Poker Collusion Signals

The growing prevalence of staking agreements in tournament poker brings up a possible issue — the increased potential for collusion among players. Signaling - flashing hole cards or using a. Collusion is used to describe any cooperation between two or more players, for the purposes of: pooling and splitting money after the game, revealing any of their cards to each other, using table talk, using gestures as signals, using betting schemes, etc. Casino & Cardroom Poker Discussions of the. A lot of collusion. Where the Floor could see 'everything' in real time and signal a 'plant' at the.

All right, we certainly don’t condone cheating here at RealOnlineGambling, but we all know it can happen. The best way to guard against being cheated is to learn how people go about cheating at poker. This course is presented to give you a basic background on how people cheat at poker so you know what to watch for.

Poker Collusion Signals Definition

Common Cheating Tactics

Most of the common methods of cheating at poker are due to slight of hand techniques. To facilitate sleight of hand, a special manner of holding the cards is often used called the Mechanic’s Grip. The best way to understand the Mechanic’s Grip is to hold a deck as though you were preparing to deal. Most likely the deck is in the palm of your hand with your four fingers along the long side of the deck and your thumb on the top. When you deal, you use your thumb to push a single card onto the tips of your fingers. Move you index and middle finger to the short side of the deck away from yourself. This is basically the Mechanic’s Grip. Remember just because someone is holding the deck in this fashion doesn’t mean they’re cheating. There are also other grips that can be used to conceal sleight of hand.

How common is collusion in online poker? Prior to the times of online poker, cheats needed to use various signals to allow their partners understand what they'd. Now, cheats can easily exchange information over the telephone, or higher messenger, or higher Skype, ect. Due to the nature of online poker, players that participate in collusion have developed several techniques for cheating. A common form of cheating is when two friends participate in the same poker online game and share the identities of their hole cards with each other. They may do this via the telephone or through an instant messaging system.

The Peek is a manor of cheating where the dealer sees the top card before it is dealt. This gives the dealer the advantage of knowing what cards people are holding or the ability to alter who gets a particular card. The Peek is performed by blocking the top card from moving with the thumb and pushing against the opposite side with the pinky finger.

The Second Deal allows the dealer to deal the second top card of the deck instead of the top card. The dealer uses his thumb to push the top card away from the rest of the deck, leaving about a half inch of the second card exposed. The second card is then eased out with the thumb and grabbed by the dealer’s other hand.

The Bottom Deal is much easier to perform. Instead of grabbing off the top card the dealer simply grabs the bottom card from the deck. The action is hidden by the Mechanic’s Grip.

Another technique is for the dealer to give himself extra cards. The advantage is obvious and the action is easy to hide if no one is paying close attention. The difficulty in this method is in getting rid of the extra card or cards before the showdown and re-introducing them to the deck.

There are a number of false shuffling methods of cheating. The bottom card can be kept on the bottom and then bottom dealt. The bottom card can also be shuffled to the top of the deck and kept there by second dealing. The shuffle can also keep a number of cards undisturbed at the top of the deck. A player skilled at sleight of hand can also stack the deck in his favor.

Collusion is the easiest and most dangerous form of cheating at poker. Collusion involves two or more players silently working together at a poker table. When working together players can use signals to identify the strength of their hand or betting strategies. They can also create a distraction during sleight of hand.

The use of marked cards is another potential area of cheating. The best way to avoid a marked deck is to use a newly opened deck at the start of play. Cards can also be marked during play but not as effectively. The most common way to mark during play is by scraping the card with the thumbnail.

One of the simplest forms of cheating is by hand misrepresentation. At the showdown a player claims to have hand that he does not. This may seem easy to catch but cards can be displayed or hidden to make a hand appear to be something it is not.

The best way to guard against the different forms of cheating at poker is to pay attention. Know the signs and keep an eye out for them. Are players acting oddly? Does the dealing look different than usual? Have strong hands been beaten abnormally? Cutting can also help insulate against cheating during the shuffle. Do not allow the dealer to reshuffle after the cut.

Collusion is one of the easiest ways that cheaters cheat at poker. It’s also one of the first ways to cheat that they learn. Collusion is when two or more players have an agreement with each other to give each other some type of information that will give them an unfair advantage against other players at the table. It’s almost impossible to catch on to player who are engaging in collusion, and it’s even harder to actually prove it.

Poker Collusion Signals Games

Collusion is easily learned and, when practiced, can be the most dangerous form of cheating. Players involved are secretly working together to make the most money as a whole. Those who intend to collude can simply come up with a simple system, that their counterparts learn as well, and use the information to make decisions at the poker table. The reason people use collusion as a way to cheat at poker is so they can build more money in their partnership and secretly (and evenly) split up the winnings at the end.

There are several ways that colluders can cheat at poker.

• One player can distract the other players in order to give his partner time to manipulate the deck of cards.
• Colluders can send each other signals to engage in a specific betting scheme.
• Colluders can send each other signals to tell their partners the holdings of their hand.
• Colluders may flash their hands to their partners for them to see the cards which they are holding.
• People of another language may speak to each other in an uncommon language which is unfamiliar to the rest of the table. Usually this is seen in private games as speaking in anything but English is typically prohibited in casinos.
• A very dangerous colluding tactic that you should always watch out for is colluders who sandwich other players at the table. Sandwiching is a technique used by cheaters who have a player “sandwiched” between them. They arrange their betting in such a way that the sandwiched player must either call all of their bets or fold. This technique works especially well in pot limit poker games when the colluders have strong hands or they sense weakness from the sandwiched player.

Poker Collusion Rules

You may also experience an example of collusion by watching the movie Rounders. In this movie, Ed Norton is a professional card manipulator and he deals his Matt Damon in whichever hands he wants.

Poker Collusion Signals Meaning

If you feel that you are surrounded by colluders at a poker table then you should contact the floor manager. If you are playing poker online then you should use their customer service support and make them aware of the negligent behavior.