Cheating at online poker - a well-planned movement
Everything is possible through Internet, gambling too. The online poker rooms attract many gamblers, the inexperienced ones who want to take a chance, the experienced ones who are addicted to it and the card sharks. Cheating at online poker rooms is increasing gradually with the card sharks who do not fret about being recognized or beaten up. Poker players (virtual or non-virtual) do not play against the house, so they do not cheat the house out of money. The ones they will con the money from is instead - you.
How does it happen?
The most common type of cheating is where two or more players work together to get their hand on other players' money. They team up to bet and raise pots together. They use a set of undisclosed indication to communicate through the game, through ICQ messages, or cell phone or regular phone calls, MSN, or they might be seated in the same room. Sometimes there could be just one player using two computers. At any given time, both cheats would know the hand each one of them is holding and they would then decide which hand to play and which one to fold. The player with the bad hand will fold and let the player with the good hand continue playing to the end. This is how players cheat to win the pot. The purpose is to increase the size of the pot when they have a good hand.
How well does the security work?
Cheating at online poker games can be avoided to some extent. Security experts have ways of finding out if players are playing in collusion. First is a tip off from other players and then through accounting records, 24/7 monitoring, database records of players including win/loss dollars and percentages and number of games played. Withdrawals are another good area to verify a player's activities. You can also look at the cards and determine whether a person is betting because they want to bluff or build the pot. But then there is no surety that any method to catch an online cheat is full proof. There's always a way to beat security. All the cheat does is change his ISP and his IP number, and so a whole new person with a new set of virtual fingerprints is born. Even if they eventually catch some cheats it means very little to the people who have already lost money to them.
The legal loophole
It won't be a surprise if one player is in one country, the other in another country, and the online casino in some other. Which law will take precedence? Several ambiguities in the entire system will only raise the confidence of the cheats and cheating at online poker rooms will only increase. Thus, your only option is to be alert and careful and leave the table and notify support when you feel you are being cheated. That's your best option, and remember that you are always free to walk away if something smells fishy. Take your money elsewere.
