Who Cheat?
Poker cheating is more common in home played games that do not follow gaming procedures strictly, but professional cheats can also perform poker cheating in public poker rooms and casinos, despite all cheating prevention measures applied at these facilities. There are three main categories of poker cheating:
- collusion (conspiracy of several players)
- sleight-of-hand (stacking the deck, bottom dealing, switching cards etc.)
- cheating gaffs (glims, holdout devices, marked cards etc.)
Good cheats do not let anyone know any cheating has been done, so many people have no idea about how common poker cheating actually is.
Expert Cheaters:
Serious poker cheats, especially those who hit casinos, usually operate in pairs or groups. The group usually contains one card mechanic, who manipulates the cards and one or more shills who act if they were regular players. Sometimes the group also contains a muscle, a man who uses a physical force in the case of disclosure. Street gangs that more commonly focus on three card monte or dice games, also employ a wall man who acts as a lookout.
Here is a list of terms that categorize cheats of certain specializations:
- Card Mechanic: Sleight-of-hand manipulation specialist.
- Base Dealer, Second Dealer or Bottom Dealer: A cheat that specializes in bottom dealing.
- Machine Player: A card cheat that uses mechanical holdouts.
- Hand Mucker: A card cheat that specializes in switching cards.
- Paper Player: A card cheat that uses marked cards.
- Crossroader: A cheat who travels from town to town to hit casinos.
