THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Why Professionals Cheat
others will cheat them. Generally those who react most violently against cheaters are those who would
most readily cheat others if their fear of being caught and evoking similarly violent reactions from their
opponents did not restrain them.
Most amateur poker players hold the classical but misleading views about cheating. They perceive
nearly all cheating as being done either by bumbling amateurs who are easily caught or by highly
dexterous and invincible cardsharps who have perfected sleight-of-hand skills through years of laborious
practice and dangerous experience. In holding those misleading classical views, most amateur poker
players remain unsuspecting of the casual, natural-appearing collusion cheating and Neocheating
practiced among the professional establishment.
As the stakes of public games increase, the percentage of professional players increases--as does their
motivation to cheat. Every player should increasingly expect and look for cheating as he progresses to
higher-stake club or casino games ... right up to the highest-stake games, including the finals (down to
the last three players) of the million-dollar world championship, freeze-out tournaments held in Las
Vegas, Nevada. Most finalists in those tournaments are public-game professionals who have worked in
the professional establishment for years. Few members of the professional cheating establishment would
have qualms about making collusion arrangements in those tournaments or any high-stake game: Two of
the three final players could safely and swiftly squeeze the third player out of the game with collusion
betting to assure both the remaining players, for example, a several-hundred-thousand-dollar return on
their original $10,000 stakes (their entry fees). By their collusion, the final two players would vastly
improve their investment odds--they would eliminate any possibility of losing while guaranteeing
themselves a large win.
When, how, and why does a public-game professional begin cheating? Imagine a lonely public-game
player struggling against the house cut to become a full-time professional and suddenly discovering a
friendly professional establishment with an ongoing cheating system readily available to him . . . an
undetectable cheating system requiring no special skills and available for his immediate profit. Such a
player, especially if he is a mediocre or marginal professional, will often embrace that opportunity by
tacitly cooperating with the establishment professionals in perpetuating their system. He accepts their
collusion cheating as a trade tool required for playing competitive, professional poker. As he blends in
with those professionals and adopts their system, he becomes increasingly dependent not only on their
establishment but on collusion cheating to survive. He loses his independence and becomes a
stereotyped, public-game professional. With a sense of professional righteousness, he becomes a cheater.
XXXI
Beating Professional Cheaters
The alert player who is familiar with the basic professional cheating techniques can detect any cheating,
even the most skilled and invisible cheating, without actually seeing the cheating. An alert player usually
can tell who is cheating, what technique is being used, and exactly when the cheating is occurring by
detecting patterns and combinations of illogical betting, raising, pace, and playing style by his opponents.
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