For a long time, poker has been one of the most popular casino games whether played at the land-based casinos or online. The gambling industry is full of stories about the poker players who achieved their success with the skills and the luck, but there is also the other side of the coin as well. Every once in a while, a story breaks out about players who tried to cheat their way to success while playing poker and that is always a big news.

Over the years, casinos have developed methods for detecting cheaters and their methods used while playing poker. It also needs to be said that cheating while playing any casino game, including poker, will bring much more problems and negative issues than it might bring benefits. Despite that, people still try to cheat their way to success and in this piece, we will be bringing you a list of the most common cheating techniques that players use while playing poker.

1. Collusion With Friends

The idea of working together with a friend while playing certain casino games, including poker, is present in the gambling industry for a long time. However, with the rise of theonline gambling industry, this method of cheating became much more popular. This method includes two or more friends going to the same poker table to play the game. Before coming to the table, they have developed their own signals for different situations. Once the game starts, they operate according to those signals in order to earn as much as possible.

Even though it might seem simple, this method is very hard to make profitable. The execution of this method requires a lot of skills but when it is executed in a proper fashion, players who use this method can have asignificant advantage over other players at the table. However, as soon as casino officials notice the collusion, those players will be removed from the table and they will be ban from entering that casino again.

However, when it comes to online poker, things are alittle bit more different. With online poker, there are no casinos officials that could be watching for collusion and players have the option of using private chats to communicate and to come up with the strategy that might bring benefits for all players involved in that scheme. However, in the case of online poker, many players realize that this strategy is not that effective and that they do not earn as much money as they would want to and because of that, they soon give up on this strategy.

 

2. Marking Cards

Marking cards is also one of the most popular methods that poker players use in order to cheat while they play poker. This method is specific for poker played in land-based casinos because marking cards is not possible to do while playing online poker. There are several ways in which players try to mark the cards and some of those are tinting, cut-out, block-out, shading, and many others.

All these cards marking processes involve altering the size or the look of the cards that will be used during the poker game. For a long time, card marking has been avery popular method of cheating but once casinos realized what was going on, they implemented measures that prevented players from even being in the position to alter the decks of cards. This method is not used only in poker games as players use this method also to cheat in other card games such as Blackjack and others.

The ways in which players have come up for marking cards go into such details that it is almost impossible to detect those markets with thenaked eye. Those markings are very small but they give a huge edge to the players who are aware of those markings. For a long time, this method has been known to produce a lot of success but that was at the time when dealers and casinos were not aware of the card marking.

Today, card marking is no longer a problem for casinos because they have very strict deck controls. However, this cheating method is very problematic when it comes to the poker games that are privately organized and when players are not sure whether or not adealer or other players had the opportunity to mark the cards that are being used in the game.

 

3. Stealing Your Chips

Cheating while playing poker does not have to involve some tricks or manipulation with cards because players will often take the chips straight from other players’ pots. Sleigh of hands techniques has been used for this method and in many cases, players do not even notice that their chips have been stolen from them until it is too late. Stealing of chips can happen on several occasions and it can involve dealers as well as other players.

Whenever players are moving their chips in the pot, there is a possibility for their chips to be stolen. Because of that, every player needs to be aware of what other players are doing during the entire game. One of the ways in which players can make sure that their chips are not stolen is to splash the pot. Splashing the pot means that when aplayer is about to make a call, raise or a bet, is placing his or her chips directly into the pot instead of placing them in front of themselves.

One of the most often ways in which chips get stolen is when a player is placing his or her chips in the pot, he or she places a wrong amount of chips and when they go to take back their chips they took other players’ chips as well. In that way, they may end up with much more chips than they have placed in the pot which enables them to have significant profit.

Stealing poker chips appears often in the underground poker games because the security measures are not that strict in those games like they are when it comes to land-based casinos. As mentioned before, players also need to pay a lot of attention to the dealer and what he is doing during the game because they too have a lot of opportunities to steal your chips during the game.

 

4. Rigging the Deck

Rigged deck or cold deck as this cheating method is known in the world of poker is one of the most popular methods not only in poker games but also in other card casino games. This cheating method involved dealers because they are the only one that has the access to the deck of cards. This method requires a lot of skills because cold or rigged decks can be easily discovered and because of that, this cheating method is not used as much these days as it was in the past.

When it comes to this cheating method, it needs to be said that both the winning and the losing players will be dealt very strong hands which will result in very good pots with a lot of stakes. For cheaters, this scenario means that they will have astronger hand and with that big advantage over other players in the game. This cheating method is closely connected to the card marking method because rigging the deck often means marking cards in acertain way to give certain players advantage in the game.

However, that is not the only way in which dealers might rig the decks as they often shuffle cards in a way that seem legit but in fact, they are providing certain players with much better chances for winning. In land-based casinos, this method is easily detectable and because of that, it is not used anymore. However, in underground poker games, players have very little possibilities to notice rigged decks and because of that, they need to be aware of everything that the dealer is doing.

 

5. Switching Cards

https://youtu.be/znzMvirg9zA

Switching cards is one of the oldest cheating methods when it comes to card games. The phrase I have an ace up my sleeve is actually a product of this cheating method because players would often switch their cards that they were dealt with aces that they would hide in some places during the game. This cheating method has become so popular and in many cases, very effective that is left a huge mark in the popular culture.

The underlying idea of this cheating method is relatively simple. All that a player needs to do is bring their own cards to the game of poker and switch them during the game in order to improve your hands. However, even though it sounds relatively simple, this cheating method requires a lot of skills and patience. Switching cards has become very popular and players have gotten accustomed to this method that even the slight movement of the hand will signal that a player is about to make a switch of cards.

Because of that, this cheating method is not used as much as before. The main reason for that is the fact that we have already mentioned. Players and casinos are aware of this technique and they have measures in place that are very effective in preventing this cheating method. Besides that, all those poker players who might think to use this cheating method, you need to be aware of the fact that switching cards is illegal and that you might end up in prison for those actions. Because of that, it is better not to use this cheating method at all.

 

6. Collusion With the Dealer

For many poker players, dealers are the weakest link in the poker game process. In underground poker games or unofficial poker games, dealers can often be under influence of the players or they can be working together with some players in order to rig the game. Just like it was the case with colluding with friends, colluding with dealers can bring a lot of advantage for certain players in the poker game.

In some cases, dealers might bring up certain rules that would benefit some players in the game while damaging other players. Besides that, considering that dealer operates with the decks, it is quite possible that they might rig the deck in a way that it favors some players or they can just remain silent when a certain player is cheating during the game.

When it comes to land-based casinos, dealers are under strict control and they have very little room to operate independently which has significantly reduced the possibility of dealers influencing the outcome of the poker game. On the other hand, when it comes to underground poker games, players are never sure that the dealer will be neutral in the game. Because of that, players need to be able to pay attention to what the dealer is doing and to call out all the inconsistencies in his or her actions during the game.

 

7. Ghosting

https://youtu.be/ORI5fC7EzZc

Ghosting is one of the cheating methods that is very hard to detect, especially in online poker games. This cheating method operates on the principle of friends giving advice to players on what he or she should be doing with their hand. Often, players will have their friends sit next to them and they would often have a much better perspective on the game than the players and they would give advice to the players on how to play their hands.

In land-based casinos, this cheating method cannot be applied because only players are allowed to sit at the poker table. However, when it comes to online poker games, players often use this method to gain anadvantage. Whether players are communicating with their friends by using Skype or some other chat or by talking to them while their friends sit next to them, with this cheating method players might have ahuge advantage in the poker game.

This cheating method is not only applied in the poker games because players often use this method in other card games as well as in other casino games. Other players are never sure whether or not certain players are using ghosting while playing and because of that it is almost impossible to prevent this cheating method from being used in the poker game.