Cheating can be defined as something against the accepted norms or standards mostly known to everybody. Cheating has been noticed in many ways in many places. Among the several forms and methods of cheating tricks employed in casinos take an interesting part. Players thus benefit unfair advantage from the game they play. Card cheating is gaining prominence day by day as the number of players increase along with cheating methods. Cheating can be hard cheating or soft cheating especially in relation to poker games. Cheating is hard core in poker games. This explains the possibility of cheating in much regulated casinos and other card rooms. Cheating can be done, generally in three ways. 1. By means of collusion
2. Using cheating gaffs
3. By false shuffling
Collusion
Using a partner or partners to cheat at poker is called as collusion. This is basically playing quite differently against the players and also involves dumping, signaling and whipsawing. Dumping is the method of losing consciously to a partner with crooked plans in mind. Signaling is trading information between partners were whipsawing is where players at opposite ends of the table join together to trap other players in between. In online poker, collusion is an easy method and also very difficult to trace the trap when played and done it well. Using multiple connections and IP addresses, one can very well cheat a partner in the poker room. A method of collusion is sleight of hand. This is the group of techniques used by a usual card cheater, who is also known as a card shark. He takes the control of the order of cards or probably one specific card. A definite technique of mixing the deck by means of false shuffling and cutting is employed in the process of card cheating by the card shark. Bottom dealing is one of the processes of collusion which involves shuffling the cards in such a way that the high cards are placed on the bottom of the deck. It is very much easy to detect than any other methods of cheating. Cheating gaffs
This consists of marked cards, holdout devices, glims etc. a detailed description is given below. Poker players continue to find out newer tricks in playing the game of tricks. They skillfully employ specialized cheating techniques in the game of poker. One is marked cards and many have already learned how to mark their cards during the game. This gives an advantage to the players in the game play in such a way that they can mark cards they desire or think crucial in the game play.Marked cards also known as Readers can easily be identified by looking at the back of the cards. Marking on the cards can be done by means of scratches, changing designs in the cards, nail marks, dirt marks or a bend on the cards which cannot be noticed easily. These are devices used by the cheat during games to hold a card or cards during a game. The devices are not complex and very much easy to use. But these are not very handy when not used properly. There needs special manipulative skill and ability to use the holdout devices for cheating in games.The holds out devices are used mainly to keep aside a card or cards for sometime and conveniently retrieve it later. There are popular holdouts like sleeve holdout, ring holdout, vest holdout and cuff holdout. All these are inventions of the 19th century and mechanical holdouts have also come in to foray. These are comparatively easy to use, but even then there needs a special skill and capability in handling the mechanical holdouts. The people who specializes in various card cheat techniques is called as card mechanic, base dealer, paper player, hand mucker and cross player. Card mechanic is the one who is well specialized in sleight of hand technique. Base dealer is the one who specializes in bottom dealing. Base dealer is also called as second dealer. A cheat who makes use of the marked cards is called as paper player. A card cheat that specializes in switching cards is called as hand mucker. The one who uses mechanical holdouts is called as machine player. The other popular cheating methods involve false shuffling, and confederacy. False shuffling
This is the process of shuffling the cards in such a way that the desired cards are placed in the correct position. In shuffling cards, the deck would be pre arranged and the card cheat makes sure he does not misplace or disturb that part of the deck. This part of the stock control is also done with the technique of riffle shuffle which is even more difficult. Card cheats are growing with improved means of techniques in card games especially in poker games. It is also interesting to note that the cheating practices are not something invented today or yesterday. This has been prevailing since the earlier days in public game rooms. It is now modernized in techniques and has been rightly implemented in the well regulated game rooms. The growth and the techniques involved in tricks also show that cheating would undergo tremendous changes and would find newer dimensions in the days to come. |
