Quitting strange games

Live Poker / Marcus Bateman / 31 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

In live games outside of casinos (particularly self dealt ones) you need to be extremely observant of game flow and how players seem to be handling their chips and cards and their general play.

During the large discussion of the cheating accusations involving Sorel Mizzi, a point came up that was largely unrelated, but stuck a chord with me when looking at many of the guys brought up purely on online poker go into the live environment. It turned out that just before the alleged accusations, Sorel had been cheated out of a significant amount of money ($500k+) by a group posing as rich amateurs in Europe, who had played with marked cards and made a big score.

Live poker is a much more dangerous world than online poker in terms of cheating for most players. Online, where all of the hand histories are kept, statistical anomalies and soft playing/chip dumping can be spotted pretty easily, as well as the money being able to seized from cheaters and returned in most cases, but live this is rarely the case.

In live games outside of casinos (particularly self dealt ones) you need to be extremely observant of game flow and how players seem to be handling their chips and cards and their general play. Cheating in poker requires people to deviate pretty far from regular play in order to make money quickly, and looking out for the tell tell signs of cheating play is crucial to protecting yourself if you start playing in these sort of games.

Large river/turn raises or - more often - check raises when you have very marginal hands, coupled with a much higher instance of hero calling when you have nothing, can often be very suspicious signs against players who do not seem that consistent in other areas. Player's habitually seeming to sandwich you into pots and offer you great pot odds is also a worrying a sign, and this is one of the oldest tricks in limit games to squeeze you into calling extra bets.

A very high instance of 'cooler' hands can also be a worry, as this is a frequent tactic used by deck riggers to guarantee big pots come their way by setting up spots where you simply cannot fold. This should be a particular worry if cards do not seem to be being cut often, or the deck is regularly out of view, or if coolers frequently follow distractions (such as a drink being spilt etc) where decks could be switched easily.

If you do suspect something is going on in a new game, there is only one piece of advice you need to know - quit. You cannot beat even the most amateur cheaters at a game of incomplete information such as poker - they simply have too much of an advantage over you. There are always other games and other players to sit with, and removing your money from the table as quickly as possible is the biggest victory possible in such a scenario.

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