How I Cheated at Poker

[PJS]

The first one I can understand. It just seems like the best players avoiding each other, while taking the money off the fish.

As for the second one, I can't understand this at all. If she wanted to learn the game, why didn't you just sit by the side of her and beat the game straight up?

[LandonM]

I'm betting this post is, at best, semi-fiction meant to elicit certain responses.

As far as the lamentations over people cheating at online poker... It never ceases to amaze me how oblivious people are to this. Like, this is money we are talking about. Real, live dollars that buy stuff like video games, cars, jewelry, hookers, or anything else. People actually kill over the [censored]. Do you think that a bunch of kids sitting on their computers at home are going to have some great moral aversion to colluding either via IM or telephone in order to relieve you of your cash, when there are precisely ZERO laws or downward consequences to give them pause before doing so?

IMO, I think that online colluding is 100X the problem that many people in the poker community would like to believe it is. It is just entirely too easy to do and get away with.

[gabbahh]

[ QUOTE ]
If she wanted to learn the game, why didn't you just sit by the side of her and beat the game straight up?

[/ QUOTE ]
Sigh.

Ok, I'll say it:
Because both DS and the girl suck at LHE.

[jackaaron]

32? C'mon. If she was like 19, that's one thing, but to cheat with someone of such advanced age...you really need to get your priorities.

Live and learn I guess. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[southerndog]

LOL.

[Shandrax]

Did you notice? DS does a lot of funny things in order to score with the girls.

[andyfox]

It was also about 1974. I was playing 15-30 draw, the biggest game in the house at the time. A good friend of mine was sitting on my immediate left; I knew nobody else in the game. My friend opened and got 3 callers, including the player on my immediate right; I was not involved in the hand. My friend drew three cards, the next two players drew three and the player on my right drew one.

My friend checked, as did the next two players. The last player to act, the player on my right, bet. My friend looked at his cards so that I could see them: three aces. He had the next two players--who had both drawn three--beat, so the only question was whether he could beat the guy on my right who had drawn one. My friend reached for his chips to call. As he did so, the buy on my right sloppily looked at his cards so that I could see them without any effort: a flush.

I kicked my friend under the table. He paused with the chips in his hand, probably thinking about what my kick meant. He reluctantly folded. One of the other remaining players called and the player on my right tabled his flush. The caller disgustedly showed three kings.

At the time, I asked several non-poker players if I had cheated; interestingly, all of them said no. They gave reasons: I had not profited; the guy didn't protect his cards from me seeing them; what kind of friend would I be if I let my friend throw away $30? They were, of course, wrong.

Story two occurred in 1986 when I was between marriages. I met a woman in the game who, despite her advanced age (22?) interested me. We struck up a conversation and by-and-by it dawned on me that it was a good bet that I was going to score a figurative big win that night. We decided that we were going to leave after one more round. Last hand, I opened and only she called. I had trip aces. I drew two. She drew one. I made a full house. I checked. She bet.

I folded.

[ALawPoker]

[ QUOTE ]
If I turned him down I would have lost all opportunity to get into big games for many years.

[/ QUOTE ]

David, I'm not passing judgment -- really, but I hope you realize this reasoning is no inherent mitigation. It's like saying "I wouldn't be able to start the business of my dreams unless I robbed the bank."

[ QUOTE ]
Ooh that sounds so EXCITING. So what was I supposed to do? Not go through with it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Again, not trying to pass judgments, but if you're looking for an honest answer to this question, that answer is that you were "supposed" to not propose the idea in the first place.

I really have no problem with your confessions, and respect your bluntness. I don't ever believe in judging another person's morals. But if you're gonna be bold enough to admit to what happened, I wish you wouldn't resort to justifications that are beneath you.

[leaponthis]

You forgot the part where you are never going to answer any questions, ever! Or are you trying to be a better man than Sklansky?

leaponthis

[johnnyrocket]

great stories. Period.