When you play poker online you are right to expect the games to be contested fairly. By playing poker you are accepting there is a chance that you could lose money and you are trying to take chips from your opponents by beating them honestly in pots. But where money is concerned there are many individuals who wish to obtain that money by whatever means at their disposal, including cheating you and others.
Cheating players are one of the problems that come with the territory of being an online poker player where every player, for better and for worse, has the protection of anonymity thanks to their username and computer screen; you should always be on your guard and vigilant. This article relates to when other players are cheating, but there are cases recently where poker rooms themselves have admitted cheating players. My advice is pick another room is this happens.
But what do you look out for in opponents?
Cheaters employ a specific poker strategy to beat you out of your money. There are a number of techniques. Two players can be sitting together and in contact with one another via a mobile phone or VOIP program online. Because many players follow each other to tables the poker site find it difficult to know whether or not cheating is occurring just through which players are on which table.
Keep your Hand Histories
Hand histories are vital because any accusation you make needs backing up with evidence. Whilst the poker room has access to the hands you should keep histories to check for any anomalies. Bizarre betting patterns may not be visible to you when you play but in review may be far more obvious.
Watch the Betting Action
Most cheaters will look to corner you when they have a chance. In a three way pot you and the cheaters they will raise strongly and re-raise to bully you into folding. It does not matter which of the two players wins the pot providing one of them does so. If you notice two players raising and re-raising and when you fold one player weakly folding this could be cheating. If it happens two or three times contact support with details of the hands and let them investigate.
If you are suspicious that you are being cheated then contact the support on the poker room and let them know your concerns. Most poker rooms have complex algorithms that highlight suspicious betting activity. They will be able to tell if a players betting patterns and likely to be cheating or not within a reasonable degree of accuracy. You can expect to be reimbursed if this turns out to be the case. I have read many forum posts where players have received refunds from hands they do not recall as they did not realise players were cheating, but they were later found out. Unfortunately cheating does occur, but fortunately poker rooms like bwin.com take this very seriously and look to stamp it out whenever they can to maintain the integrity of the poker games contested in their poker room.
Most poker games are honest, most poker players let their skill decide their success but some do not. Watching your opponents carefully, their betting patterns and their style of play can detect a cheater. The good news is that many other more experienced players are very adept at picking out a suspect player with bizarre behaviour. Do not be afraid to go onto the poker forums and private message a well-known player with your concerns. They may agree to look at your hand histories and give their opinion on whether an opponent looks to be suspicious or not if you are unsure.
You need to be as sure as you can be before making serious accusations because player’s accounts can be frozen whilst investigations are made into their playing activity.
By Malcolm Clarke
