Free Poker Cheaters

I forgot about daylight savings time and falling back an hour, so I am up an hour too early. I figured I might as well write a new poker blog. I have had the opportunity to play a little more poker as of late. More time to practice my decision to become more aggressive in my poker game. It paid off with a 2nd place finish at the Ultimate last Thursday night. That in its self is a whole other blog that may or may not get written. The big talk the last few times that I have played has been about a local player that was caught cheating a few weeks ago. It really was not a big surprise to me as I have always known him as a cheater; in fact I had given him his last warning about looking at cards when he was not entitled too. Here are a few of the past things that have come up at some of my games. I am not accusing anyone of any of the following things; these are just things that have come up!




The latest- Player sits in the middle of the table and pulls pots into middle and stacks them in piles and then palms a few chips and adds them to their stack. Can easily happen in bar poker as we encourage players in the middle to help keep the games organized to keep flow going.



A player that deals for themselves and then looks ahead to the next card after the flop to make a decision on whether to play or fold. Most likely on draw and a little tougher to get away with, but have caught someone doing it.



A player that splashes the pot when losing a big pot, so that no one will know that the actually shorted the pot when counting out what they owe. This actually happens more than you think, so be watchful. A player can accidentantly do this is confused by the chip values.



Another a little less critical is the player sitting in the middle collecting cards and looking as players muck their hands. They are gaining information that is not available to other players.



Now on to tournament directors. They have the most opportunities and I once again I am not accusing anyone but have heard of this happening.



Adding chips to their stacks during chip up process at breaks. A good tournament director should never let another player help them with this process.



Setting up table with certain players at the beginning of a tournament. I will say that I have put a player occasionally at my table but more for a social aspect rather than to gain an edge in a poker game.



Now what to do with a player that has been caught. In most cases the player will be embarrassed enough not to come back, but not always the case. I believe that the player should be banned from free poker games forever. I think once a cheater always a cheater in games such as poker. How can you ever trust this person again? Now I know that they are exceptions to any rule, but think it should be an individual’s right to decide to let the player continue to play. One such player has recently started playing again locally after taking almost a year off. I find it very difficult to even talk to him. I see him and think what a cheater. I had very little respect for him before incident and have none for him now, so please don't act like I am still your buddy. I never was!



So, bar player, always keep an eye about what’s going on around you at the tables and make sure you let someone know right away if you think someone is cheating