Anybody who has ever come away from a poker table, online or off, a consistent winner will tell you that, aside from a few exceptions, the overwhelming majority of poker cheats are in fact losers. What most poker cheats fail to realise is that cheating methods are blatantly obvious to experienced players. This, of course, is due to the unfortunate fact that many - no, make that most - of these now ‘experienced' players have all been burned by a one or two poker cheats along the way. But rarely more that that.

Having said this, it's vital that you be attentive at all times so that you can spot a poker cheat before being victimised. This is particularly important at this time, when the United States and other countries are reluctant to legalise online poker rooms. In the absence of any recognised regulations governing safe conduct and fair play among online poker rooms, it is incumbent upon the players themselves to keep an eye out for poker cheats and expose their identities be they personal or corporate.

It is also important to differentiate between what are considered minor and major poker cheats. Most cheaters never get very far and the dollar values of their stolen goods rarely amount to much. The more savvy cheaters, on the other hand, are the ones to look out for. Not surprisingly, they are also considerably harder to identify.

 

Cheating in Ring Games versus Casino Tournaments

Greater occurrences of cheating occur in casino ring game poker than in casino tournaments. The reasons for this are twofold: a) because arbitrary seating tends to thwart collusion and b) each hand in a ring game provides would-be poker cheats with a chance to exploit the game.

In the land-based gambling world, complex forms of collusion are highly more effective than say the more common ways of cheating.

 

Online Poker's Prime Cheating Categories

Online poker cheats differ in a number of ways from their equally rotten casino poker counterparts. Of these, the four main areas include:

1. Minor Poker Cheats
These small-time crooks inform their friends of each others' hole cards over the telephone or via instant messaging.

2. Moronic Poker Cheats
More card rooms are quicker to fold hands today than in the past whenever player time out. These losers will always be losers.

3. Clueless Colluders
This is where stupid poker cheats meet. They conspire together in ways that are so obvious that they are found out and nailed sooner rather than later.

4. Skilled Colluders
Skilled Colluders are highly adept poker cheats and to be avoided like the plague whenever possible. These criminals collude in more effective ways, of which one is known as "self-collusion." In this scenario, the poker cheat competes in the same game, but under two different identities/accounts.