THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Why Professionals Cheat
cards--such as might occur if a dealer had crimped for a false cut and then failed to bend out the
crimp. In addition, the dealer gripped the cards in a way to facilitate false cutting. Yet, John
detected no evidence of card culling, discard sorting, or deck stacking. After certain hands,
however, the dealer would periodically glance at face-down discards as he gathered cards for the
next deal. Still he made no attempt to rearrange any cards.
John Finn lost another large hand to the manager's friend. While assuming that he was the victim
of collusion cheating, John did not know how or when it was occurring. His counteractions not
only failed, but increased his losses. He had lost his winnings and was losing over $200 before he
realized how the cheating was occurring. The method was simple, essentially undetectable, yet
devastatingly effective. After each hand, the dealer simply gathered the face-up stud cards in a
natural way, making no attempt to cull, sort, or stack them ... he merely remembered the value
and order of the exposed cards. If too few cards had been exposed, he would simply glance at some
face-down cards. By remembering fourteen cards[ 39 ] and by keeping them in an unchanged
order on top of the deck through blind shuffles, false riffles, and false cuts, the dealer would know
everyone's hole cards--thus, he would know everyone's exact hand right up until the seventh and
final card. From that omniscient position, the dealer would then make all the playing and betting
decisions for his partner (or partners) by signaling when to fold, call, bet, or raise. The playing
partner would never need to know anyone's hand, including his own; he would only need to follow
the signals of the all-knowing dealer.
On losing his third large pot to the low-sitting professional, John Finn realized that he could not
beat that kind of collusion cheating and that his only choice was to quit the game. In order to gain
some benefit, in order to analyze player reactions, John decided to openly declare his suspicion of
cheating without revealing how much he really knew. He wanted to leave himself in the most
knowledgeable and strongest position should he decide to return to the game.
After losing the pot, John placed one of his crimped hole cards on the flat palm of his hand and
lifted the card to eye level. The dealer was waiting for the card as everyone watched John Finn.
"Are these cards marked?" he asked, knowing that except for the crimping they probably were
not. At that moment, he yanked his hand from beneath the card. It fell in an irregular motion to
the table. Everyone stared at John ... everyone except the dealer, the manager, and the
professional player--they kept glancing in different directions. John Finn picked up his chips and
left. He had learned something.
An all-knowing collusion dealer greatly increases the investment odds for his playing partner while
leaving the playing partner immune to errors and detection as well as to having his hands and intentions
read by the good player. Furthermore, the cheater's cards always appear normal and above suspicion. No
dramatic or improbable set-up hands occur. The cheater may fold at any time during the hand and
sometimes is beaten on the last card . . . all normal in appearance and above suspicion-- except for the
cheater's illogical playing and betting patterns and his unnaturally improved investment and edge odds.
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