THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Robin Hood Cheater
immediately. Sid grins and winks a faded-blue eye at John.
Later that evening, John draws to a lowball hand that he has bet heavily during the first round.
But he catches a pair of fives to ruin his lowball hand. Still John bets the maximum in trying to
bluff out his two remaining opponents.... Ted Fehr folds because Sid is sitting behind him with a
pat hand. John's knee nudges Sid's leg. Sid smiles and then shows everyone his eight low as he
folds. "Thanks," he whispers to John. Promptly John Finn spreads his hand face-up on the table
to win the $600 lowball pot with a pair of fives.... Sid looks at the ceiling and sputters dirty words.
Instead of simply saying no to Sid's collusion-cheating offer, John earns a good profit while
making his answer clear.
5. Detection (79)
Most cheaters in private games use crude techniques that are easily detectable.[ 20 ] Yet most players
ignore even obvious cheating to avoid arousing unpleasant emotions. When a player detects someone
cheating, he often rationalizes it as a rule violation or a mistake. But the good player identifies cheating
quickly and can detect even highly skilled cheaters without even seeing a dishonest move. How does he
do that? Cheaters betray themselves by violations of logic and probability. The good player, with his
sharply focused concentration on his opponents, the game, and the odds, has an acute awareness of any
improbable playing and betting patterns. That awareness enables him to promptly detect cheating, even
without seeing a suspicious move.
Professor Merck suspects Sid of cheating. One night, Sid cheats him out of a $700 pot. After sitting
in silence for several hands, Quintin abruptly leaves without a word and slams the front door.
Knowing that Quintin detected Sid's cheating and fearful that he will tell others, John pursues
him out the door. Quintin stops under the street lamp when he sees John approaching. For a
moment, neither says a word.
"You saw it too?" Quintin asks, squinting his green eyes.
"I see it in every game."
"So why haven't you said something!" the professor half shouts. "He should've been bounced
from the game long ago."
"Look, who's the biggest loser in the game?" John quickly replies. "It's Sid. And you're a big
winner. In the past couple of years, you've taken Sid for thousands of dollars. Sure he's cheated
you, me, and everyone else out of pots. But what if we'd thrown him out two years ago? We'd have
done him a $40,000 favor."
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