THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Policies
Sid Bennett cheats. While it is quite obvious, only John Finn fully realizes that he cheats. Quintin
Merck suspects it, but never makes any direct accusations. The other players watch Sid's cheating,
but refuse to suspect him. His crude cheating techniques include--
● looking through the discards to select cards for use in his hand
● culling or sorting cards prior to dealing
● peeking at cards to be dealt, especially twist cards
● stealing money from the pot when going light
● slipping a good card into the hand of a losing player (Robin Hood cheating).
John estimates that Sid cheats once in every eight or ten hands.
2. Accepting Cheaters (76)
The good player quietly accepts cheaters if they are losers. In fact, he often welcomes their cheating
because they generally lose more money when cheating, particularly when cheating in complex games
involving split pots and twists.... A player usually increases his losses when cheating because he--
● dilutes his attention toward the game by worrying about and concentrating on his cheating
● overestimates the benefits of cheating and thus plays looser and poorer poker
● makes his cards more readable.
Why does a player cheat if his cheating increases his losses? Some players cheat to satisfy emotional
needs. Other players cheat out of financial desperation.
Sid cheats for emotional rather than financial reasons. His cheating costs him thousands of extra
dollars every year, as shown by the data below. The data include a three-month period when Sid
stopped his cheating because he was worried about getting caught.
Period
Edge Odds for Sid Bennett
Cheating Frequency
1st year Seldom --10
2nd and 3rd year Regular --23
3 months in 3rd
year
http://www.neo-tech.com/poker/part3c.html (12 of 15)9/17/2004 12:19:27 PM
Seldom --12
Edge Odds for Sid Bennett
Average Edge Odds, %