Learn Play Poker

Hey Guys,

How is everything this week? I have a touch of the tired bug, mainly a side effect of my cold . I think there must be a bit of something going round at the moment

Still managed to get an article finished up for you all however, this one is about a darker side to the game than we usually consider, cheating, most specifically cheating at online poker.

As much as we would all love to think everyone plays fair we must face the world is simply not like that, while the majority play well there are a minority spoiling the fun (as with everything). I have seen many varities of online poker cheat in my time (from both rooms and other players) and i’m not going to “discuss” them all so you know how to do them. I’m jsut oging to talk about the behaviour in general and hand out a little advice.

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I do not believe online poker cheating is a very big concern. I regard all of the major sites to be operated honestly and 100% above board. The concern about cheating in my opinion is more about player collusion and not any direct action by the site itself. Understand the poker sites themselves make large sums of money from the rake at table games.  They do not have stake in who wins a given hand. If they were to ever get caught cheating the ensuing bad press that would occur would wreck their site.  They do in fact police their sites as best they can. As we will discuss below there are forms of cheating that are hard to detect.  If you feel you have been subjected to cheaters you can and should report them to the site you are playing.

Player collusion is of course a concern every player must be cognizant of.  When two or more players at a table know each others cards they have a great advantage. This advantage manifests itself in two ways. First by knowing what cards have been burned you have a keener awareness of what your chances of making a hand are. You also have more information as to what hand an opponent has. Secondly if you are playing at a table with confederates you can use position to maximize your profit.  For example suppose you know a player you are colluding with holds the nuts and cannot be beat.  If you are in position between your confederate and another player in the hand you can raise bets in an effort to extract as much money from the unsuspecting player as possible.

The key thing you need to know is how to spot collusion at your table.  You should try to take note of who you play with, try not to play at tables that seem to have the same players playing as previous sessions.  Watch also for the same players seemingly playing to each showdown together.  Another thing to keep keen awareness of is obvious improper play.  If you see a player call and raise bets all the way to the river without either good hand or a draw to a good hand you need to move to another table.  Players playing in this manner have ulterior motives that likely involve collusion, which is a form of cheating. You should use the buddy list function offered by most poker sites to identify these players and avoid them.