Do not play the cards, play the people. That is one of the most important mantras of poker. A good bluff always beat bad cards. With one major exception. Cheaters beat everything. Unless they get caught.

We have taken a deep dive into some of the ways cheaters cheat in poker.

Marked Cards / Card Marking

When ‘marking cards’, you try to alter the cards in the deck. You will have a big advantage (doh’), when you begin to know the cards and its distinct alteration. Cards are normally marked with bents, dents or small cracks, so be aware of the condition of the cards.

If you are playing in a casino, cheaters will have a hard time playing with marked cards. Dealers, and state of the line casino cameras, are very focused on removing marked cards. BUT during a six year period Mihai Lacatos, a Romanian poker player, managed to cheat the casinos. Mihai used the card marking technique. 

In one week he swindled The Playboy Club in Mayfair, London for about 50.560,96 dollars. Mihai was eventually caught(31 March 2014), but out on bail, he continued to swindle casinos. So dodge Mihai if you meet him at a poker table.

cards poker cheater

Marked cards are more commonly found in privat games (home games, backyard games). Poker sharks might try to take advantage. Remember. If you cannot spot the sucker, you might be the sucker yourself.

Read more poker content and blogs here.

Poker Bot

There is nothing new about cheating in poker. When poker became digital. So did the cheaters. A poker bot is a program that is used to give the cheater an advantage. It gives them the opportunity to see all the cards. This was exactly what Russ Hamilton, who owned the Ultimate Bet poker site, did. Russ made a program that gave him an insight into everyone’s cards.

Russ was never arrested due to gray areas of cheating in that period of time.

There are also other ways that a bot can be used to cheat. In online poker, bots are used to calculate best case scenarios. Based on statistics, it knows when to fold, call or bet. Superior to any human. Look out for any account with the name: Skynet.

Therefore, be aware of playing online poker. If you cannot see them, you cannot call their bluff or spot their cheat. Sadly, in this case, convenience does come with a cost, – and if you are unlucky, a bot goes away with the pot.

Bottom dealing / Base dealing 

Buddying up in poker is not rare. Friends might ‘soft play’ at a game of poker to try to help the other and/ or avoid a big cash clash with each other. Unethical, yes. Illegal, no.

But there are other ways of cheating with a buddy. Bottom dealing is a way of stacking cards to ensure great cards for the partner in crime.

The technique is something that involves sleight of hand. The dealer doubles as a poker mechanic. He makes it look like he shuffles the deck in random, all while he stacks the deck. It is a dying art at the casinos, as it is something that casino cameras can catch. In home games it might still have a way of living.             

As poker continues to evolve into new platforms, cheaters will too. There are endless ways of trying to beat the game, but hopefully all cheaters will get beat in the end. At least you will know how to spot a cheater now.

EasyPoker makes it impossible to bottom deal, mark cards and hopefully make a skynet-like-poker-pro-bot. Until that time, enjoy a game of EasyPoker without the hassle of cheaters. But with plenty of bluffers.

If you want to read more from EasyPoker, then take a look at some of our other blogs.

Get EasyPoker for iPhone and Android here.