Online poker cheats exist and are playing at every online poker room today, make no mistake. However, the nature of the cheating that takes place in online poker is very different from what many might imagine, and is far less sinister.
Imaginative fears that will prove unfounded include: poker bots playing against real opponents and defeating them with powerful artificial poker intelligence; players able to see your cards; players able to see the cards on the poker room’s server; and players employed by the poker room to beat “normal” honest players. All of that is sheer nonsense and simply does not happen.
Know this – it is in the best interests of every online poker room to find poker cheats and banish them. Poker rooms make so much money in a straightforward way from rakes and tournament fees that it would be idiotic of them to condone or profit from cheating. It isn’t necessary as legitimate online poker rooms now generate billions of dollars in revenue already. Online poker rooms make it very hard to cheat at poker, but players still try and here’s how they do it:
The number one way to cheat at online poker is via collusion. This simply means that you and your friends play at the same table and tell each other your cards. It happens in every card room in the world, online and offline. It is easy to do this in online poker. All you need is Skype or Instant Messenger and you can help your confederate (your co-cheat) to win pots and vice versa. It is very popular to do this at short-handed tables where the advantage is naturally greater than at a full table. So if you repeatedly see the same two or three names at a table stay away!
Poker cheats are more sophisticated than that of course. They will have multiple user names for the same poker room and will play from a variety of different terminals to try and avoid IP detection. These cheaters will try and build up pots for one another and trap an unsuspecting third player in the middle. Online poker rooms keep logs of player activity so if you suspect that this has happened to you it is imperative that you report it immediately.
A lot of players also use computer programs to help them calculate pot odds and the likelihood of drawing to a specific hand while they are in a game. Is this cheating? It may be unethical as it provides them with an advantage but it isn’t banned by online poker rooms so how can it be cheating? It’s kind of like steroid use in baseball in 2001 (um, Mr Bonds please take note) – an unfair advantage but one that isn’t breaking the letter of the law, only the spirit. These computer programs are the only poker bots in existence, and you can buy them online simply by searching for the term “poker bots”.
So much of poker is psychological, instinctive, and based on past experience that the benefits of these poker programs are quite limited anyway. A good poker player will use his creative poker ability to win pots, not by being a slave to the odds of the game. And numbers can never tell you when to execute a bluff, a steal, or a brilliant bet.
There is some cheating at online poker, but it’s less than most people think and it’s far more dour and prosaic than one would imagine. Also, most online poker cheats get caught, are banned, and have their bankrolls confiscated. They might prosper in the short-term but it just isn’t worth it in the end. Cheating at anything rarely is (aww, a Hollywood ending to the article, but still pretty true)…
