“Listen, here’s the thing. If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.” – Mike McDermott, Rounders, 1998.
If you’ve played any amount of poker then you know its a game of odds and probabilities. There are countless variables that can influence your odds of winning at the table and they’re not all related to the cards being dealt or the skill level of the players. The odds of you winning can be influenced by things like how much you’ve been drinking, whether you have to use the restroom, how tired you are, or whether you are distracted by an attractive person at the table. In order to maximize your advantage at the table its important that you are aware of all the variables at play so that you can control the ones that are controllable and factor in the ones you can’t. There is one variable that we should all be looking to control and prevent at the poker table. That’s cheating. If you are being cheated at the poker table and you are unaware of it, then you are definitely the sucker at the table.
Whenever and wherever you are playing poker there is a chance that you could be the victim of cheating. It’s not just true at the poker table but in all aspects of life. Everyone is trying to get ahead in life, and some will stop at nothing to get an advantage, even if that means cheating. In my years as a trial lawyer I encountered many fact witnesses and lawyers who lied to get an advantage in their cases. Students cheat on exams, like those Harvard College students caught cheating on their Government exam in 2012. Professional athletes get caught cheating all the time for using performance enhancing drugs. Cheating is common in life and is no stranger to the poker table.
What can you do to keep from being cheated at the poker table? Be aware and know what to look for. Here are some examples of the types of cheating I have personally encountered at the poker table that may assist you in keeping a proper awareness.
1) Two People Playing Together: I remember one occasion I was playing a 3/6/12 limit poker game at the Coushatta Casino near Lake Charles, Louisiana. There were about 10 people at our table and occasionally people would leave and others would fill in. Things were going along fairly normally for awhile but then things started changing. I noticed an increase in the raises occurring each hand. Someone would raise and another person would re-raise, and then another re-raise often until everyone folded, or until the raises were capped, or until only two people remained in the hand. Typically such raising and re-raising doesn’t occur often unless two people have monster hands and want to maximize the pot or scare others out of the pot. Initially, that’s what I thought was going on. But it started happening so often that it became frustrating for me. I couldn’t get to the river on any hand. I was being raised and re-raised almost every hand to the point where it was too expensive to play. Before I figured out what was going on I decided to take a stand. I had flopped an open ended straight draw and I decided I was going to call any raise until the river card hit to try and make my straight. Sure enough the man on the far end of the table raised the flop and the lady to my right on my side of the table re-raised. I called each raise. The turn came and didn’t help me. The raising and re-raising happened again by the same two people. I called. The pot was very big for a 3/6/12 table at this point. If I lost the hand I had planned to get up and leave cause I figured I just couldn’t handle the competition at this table. Finally we got to the river card, and it was my money card. I hit my straight. By this time the man at the far end bet and the lady to my right had seemingly given up on the raising antics. I called and turned over the nuts. The man looked very angry. Not suspecting that they were playing together I turned to the lady on my right and said, “whew, I finally got one.” I expected her to be somewhat congratulatory since the man on the far end had been taking most of the big pots since the raising antics began. Instead, she made the ugliest face possible. That’s when it hit me. They were playing together. He would bet and she would raise, allowing him to re-raise and scare people out of the pot, or build pots when he had a monster hand. It had been happening for a while but I just finally put it together at that moment. Up to that point, being oblivious to my surroundings and thinking I was just getting outplayed by skilled players, I was a major sucker at that table. Lucky for me I was able to get my money back in that hand and walk away from the table having finally realized what was going on.
Bottom line, be on the look out for two (or more) people playing together at your table. It will put you at a significant disadvantage.
2) Be aware of people at your table who are related to each other, married, or friends that came together. This is related to point number 1 above. If people at your table know each other, or are related, its more likely they could be colluding against you putting you at a significant disadvantage. If you can avoid playing with married couples or relatives I would. I’m not saying they are all cheating but by the very nature of their relationship to each other the dynamics at the table change. Relatives or married couples generally don’t want to take each others’ money or eliminate each other from tournaments unless they have to. As in, unless they are the only ones left standing. And even if one eliminates the other the money is staying in the family so they don’t feel as though they’ve lost, even if they are not intentionally colluding. If you’re playing at a friendly neighborhood game, I don’t think its impolite to request that relatives or spouses play at separate tables for as long as possible. If you choose to play with them, be aware the odds are stacked against you.
3) Look out for marked cards. I can’t say that I recall an instance of this at a casino, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Phil Ivey was recently caught cheating at baccarat at two different casinos. He fought the casinos in court and the judge found him guilty of cheating. See <a href=”http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2788731/straight-bond-thriller-brilliantly-cunning-card-shark-chinese-moll-cheated-london-casino-7million.html” Ivey relied upon his ability to read the backs of the cards to help identify their value and hence get an edge over the casino. He didn’t have to personally mark the cards. He simply requested that the casino/dealer use a certain brand of cards that he was familiar with and that were manufactured with distinct outer edges that he could read and take advantage of. Sure, the casino was the sucker in this instance because they shouldn’t have allowed Ivey to pick his own deck. But what’s scary is that Phil Ivey went to these lengths to win at a card game. Phil Ivey is considered one of the best if not the best professional poker player in the world today. If he would go to these lengths to win at baccarat, who’s to say he wouldn’t do the same at poker. How do we know he hasn’t already done so, or that its the reason for his success? If two casinos could be fooled by Phil Ivey’s marked card reading abilities, then you could too. Be careful.
I have run across many instances of marked cards in home games or tournaments at the local pub. The most common marking I come across is the folded/bent card with a crease in it. This often just happens from over use and misuse of the cards, not necessarily intentionally. Just because a card is marked in some fashion, doesn’t mean that someone has intentionally done it in order to gain an advantage. But if you notice it, request a deck change. If you’re at a friendly game with limited decks, be sure to take note of the marking so that you can neutralize any potential advantage someone else has by knowing about the marked card. If someone else knows that the ace of hearts is bent or creased then he has an advantage over you. If a marked card is dealt to you, do your best to cover any identifiable marking during the course of the hand. Be on the look out for marked cards your opponents are holding so that you can use it to your advantage as well, (assuming your at a friendly game with limited decks).
4) Dealers/Host is cheating. Of all the types of cheating that can occur, this one seems particularly egregious. The person who has gone through the trouble to put on the poker event itself plans to rob you of your money by cheating. It happens and I’ve personally witnessed it. You should always be on the look out for it. One time I played in a poker tournament at a fancy country club with a bunch of doctors, lawyers, investment bankers and other corporate types. The man who was hosting the tournament was also playing in it. That should be red flag number one. Ideally, if your playing in a tournament, the person handling the distribution of chips, taking money, and doing chip ups should be someone who is not playing in the tournament. Obviously this doesn’t always happen but that’s just the ideal. You should expect that at a casino, however. So at this particular event the host was also playing in the tournament. The first thing I found peculiar about the host was that on the very first hand of the tournament he won a monster pot. He was dealt a straight flush (a very rarely dealt hand) and a couple of others in the hand had gone all in and lost to him on the very first hand of the tournament. This struck me odd– the host of the tournament is dealt a monster on the first hand and starts with a significant chip advantage over everyone else in the game. I was thinking if any hand could be manipulated in a tournament it would be the very first one if the cards are not properly shuffled and cut. But that was by no means conclusive evidence of cheating.
A little bit later the host or a friend of the host ( i can’t remember which) was bragging that the last event this particular host put on, he won the tournament. That was another red flag. The person controlling the tournament is dealt a monster and is the substantial chip leader and likely to win and he also just so happened to win the last event he put on. Hmm. I was definitely scratching my head at this point.
I was eliminated from the tournament somewhere about midway through. Well, I noticed the host was dominating with his chip stack and I was definitely suspicious so I decided to watch him play for a while. The next red flag I noticed was that it turned out the girl sitting next to him at his table (and also playing) was his girlfriend! Holy toledo, Batman! The circumstantial evidence was mounting against this guy. This was a multi-table tournament with about 40 to 50 people participating. The table assignments were seemingly random, or at least we were made to believe they were. Only to find out, oh what a coincidence, the host got to sit by his girlfriend by some luck of the draw!? I don’t think so. That was no coincidence. At this point though, still no clear cut evidence of cheating. As I stood watching the host play I didn’t have to wait much longer to find my conclusive evidence of cheating. The girlfriend was sitting on the right side of the host at the table. When she viewed her hole cards she held them far out in front of her so that the host could see what she was holding. I noticed him looking at her cards. That was the last piece of evidence I needed in order to make it known I believed the host was cheating. A friend of mine who was a member of the country club, had invited me to the event. I went over to him and explained to him all the things that I believed demonstrated the host was cheating. While we opted not to call the host out right there and then, my friend assured me that he would never host a game at the country club again.
I used to play a lot at a particular casino that shall remain unnamed. I preferred the cash games but I did participate in their daily tournament once or twice. One day I was there playing my usual cash game and I noticed they weren’t having their typical daily tournament. I asked the dealer at my table what happened to it and he said he wasn’t allowed to talk about it. Of course that heightened my curiosity. One of the players at the table filled me in that the dealers were caught stealing from the tournament pot. Yes, the dealers, the ones who collect the players money and are supposed to distribute the winnings, were skimming from the pot. As a result, the casino had temporarily canceled the tournaments.
If that is not enough proof that dealers and hosts do cheat, I have another example. I played at a local pub tournament and the host who was payed by the bar owner to run the tournament was also playing in the tournament. (Remember that red flag?) He was of course in charge of distributing the chips and handling the chip ups midway through the tournament. That host was padding certain players stacks and of course his own. How do I know? That host tried to pad my stack too (even though I didn’t ask for it).
These are just some of the ways that people may be cheating at your poker table. The important thing is to always be alert and aware of what’s going on around you. In poker as in life, don’t be so naive as to assume that every game is being run with honesty and integrity. Stay alert. Be on the look out. Because if you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you just may be the sucker.
Examining Life 