to prevent this. If it is done above the table, then anyone at the table can see it. This type of cheat runs the risk that he plays the same card as someone else at the table; at which time there must be a cheat at the table. Most people, not wanting to point fingers, will just end the game for the evening.

3 Skilled methods

Never doubt that a skilled cheat may deal a card from any place in the deck. 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 himself or his confederate. Suppose the cheat is next to deal. In the previous showdown, there are four sevens in different hands. The cheat pick up the cards so that all four sevens end up on the bottom of the deck. He then false shuffles the deck and deals himself the four sevens off the bottom of the deck.

There are many tells as to this kind of cheating:

1. Beware of anyone gripping the deck with the index finger in front of it. This is referred to as the mechanics grip. It not only allows better control of the cards, but provides cover as to where the card in the dealing hand came from.
2. Beware of people who sway the deck from side to side, or tilt the deck upwards with each card. This covers the dealing hand. Try it, anyone can deal seconds when the deck is vertical. The fair dealer can deal slow, showing the back of the top card, and without moving the hand holding the deck.
3. Beware any shuffle instantly followed by a cut. This is a well known way to undo a shuffle. The idea is that as the halves of the deck are taken apart the bottom half is shuffled so its top card is on top. Cutting the cards, and in doing so, unweaving the interlaced cards, places the bottom half right where it started. Completing the cut places the deck in its original order.

3.1 Dealing mechanics

Ok, with all this high power sleight of hand, the cheat still won't win money with four sevens if everyone else has a bust, so the cheat stacks two hands. Obviously the cheat will get the better one. Let's say he has two hands one on the bottom of each half of the deck, ready to shuffle (let's say four kings and four aces). All the cheat has to do is to shuffle the two halves PERFECTLY, that is, alternating from one half to the other. When done with the whole deck this is called a faro shuffle. This places in alternating order on the bottom of the deck the cards K,A,K,A,K,A,K,A. He can then false shuffle to his heart's content without disturbing those eight bottom cards, and begin dealing. When he gets to his mark, he deals that player the bottom card. He deals himself bottoms too. This places the big fish with four kings, a real betting hand, and the cheat with four aces, hence the cheat cleans up. This is called the double duke.

The best way to foil mechanics of this nature is to burn them, to watch their hands at all times and to always insist on a cut. This may not prevent them from cheating, but it forces them to undo the cut - a difficult and dangerous move. Only world class cheats will undo a cut while being burned. Note: no other shuffling or cutting is allowed after EVERY player is offered the option of cutting. A cheat may bend the entire deck so as to reveal where the cut was, so that his confederate sitting to his left may undo the cut or he may do so himself should the appropriate distraction present itself.

3.2 Switching decks

This pales in comparison to the granddaddy of all cheating - the "cold deck". After all the shuffling and cutting has been done (everyone nicely pacified) the cheat can switch the deck for one he has stacked beforehand so that everyone has a real betting hand, but, of course, the cheat has the best one. Such a move is difficult, and may (I stress may) require distraction, but once done, no other sleights are necessary to win. The only defense is to simply always watch the deck. Many players believe that it is bad luck to look at your cards before the dealer is finished as you might miss your opponents' reactions to their cards, and might miss burning the dealer.

4 Collusion

One of the easiest ways to cheat at poker is with a partner or many partners, called collusion. This is basically playing differently against one or more players than you do against others at the table (in contrast to mechanics, which is directly manipulating cards or chips in violation of the rules). The gravity of such cheating ranges from the subconscious to the conspiratorial. Some common forms of collusion are soft play, that is, failing to bet or raise in a situation that would normally merit it because of your opponent; whipsawing, where partners at opposite ends of the table raise and reraise each other to trap players in between; and dumping, or deliberately losing to a partner (perhaps someone you are backing financially or with whom you have traded a percentage stake). Signalling (that is, trading information between partners) is probably the most egregious example of such cheating, but all of these are considered bad play and should not be tolerated at any poker game.

In friendly games it is common to be playing against someone you know well. Perhaps your spouse may be playing at the game with the rest of your friends. Suddenly your luck turns for the worse. Subconsciously, you are less willing to take the money of the people you know or love. Perhaps one fellow has been getting bad hands all evening, and you know he has car payments to make, and this changes the game being played. The best advice is to leave friendship outside the poker game. Especially in tournament poker, soft-playing a friend is cheating all of the other players out of their chance to see you bust your friend, getting them closer to the prize money.

For this reason, there are laws in some U.S. states saying that a husband and wife cannot play poker at the same table. Perhaps the easiest way to exploit such a situation is to agree to split the profits (after all, couples often have shared bank accounts). Even without any explicit collusion during the game, this reduces the variance of the team as a whole.

It should come as no surprise that two people sharing information about their hands enjoy a great advantage over the other players. If you do not believe this, deal out a few poker hands, but deal yourself two. The idea is that these players signal one another and only play the better of the two hands. Signals can take many forms, from the placement of the chips on the cards to morse code tappings on the table. The key ingredient in all signaling systems is the ability to be repeated unobtrusively. In order for this advantage to make money it has to be done many times without someone realizing it. In a game where people (hopefully) are always watching each other, this can prove problematic. When a cheat is signaling the value of his hand to his partner, he is also signaling the value of his hand to everyone at the table. The result of a system of signals being figured out is nothing short of finacial disaster. Some games are more susceptible to this kind of cheating than others: in Five-card studFive-card stud is probably the earliest form of stud poker, originating during the American Civil War, but is less commonly played today than seven-card stud and other games. It is still a popular game in a few locations such as South Africa (where it is and Lowball , for example, signalling the rank of just one card can give another player sufficient information to make many otherwise difficult decisions.

Should two people wanting to cheat be in close proximity, they might decide to hand-muck. That is, to switch hands or alter them in some way (though this particular form of cheating might be considered mechanics rather than collusion). A simple idea of this is to have two people sitting next to each other in a game of draw pokerDraw poker is any poker variant in which each player is dealt a complete hand before the first betting round, and then develops the hand for later rounds by replacing cards. The descriptions below assume that you are familiar with the general game play of. While they receive two mediocre hands, they could switch certain cards between themselves in order to form a worthless hand and a winner. There are many sleight of hand methods to this. Hand-mucking is also a problem in blackjackFor other uses of the word see Blackjack (disambiguation playing card, like the Queen and King, counts 10 points, and the player picks a value of 1 or 11 for the Ace. At 21, this hand can only be beaten by a Charlie. Blackjack also known as vingt-et-un or.

Perhaps the most odious way of cheating with a partner is to have a weekly game at your house, agreeing with all your regular players that you split the profit from cheating a single player. This hot-seat game invites a new player every week, only to play against six players all working together. The mechanics are the same, players signal their hands, then play proceeds as to drive the hot-seat out, or to put all his money in the pot.

If you are at a poker game and you detect that your opponents are cheating, but are not very good at it, you can use this information to your advantage. You may be better off exploiting their inept cheating than leaving or turning them in. Frank R. Wallace wrote a book on this, in which he coined the term neocheating (He later developed a philosophy called Neo-Tech ). Whether or not this should also be considered cheating is an interesting question of ethics.

5 External links

• PokerCheat -- Brief overview of cheating in poker.
• CARDSHARK Online

Poker

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