allaboutpoker

The cheating scandal at absolute poker that caused a huge stir in the online poker world opened some eyes about the possibility, and in all  likelihood, the reality of cheating in online poker.  Here’s a good link regarding this story:

http://www.poker-king.com/poker-king-articles.php?article=282

The absolute scandal was a major cheating scam, but that doesn’t mean it was the only one.  Problem number one with any online poker site is that online poker is not legal in the USA, and therefore all online poker sites are based overseas, often in Costa-Rica (which is where absolute poker is based).  Well let’s just say that the Costa-Rican government is probably not especially thorough in regulating the many online poker companies that are being run from their country.  It’s not likely to be much better in other countries, although European based countries may have better regulation.  I’m not going to recommend any online poker sites  because I’ve already stated that I don’t play online anymore, and recommend to my readers that they don’t either!

There are far more common and more problematic issues when it comes to cheating.  The most obvious of all is that this is the age of cell phones.  What’s to stop someone from calling up their buddy and sharing information?  Nothing, actually.  Although not especially useful in the early stages of tournaments, if two or more players make it to the later stages and wind up at the same table, this sharing of information could give them a nearly insurmountable advantage.  This type of situation could be even more pronounced in a ring game, and undoubtedly happens all the time.

Online poker sites do take measures to prevent this, but for every measure taken, cheats will figure out a way around it.  The IP addresses of each player are monitored to see if the same players are constantly at the same tables, and the hand histories can be looked at any time that cheating may be occurring.  The problem however, is multifaceted.  Players often have several accounts, despite the sites not allowing this.  The players may have several computers, several locations, and many people involved.  Imagine trying to play against a team of players who are sharing information… you’re doomed from the start.  And if these team players are sophisticated poker players you’re in even more trouble, especially if they’re also sophisticated computer users.  In addition, these smart cheaters are probably cheating out of dozens of sites, thus making tracking them down even more difficult.

The sites themselves sometimes screw players out of money.  I’m not even going to mention specific sites, but it’s happened before, and it will happen again.  Players deposit money and never see it again.  Sites go bankrupt or simply get a bunch of deposits, then keep the money and shut down.  What you gonna do about it, fly to Costa-Rica?  This has been less of a problem or no problem with the largest, most successful sites, but even then, getting your money out can sometimes be quite problematic.

You’ll need something like Paypal to do your online transactions easily, and even then it’s not always that easy.  Add in the ban on internet gambling that occurred a few years ago, and you wound up with enourmous sums of money tied up for long periods of time, the owners unable to cash it out.  I cannot comment as to the exact state of the online gambling situation now because I no longer play online, the reasons for which I’m explaining in these blogs.

Yet another concern in the online poker world is bots.   These are computer programs that are meant to play a positive expected value game without being controlled by an actual person.  They rely on computer programs that have winning strategies and can play all by themselves.  Poker sites go to great lengths to keep bots off their sites, but cheats go to even further lengths to figure out how to get around these safegards. While a good poker player will be able to beat these bots, they surely won’t get much out of them, but the real problem is that you wouldn’t even know who they were.  I’m a very good and experienced player, but I have no desire whatsoever to play against a table full of bots.  Most bots rely primarily on a preflop strategy which will be so difficult to beat that the rake would eat me up if I tried to play against a table full of them.

• Update -  How ironic that as soon as I published this post, I see an advertisement for a poker bot program on my own blog.  **  I guess I’ve been out of the online poker scene for a while now!  Still, nothing I have said about bots is different, except that they may be more common now than they were in the past, and sites may not even be blocking them at all (probably they gave up trying because it was an impossible task).  You can’t beat the bots.  That statement may be arguable, but you’re better off just taking my word for it.

Yet another concern is programs that players may have to be able to see the hole cards of other players.  While internet sites don’t send the information of other people’s cards to your computer, sophisticated hackers are trying to figure out how to get this information anyway.  The biggest concern here is a super-user account like the one involved with the absolute poker scandal.

With all the uncertainty and difficulty of online poker, I once again strongly recommend that my readers just don’t play online.

Am I saying that all poker sites are cheating? Definitely not.  Poker sites rely on trust to get business, and most will go to great lengths to ensure their games are fair.  However, there are lots more cheats than there are security personelle, and the cheats have all the time in the world to figure out new ways to cheat.

Do I think cheating occurs online?  Absolutely.

PokerGuru

** Keep in mind I do not control which ads are posted on any of my pages, and do not endorse anything in those ads. If you have a question about a specific ad, feel free to contact me and I’ll look into it and give you an answer.

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