This article is not about how to cheat, but how to spot cheating. This will focus more on online cheating, when playing online texas hold em.
Online texas holdem poker rooms are probably the safest place to play at right now. Well, playing online, limits the number of sneaky people you could potentially be dealing with. The dealer is a computer program. Programs don’t cheat. You don’t have to worry about any sort of illegal card handling. There are no “cards” online.
Many poker players reject to play online texas hold em because of a fear of “hackers”. In fact, there are ”hackers” that claim they can either “see their opponents’ pocket cards” or “see the turn and river before they are dealt”. The big occurrence of an online texas hold em poker room, having security problems opened the eyes of the operators, and top sites are so excessively secure that it’s almost wasteful. Not only is the technical security present but all the measures you’d expect in a brick-and-mortar casino.
The most common form of online cheating is a player conspiracy. That’s when two or more players reveal to each other what cards they hold. This form is more difficult to pull off in a live game, but playing online gives players the chance to have a fellow player on the phone with them, or sitting next to them at another computer.
Fortunately most of these players are the ones who have no idea how to use that advantage. These two must coordinate well together, which takes practice. Online texas hold em poker rooms not only look for suggestive signs of conspiracy, 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. Conspiring players would have to hit up a high-limit table, then flee to another online poker room with their winnings and never look back.
However, just in case, here are some things to look for…
1. A team of players who try to “steamroll” other players out of the game. This means reraising each other to make non conspiring players call multiple bets at once.
2. Players who never play fast pre-flop. That’s the time to talk about what they hold. Watch whoever is under the gun and be aware of reaction time.
3. A group of players who hike up bets by reraising with someone in between them. This gets the maximum amount of bets out of a third party. The alarm should really go off if one of those reraising players has a poor hand, or if one of them folds with one bet to go despite a enormous pot. There’s a time to bluff and a time to fold and most people have an idea when that is, so be on the lookout for players who exercise bad judgement like that. Identify that person as a potential goldmine for yourself or a potential cheater. It’s very unusual for someone to even attempt these sort of things. Still, never accuse anyone of cheating. Either contact the poker room’s administrators or just get up and leave.
