The biggest cheating scandals have been exposed only by sophisticated statistical analysis of large numbers of tracked hands. The major, regulated online poker sites deploy advanced combinations of. Players Raise Concern Over High-Tech Cheating on Online Poker Sites Wednesday, July 1st, 2020 Written by Renee A Twitch streamer allegedly used real-time bot to cheat on GGPoker, scamming innocent opponents to the tune of $500,000.
Last week I attended a concert by the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, the largest classical music organization in my new hometown. One of the pieces performed was 'Suite from Billy the Kid,' written by the then-unknown Aaron Copland in 1939. I've heard recordings of this piece many times, but it was only at this live performance that I realized it includes a musical depiction of a poker game.
The fourth movement I had previously known only by its main title, 'Prairie Night.' But the program for the concert included the subtitle that had previously escaped my attention: 'Card Game at Night.'
In the ballet — according to the All Music Guide to Classical Music — 'during a card game, Billy is caught cheating by one of his friends, Pat Garrett. The two have an argument and Garrett rides off to join the side of law and order, and to eventually become a sheriff in pursuit of Billy.' This leads to a shootout between the two sides, in which Billy is captured and several of his gang are killed.
I found nothing that definitively says that the card game in the ballet is poker, but it sure seems like the most likely possibility. Billy the Kid's real-life criminal exploits occurred in the late 1870s in Arizona and New Mexico, a time and place coincident with the explosion of poker's popularity. And at what other card game would it make dramatic sense for cheating to turn friends into bitter enemies?
We're fortunate to be living at a time in which lethal violence rarely if ever erupts in your better-managed card rooms. When guns are drawn in casinos, it's almost always for a robbery, not from anger. Even in home games, robbery and police raids appear to be more frequent as triggers of violence than disputes between players.
While cheating carries less potential for deadly outcome than it did on the 19th-century frontier, to accuse another player of cheating at poker is still rife with tension. Even in the safest, most civilized circumstances, accusing another player — rightly or wrongly — of cheating or any other breach of personal integrity in a poker game is far more explosive than the sickest bad beat.
What should you do if you are in a poker game and suspect cheating is occurring? There are courses of action to take, although my first and strongest advice is to avoid direct confrontation. It's simply too inflammatory to be advisable, and there are usually better responses available.
But what can you do? It depends on the setting.
Brick-and-mortar casino
There are only two forms of cheating you're likely to encounter in a brick-and-mortar casino. The first is taking chips off the table to protect a win — a.k.a. 'going south' or 'rat-holing.'
I've encountered such incidents on a few occasions, and in my experience this is most often done by players who don't understand that it's against the rules. But even when done knowingly, it's a lesser form of cheating, in that it doesn't directly take money that doesn't belong to them. If you see it happening, point it out to the dealer, or to a floor person away from the table.
A variation on this theme is tournament players who sneak high-value tournament chips off the table, accumulate them at home over time, then sneak them back onto the table another day to pad a stack and increase their chances of winning. (I've also had an encounter with this form of cheating before.) You should obviously immediately alert tournament staff if you see a player either removing or adding chips to the table.
The more serious potential problem is collusion. This can take many forms. The classic is two or more friends playing at the same table, and secretly signaling each other regarding the strength of their hands. They can then trap other players holding a second-best hand into a betting/raising contest. Or in a tournament one can dump chips to the other by deliberately losing large pots, with any cash won to be split between them later.
It's usually difficult to know with certainty that this is happening. Your only defense is to be alert to the possibility, and watch for suspicious and repeated betting patterns. When you have enough reason to be concerned, alert the floor away from the table.
Home game
Home games can be rich incubators for cheating. That is not to say that all home games are suspect. Most are just fine, played by honest folks who would never cheat friends or visitors. But the nature of the setting is such that you can be targeted by all sorts of shenanigans that are difficult to spot, let alone prove. Marked cards, false shuffles, hands set up to be coolers, chip stealing, and collusion are all real possibilities.
Worse, you have virtually no recourse even when your suspicions are well grounded. This is the paradigmatic situation in which my admonition not to level direct accusations is most applicable. You have no way to know who might be in on the scheme, what their potential for violence is, or who could be carrying concealed weapons.
The best advice is to keep your suspicions to yourself, take the loss, leave cordially — and never go back. Take your lumps and put the incident behind you. If you're right that there's cheating going on, it's foolhardy to return thinking that you can catch them, beat the game, get recompense or revenge, or whatever other heroics you might imagine.
Even if you're wrong, and everything was above-board, you'll never be able to play your best in that game in the future, because your attention will be diverted to watching for dirty players and shady moves. Just let it go.
Online
Fortunately, online poker doesn't carry much potential for personal injury if you accuse another player of cheating. Nobody's likely to know who you are, or, even if they do, travel to your home in order to punch you in the face for your defamation.
Unfortunately, detecting cheating is even harder online than in person. The biggest cheating scandals have been exposed only by sophisticated statistical analysis of large numbers of tracked hands.
The major, regulated online poker sites deploy advanced combinations of computer algorithms and human analysts who will discover collusive patterns much more readily than you can on your own. Sites like PokerStars, 888poker, and partypoker take extensive measures to ensure games are secure and fair. Meanwhile unregulated sites can be less careful about monitoring, and should therefore be avoided.
If you have reason to suspect collusion between players while participating in an online cash game or tournament, your only recourse, obviously, is to alert the site of what you see, and hope they will do a rigorous investigation.
Even here, though, I think it's better not to make your suspicions known to the players involved before reporting them. If they're guilty, it will be easier for the site to catch them if the players are unaware they're being investigated, and thus continue their cheating ways.
Conclusion
Mike Caro has famously said, 'Poker cheaters should be boiled and eaten. If you think I'm not serious, you boil; I'll eat.'
Sadly, you're not likely to have Caro around to help you dole out a fitting punishment to poker cheaters. Confronting them on your own is asking for trouble — far more than it's worth. Take your observations to the proper authorities when you can, and when you can't, just walk away.
Robert Woolley lives in Asheville, NC. He spent several years in Las Vegas and chronicled his life in poker on the 'Poker Grump' blog.
Photo: 'Poker Night,' TineyHo. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.
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cash game strategytournament strategylive pokeronline pokercheatingrulesetiquettecollusionhome games
When you log onto an online poker site, you're doing so with the intention of playing fair games. However, you may occasionally worry that you're getting scammed.
Perhaps the worst feared scam of all involves playing a rigged game. Nothing in online poker is more rigged than a game where somebody else can see your hole cards.
Unsavory individuals have used special software to see opponent's cards. Dubbed 'superusers,' these players use their position at a poker site to cheat customers.
I'm going to cover three online poker rooms that have featured insider-cheating scandals. I'll also cover more on superusers if you're new to this concept.
What Is a Superuser?
Contrary to what some poker players may believe, the term superuser isn't exclusive to real money online poker. Instead, it denotes an administrator who has access to a computer system's root account.
The root account grants complete access to a system. It allows superusers to write files on a system, act as any user, install/remove software, and upgrade the operating system.
Any company, from Amazon to BMW, needs to completely trust the administrators. An online poker room must confide in superusers to not play on the site.
For example, account that has a 90% VPIP and wins 30bb per hour is almost assuredly superusing. Nobody profitably sees this many flops or wins 30bb each hour.
Players don't need to rely on ridiculous stats in every instance. They can also check out a suspected cheater's hand histories (if accessible). A player who rarely or never calls with a worse hand presents another superuser case.
What Online Poker Sites Have Had Superuser Scandals?
Luckily, the internet poker world hasn't featured many superuser cases. No such instance has been discovered within over a decade.
But certain individuals have been superusers on three poker sites in the past. Below, you can see the famous and not-so-famous culprits.
1 – UltimateBet Poker
UltimateBet Poker was the hot spot before the fall of high-stakes online poker. Famed pros like Patrik Antonius, Brad Booth, Prahlad Friedman, and Mike Matusow played the UB nosebleeds daily.
However, the site's reputation began unraveling in 2008. Multiple players reported suspicious behavior from an account called 'NioNio.'
UltimateBet initially tried keeping the incident under wraps and claimed that nothing was awry. They became exposed, though, when an anonymous company insider emailed NioNio's hand histories to one of the victims.
The poker community now had proof of the fraud. UltimateBet released a follow-up statement claiming that cheating occurred from January 2005 to December 2007.
Their licensing authority, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), conducted another investigation. They discovered that the cheating actually spanned from May 2004 to January 2008.
The KGC also found that Russ Hamilton was primarily responsible for the cheating. He used the NioNio account, among others, to bilk high-stakes players out of millions.
A KGC report estimates that Hamilton won a combined $22.1 million with a superuser account. However, the actual figure could even be higher. The licensing body fined UltimateBet $1.5 million and required them to repay the affected victims.
Poker Cheating Scandal
Via leaked audiotapes, evidence reveals that Hamilton was the main perpetrator. But Greg Pierson, a key figurehead behind the site, was also outed on the tapes.
Pierson discussed scenarios for how they could undergo damage control and refund as few players as possible. That said, UltimateBet was crooked from the top down.
2 – Absolute Poker
Scott Tom, via an investment from his father, Phil, launched Absolute Poker in 2003. He and his University of Montana fraternity brothers ran the site.
Absolute made big profits during the poker boom. However, they became the first official superuser case in 2007.
Players on poker forums began sharing hand histories with each other and claiming that they'd been cheated. Everything led back to an account called 'POTRIPPER.' This account won at an astronomically high rate. Much like NioNio, it also made the right decision in every instance.
Faced with insurmountable evidence, Absolute Poker admitted that a 'trusted consultant' cheated via a superuser account. They repaid $1.6 million to affected players along with a $500,000 fine to the KGC.
Interestingly enough, Absolute Poker would purchase UltimateBet (later 'UB) and form the Cereus Network. Cereus closed shortly after Black Friday (April 15, 2011) while owing players an estimated $45 million.
Poker news outlets suggested that Tom could've been behind the POTRIPPER account. However, nothing concrete linked him to the cheating.
3 – Pitbull Poker
Pitbull Poker never attained the same prominence as Absolute or UB Poker. As a result, their superuser scandal is less notable.
However, Pitbull may have been even more corrupt than either site. Running from 2004 to 2009, this operation featured poor site security, bad customer service, and even stole players' money.
Not surprisingly, they also feature a superuser incident. A forum user named 'Chesterboy' complained that Pitbull Poker cheated him. He felt that the site's games were rigged and asked for his hand histories. Pitbull Poker only released 1,000 hand histories and banned Chesterboy when he demanded more.
Other players came forth with accusations to help initiate a community wide investigation. They collectively outed three suspected superuser account and found instances of 'pot shaving' and 'stack shaving.'
The former refers to when a small portion of the pot disappears along with rake collected from hands. Stack shaving is when part of a player's chip stack disappears between hands.
Accusers claimed that anywhere from $0.02 to $0.25 would disappear from a pot or their chip stack. These amounts are small, but not small enough to where they totally evaded players' watchful eyes.
Pitbull Poker admitted that 'errors' had occurred with regard to stack shaving. They promised that affected players would be reimbursed.
However, the site refused to admit that superusing occurred on their site. Just like with the UltimateBet and Absolute controversies, players produced hand histories that indicated superuser activity.
One forum user even claimed that they could see one hole card from another player. They alleged that Pitbull was running faulty software. Meanwhile, Pitbull Poker merely fielded complaints and did little to rectify the situation. In September 2009, they shut down without repaying players.
Suspicious workers went to the site's Costa Rican office at night. They discovered the owners loading up computer equipment then vanishing into the night.
Do You Still Need to Worry About Superusers?
The three known superuser incidents covered above all occurred in 2008 or before. These scandals happened in unregulated markets at a time when online poker was still in its earlier stages.
Today, poker sites are more diligent about obtaining third-party auditing. They hire testing labs to review their software and ensure that it's up to code. In turn, testing labs offer certification that the poker sites are indeed running fair-and-random games.
Of course, some poker rooms don't seek third-party certification. They may not even obtain licensing either.
Absolute, Pitbull, and UltimateBet never truly recovered from their scandals. Pitbull, which already had low traffic to begin with, lost their remaining player pool after the superuser allegations.
Of course, a corrupt administrator could still super use. However, no such occurrences have happened within recent years.
Conclusion
Every company with a computer system feature superusers. These administrators are entrusted with sensitive information and abilities.
Online Poker Sites Cheating Websites
Unfortunately, some online poker administrators have abused their privileges. They've used their access to see opponents' hole cards and make a killing.
Russ Hamilton is the only known person to get caught superusing. The KGC found Hamilton to be the primary culprit behind cheating UB players out of $22 million.
Speculation suggests that Scott Tom was behind the Absolute Poker superuser debacle. However, the former Absolute owner has never been undeniably linked to the cheating.
No names have ever been mentioned in connection with Pitbull Poker's superusing. The site itself failed to confirm anything on the matter either.
Hopefully, all such superuser incidents are behind us. Poker sites and licensing jurisdictions are more diligent about third-party testing than ever before.
Of course, nothing rules out the possibility that a rogue insider could cheat again. But the chances of another superuser occurrence are lower than before.
