Cheating & Online Poker

[Scottland]

A friend of mine plays a bit of poker online, and was asking me if I knew how much (if any) cheating occurs.

Does anyone know much about this subject? I don't really know anything.

Please note, I am not, in any way asking for cheats, links to cheats etc. so please don't post any.
But would like some info on any "cheats" that are out there, ways to spot them, what they actually do, affected casino's, things to prevent cheating etc.


Cheers

PS - I can't see anything in the FAQ that says this type of thread isn't allowed, so I hope it's ok.

 

[Docaroo]

Never heard of any cheating myself - however I do know that some players use "Poker Bots"

Basically, these are bots that play every single hand by the percentages every time. They leave bots running during the day, etc and over time they eventually make a profit simply by only playing the odds.

I don't play online myself though so that's about as helpful as I can be!

 

[DaveyD]

Only real "cheating", if you could call it that, I could say that I know of happening would be playing online with a bunch of friends online on ventrillo, and talking to each other about what hands each other has etc, but most of the time when I played, it was freerolls, with hundreds of tables anyway

 

[Vanilla]

Only real "cheating", if you could call it that, I could say that I know of happening would be playing online with a bunch of friends online on ventrillo, and talking to each other about what hands each other has etc,

This is the only kind of cheating I have come accross in Poker.

 

[Adam]

Thats not cheating, knowing the odds is something anyone can work out. Thats like saying knowing the odds on horse racing is cheating.

 

[DaveyD]

This is the only kind of cheating I have come accross in Poker.

It's probably a big issue on big stakes tables, but I don't think there's a very easy way of telling if somebody is using it to abuse the system. I only ever played on freerolls anyway when I did it, and don't believe It's actually given me an advantage... I go all in all the time anyway on those

 

[Scottland]

Cheers guys, he seems to know about bots, and I've already said people could be playing together and sharing info.

Hopefully, it'll set his mind at rest

 

[Vanilla]

It's probably a big issue on big stakes tables, but I don't think there's a very easy way of telling if somebody is using it to abuse the system. I only ever played on freerolls anyway when I did it, and don't believe It's actually given me an advantage... I go all in all the time anyway on those

I've caught it a few times. I used to play William Hill poker. It used to be that when you clicked on the screen or it came into focus (when it was your turn) it would be ready to type in the chat box.

Quite a few times people have been caught out typing things like 'A,K' or Kh, 7sp', etc.

I.e they thought they were typing to their friends on MSN but hadn't realised that the program had stolen focus and they'd just posted their hand in the chat bit.

 

[Lagz]

Its practically impossible to make money using poker bots, so I wouldn't worry about them. They only really work at very low limit ring games and they are absolutely awful in no limit (as you might expect). The technology just isn't there.

As for sharing information, the amount you can gain from it is pretty limited. I've played a few tournaments with my mates and I admit to start off with we told each other what cards we had if we folded, but the amount of information you gain is pretty insignificant. It isn't really worth it. So much so we stopped bothering and just played properly.

 

[el_dazza]

Only real "cheating", if you could call it that, I could say that I know of happening would be playing online with a bunch of friends online on ventrillo, and talking to each other about what hands each other has etc, but most of the time when I played, it was freerolls, with hundreds of tables anyway

*coughs*
Dave's never done that.. right, dave?