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Ever Felt Cheated

By: Rick Fuller

 

Cheating is an affront to millions of honest poker players around the world, but be careful when you accuse someone or you might get a dose of the Wild West.

 

Throughout history, cheaters have wormed their way into poker games hoping to best more skillful players through card manipulations and sleight of hand tricks. In the old West, cheaters and con artists were often found with cards up their sleeves and marked decks in their hands. When a cheater was discovered, he met a violent, bloody end, as did, occasionally, the accuser and the poor old piano player. Being labeled a poker cheat was a black mark that followed a man throughout the West and for the rest of his life.

 

Cheating continues to be a bane to the game, but there are safeguards to protect poker players against it. Infrequently do you hear about instances of cheating these days. Most poker tournaments are run according to Tournament Director’s Association rules, making all of the regulations standard and fair. Poker dealers, and the decks used for play, are switched every half hour to make paying off a dealer or marking cards ineffective. Poker decks are counted down, usually every couple of hands, making it difficult to secrete cards and use them later. Seats and tables are drawn at random, so players cannot choose to sit together. The type of cheating found in the old West is seen very rarely today.

 

In modern-day poker tournaments, the most common ways of cheating are ‘collusion’, ‘soft play’, and ‘chip passing’. Collusion involves working with a partner to drive everyone out of a pot in order for you or your partner to win it. Collusion is the reason for the rule that all called hands may be seen at any player’s request. Soft play involves playing a hand passively rather than aggressively against someone who is a friend of yours. An example would be checking a very good hand or not betting in a situation where you usually would.

 

In a live cash game it is not unusual, and not considered cheating, to soft play a friend, but in a tournament it is. Chip passing is betting a hand big and then folding to a raise or a future bet from a friend in order to ‘pass’ chips to the friend. Both chip passing and soft play are considered cheating but are difficult to discover. Without seeing a player’s hole cards, it is next to impossible to know if he is playing his hand soft or passing chips. That is why in most situations where cheating happens, the hand will not be played to the end. One of the players will usually fold so that the soft play or collusion is not discovered.

 

A player’s reputation and integrity are still a huge part of the game today. Recently, accusations against players such as Keith Lehr have caused them to miss out on opportunities to play and win and have lost them the trust of many other players. The World Series of Poker has banned many players from participating in its events over the years because of accusations of cheating. When an accusation is made, it is imperative to know for a fact that cheating is actually occurring, so that a player’s reputation is not damaged without cause.

 

At last year’s World Series of Poker, I was playing in a $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event. I was seated in the #1 seat immediately to the left of the dealer. Seated in the #2 seat to my left was a well-respected professional player, who we’ll call Mr. X. In the #5 seat was Clonie Gowen, who happens to be a good friend of mine. This was our starting table and I was less than excited to see that Clonie had drawn the same table as I had and would be sitting to my left. I have played a lot of poker with Clonie, and she knows exactly how I like to play. I decided that I would have to change my style a little to compensate for her knowledge. When Clonie sat down, we immediately started talking and laughing with each other. She loaned me her MP3 player to listen to as I had left mine in my room. It was obvious that she and I knew each other well.

 

Alittle more than two hours into the tournament, I had managed to avoid playing any big pots with Clonie when the following hand came up: I was down to approximately 1,900 in chips from a starting count of 2,500. The blinds were 50-100, and I was under the gun. I looked down to see pocket kings, and I decided to bring it in for 200, just doubling the big blind. I had been playing quite a few hands, and I often bring it in for double the blind from that position. Mr. X, sitting next to me, called my bet and it was folded around to Clonie. Clonie raised, making it 1,500 to go, another 1,100 to me. It was then folded around back to me. I had to decide what I wanted to do. I was not worried about Clonie’s raise; she knows I play a lot of hands and could have any two cards here. I figured that Clonie was making a move with a mediocre hand knowing that I would lay down a lot of hands for that kind of raise. She also had a lot of chips, somewhere around 5,000, and could afford to play around a bit to try to pick up the pot. My dilemma was whether I should re-raise all-in, only an additional 400, or just flat call. If I saw an unfriendly flop, I could still get rid of the hand and try to double or triple up later. I was also trying to determine if I wanted to have the Mr. X in the pot with us. What would he do if I just called or raised? I finally decided to call and attempt to lure him into calling as well. He got a disgusted look on his face and folded, and Clonie and I saw the flop heads up. The flop came Q-7-4 rainbow, and I checked to Clonie, knowing that she had to bet any holding to try to get me to lay down my hand. Clonie bet out my last 400, and I immediately called, rolling over my pocket kings. Clonie got a rather sheepish look on her face and rolled over pocket sixes. The turn and river brought no help to her, and I raked in the pot, having more than doubled up.

 

As soon as the hand was over, Mr. X turned to Clonie and said, “Nice hand; that better not ever happen again.” I was listening to my MP3 player and stacking my chips, not really paying attention to the conversation, but I heard Clonie ask him what he was saying. He told her, “I know what just happened and it better not happen again. You don’t play sixes that way.” Clonie then asked him if he was trying to give her lessons on how to play her hand, and he retorted, “You know what I’m talking about.” I noticed that everyone at the table was watching this interaction and it finally sank into my dense brain that this guy was accusing Clonie of passing chips to me. By accusing Clonie, he was accusing me as well - accusing both of us - of cheating.

 

I was astounded at what I was hearing. I stood up, tipped the table over, cleared leather, and let him have two slugs from my Colt .44 magnum. I stood over his lifeless body, spat on the floor, and growled, “Nobody, but nobody, accuses me of cheatin’.” Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it went down, but the thought passed through my mind. Rest assured that 130 years ago that is how it would have ended.

 

My blood was boiling at the thought that I was being accused of something that is to the poker world what cold-blooded murder is to the community at large. How could anyone have thought that cheating had occurred the way the hand played out? Had we been cheating, why would we have played it so as to both show our hands? We both had legitimate hands, and the betting was completely in line with how each of us read our opponents. By making an accusation, Mr. X had stepped completely out of line and put both Clonie’s and my reputations on the line. I demanded that the floor person be called over to mediate the dispute. Tournament director Warren Karp came over and, after listening to the recap of the action, declared that he did not see any way that cheating could have occurred. That should have been the end of it, but this guy continued to tell people who came by that Clonie and I were cheating. Warren eventually had to come back over to the table and publicly warn him to let it go.

 

When a hand goes down, and you are suspicious of how things went, by all means be wary. But instead of coming out and making an accusation that could ruin a person’s reputation, gather facts and evidence to assure you are correct. If not, you could be made to look like a fool.

 

Or worse, you could end up sprawled in a pool of blood on the card room floor…

 

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