Cheating is never a good thing,
especially when it comes to gambling.
It's one of those things that can very
easily get you kicked out of and banned
from brick and mortar casinos for life.
It's also a good way to get banned from
an online poker room. There are four
levels of cheating and we're going to
take a look at each one. Hopefully,
you're not guilty of any of these and if
you have been engaging in one of them -
especially the first one - and didn't
realize it was cheating, stop before it
gets worse and your online poker days
become numbered.
Minor cheating
Minor cheating can be defined as a
player sitting on the phone or chatting
online with a friend who is sitting at
the same table playing poker together
and sharing with one another what hole
cards they have. They do not share a
bankroll and are actually opponents
against one another. This is the most
common form of online poker cheating and
while many people may not consider it to
be cheating, in its own way, it is.
Idiot cheating
Less common now than in the beginning
days of online poker rooms, players who
timed out still held their hands for a
bet and got to see everyone's else's bet
before finally playing their own. Plus,
their style of play is so obvious that
everyone knows they are cheating in some
way. Most online poker rooms today
automatically fold a player's hand if
they time out.
Inept collusion
Remember player A and player B up above
chatting away on the phone while they
play? Well if they play partners and are
extremely obvious in their collusion
while playing at the table, once again,
everyone is going to know that they are
cheating. Thanks to the fact that most
online poker rooms have hand histories,
the colluders are usually caught because
the management can watch as they raise
the bet hand after hand after hand until
everyone but the partner with the best
hand is left standing.
Expert collusion
These are the cheaters you need to watch
out for. They are the ones that have
figured out how to play at the same
table with two different accounts that
are on two separate Internet
connections. Usually this doesn't work
and one of the online poker room's red
flag's goes up. These players also play
their two identities at other tables in
order to avoid being caught.
Cheaters always get caught and if you
think you are a victim of collusion
while playing at an online poker room,
contact the management immediately and
report what table you were playing at,
what seat you were in, who the culprit
or culprits are, and the date and time
you were playing. Nothing spoils a good
card game like a cheater.
