Poker Cheats.

 

 

Poker has become an extremely popular game in recent years, especially with the explosion of online casinos that specialise in poker, this means that, for a skilled professional card cheat there are plenty of opportunities to make money from those unsuspecting poker freshmen.

 

Many of the cheats that can be used in poker can also be applied to other card games, such as blackjack and baccarat. In bricks and mortar casinos the management have implemented several strategies to avoid card cheats, such as the enforcement of the no-touch rule, rather self-explanatory, only the dealer is allowed to touch the cards. You may have twigged then, that the dealer is in a prime position to cheat, but casinos implement high levels of security to ensure that the risk of dodgy dealings are minimised, they may employ the skills of professional card mechanics, such as Darwin Ortiz.

 

However, there are still some games in which it is possible for the players to touch the cards, and there are also some unscrupulous dealers who manage to fool the house.

 

The most easily recognised method of card cheats are performed by people call card mechanics, card sharps or card sharks. This form of cheating relies on slight of hand and distraction to manipulate the cards in their hand, and substitute them for more desirable ones.

 

Popular types of cheating:

Holdout devices: these usually come in the form of hooks or clips, attached to the person in a place where a card can be hooked out of the deck and concealed from their opponents. Popular forms of holdout devices include the ring clip, which is a ring with a clip attached to the inside of the finger so that a card can be hooked and concealed in the palm of the hand, others include the sleeve hook where a card can be concealed in the sleeve.

 

Marked cards: this is where a deck of cards are marked so that the card face can be recognised by looking at the reverse of the card- a common form of marking occurs on the popular brand of bicycle cards, which are often used by casinos, where by the wheel on the back of the card has a segment filled in and the filled in segment will refer to a particular card value, so if the 9^th segment is filled then the card is a 9.

Other methods used for marking cards include the use of specialised inks, which are invisible to the naked eye, but which when viewed through a certain type of lens can easily be seen, thus all you would need in a poker session to read these cards is a specialised pair of sunglasses, and as most people know, sunglasses are part of the uniform of a professional gambler.

 

Team cheats: this is where a group of people collude to cheat the house, or the other players, there are many variations of this type of cheating, the most famous example is that which was used by students of MIT to cheat various roulette tables throughout Las Vegas during the 1970's.

 

Dodgy dealing: some skilled dealers are able to manipulate the cards in such a way as to be able to deal the bottom card or the second from the top card, so as they appear to be dealing correctly. There are certain ways of holding the cards when performing a cheating deal, such as placing the index finger across the front of the deck thus concealing the movement of the cards.

 

The definition of cheating at poker is the performance of behaviour outside the rules of play that are used to confer an unfair advantage to a player, or several players.

 

There are basically three categories of cheats in poker which can be described as non-skilled, skilled, physical alteration to poker paraphernalia...all three require a very high degree of nerve.

 

Non-Skilled:

This is the most popular type of cheating that you will encounter in a gambling environment, they can be performed by practically anyone and require no special abilities- you do have to be extremely brave (or foolish) to pull them off, nerves of steel a must!

 

Here is included such techniques as: chip chipping, this is where as you place and declare your chips, while taking your hand away you skim the top of your stack and palm one of the chips; peeking at other players cards, a well angled and concealed mirror can work wonders here; avoiding the casino fees, sneaking inside with a large group of people is a good way of avoiding any entrance fees.

 

Skilled:

Often, cheats in this category are card manipulations that you would expect to be performed by a magician, not by a poker player or casino dealer. However, the same tricks that can be used to astound audiences at a magic show can also be used to fool opponents at a poker table, by a card shark/mechanic/sharp.

 

These slight of hand and dealer tricks can be elaborated on by the card mechanic by employing an accomplice, who will be in receipt of the benefits, then at the end of the session they will split their money between them. All these tricks involve either swapping cards around, taking out an entire hand, or rigging the cards so that they are dealt in a particular order.

 

Hand Swapping: This is a type of cheat where an entire hand is removed from play and substituted for a different hand; it is often used by the employment of a holdout device. There is also a variation whereby a single card is removed and substituted for another card, when there is an accomplice involved, then they may be swapping cards under the table so that one player has the most advantageous hand.

 

Dodgy dealings: These are probably the hardest types of cheats to pull off successfully because the dealer will be the centre of attention, their every move will be scrutinised by all the players at the table, as well as the casino security, so this is very difficult to achieve.

However, it is done by some very skilful dealers, as stated above they can manipulate which cards to deal; this is mostly done when the deck being played is a loaded deck. A loaded deck means that the cards have been placed in the deck in such a way that the dealer knows precisely which cards are where and then will deal to the appropriate player.

How does the croupier get a loaded deck into play when they clearly have to shuffle the cards before they are dealt? Well, they will use slight of hand techniques to swap the loaded deck into the game after they have shuffled another deck.

 

These dealer tricks can be very sly, an unscrupulous dealer will ensure that the other players, the ones who are not involved in the scam, are also dealt a very good hand, this ensures that they continue on in the game and wager high amounts on their supposedly ‘winning hand', if they were to be dealt a bad hand then they would very likely fold, especially those players who are new to poker.

 

Physical forms of cheating:

The types of cheating that are most popular in this category of cheating are card marking and holdout devices:

 

Card marking: as stated above there are many ways of marking cards, including the use of specialised inks or powders, these can be viewed using specialist devices, such as UV rays or certain types of lenses.

The nature of the preparation that needs to go into these methods of cheating means that they are not often seen in a casino setting as the cheats will not have access to the decks that are used by the casinos, they can however be orchestrated, with careful planning by a member of the casino staff- but they would have to be in a relatively high position to be trusted with cards- or by a member of staff at the card printing manufactures -but they would need to mark decks then ensure that they are sent to the right casinos, possibly too much of a logistical nightmare to be worthwhile, if you did manage to pull this off and supply some of Nevada's casinos, you could make a lot of money.

 

Holdout device: as described above, these devices allow a cheater to take a card out of play and keep it unseen until they want it back in the game. Although they might sound straightforward enough to use, they actually require a high level of practice to become proficiently skilful enough to use them in a professional setting....practice on your friends first- but do tell them what you are doing, this will make it easier for them to notice when you are using your device, and also mean that you will have to become even better.

DISCLAIMER: THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT CONDONE CHEATING- IF YOU ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO TRY DON’T BLAME US WHEN YOU GET BLACKLISTED FROM ALL THE MAJOR CASINOS, OR WORSE, GET ARRESTED, SENT TO JAIL, LOSE YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND LET YOUR DOG STARVE TO DEATH BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANYONE THERE TO FEED HIM/HER.

 

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