Home poker cheating - how common is it?

[acesinhole7]

I played in a free roll bar league where an elderly woman, at least 70, who came with her son was caught stealing other player's chips. She got away with it for a few weeks before anyone even noticed.

[philr]

When i started this thread i mentioned that we caught a guy cheating - he plays the local circuit or home games and tournaments. He really is a douche and i would hate for other poker players to get taken by him. So should i out him on publicly on the web? So if any one searches his name and city it will come up with some info on his cheating habits.

[Lottery Larry]

I would, but how much risk to you of blowback is there?

[EL Burro Loco]

A good friend of mine cheats a lot especially when he is drinking. He tries to catch glimpses of others cards, shorts pots, steal back chips from pots. When he's not against me i overlook it but if he tries to pull it on me i call him out. I asked him about it and he says i am naive and that everyone is trying to cheat which is a pathetic justification imo. Anyway, all you have to do to catch most cheats is be somewhat observant of the people at the table.

I also play at a cash home game that on other nights has 18+ player tourneys with lots of strangers and noticed that someone in their tourneys is marking the cards. There were little dots on the top of the backs of certain high cards and little dots on the bottom of the low cards. The guy who runs the game has now added a small entry fee for buying replacement decks for the games and they crack open new decks for every tourney.

[Nairb]

We caught a guy bringing chips to the game. A lot of the inexpensive chip sets look the same and he would bring a pocketful of whites(t20000) and after(or during) a break would add them to his stack. We found out after cleaning up we had extra chips and the amount of the extra chips got bigger and bigger after each tourney. When it was his turn to host we were helping count out starting stacks and a whole row and a half of whites from a 600 chip set were missing. When we confronted him he admitted to it and was banned from the game.

As a side note he NEVER finished in the money even with the cheating and we now have plenty of whites.
lol

[TrvChBoy]

Last time I posted on this subject in rec.gambling.poker, I got a lot of haters that claimed the only way to avoid cheating in a home game is to only play with people you know very well. I reject this idea since it is not practical to never allow some type of strangers (friend of a friend, new co-worker, etc.) into a home game. Anyway, I have been cheated by people I would have counted in the “friend” category.

Some things I have done to reduce opportunities to cheat in my home game:

1. Pass the deal. Usually cheaters need the deck in hand to cheat, with the deck changing hands every deal, cheaters get only one chance per orbit to use most of their skills.

2. Shuffle and cut behind. The person two seats to the right of the dealer shuffles, the person one seat to the right of the dealer cuts (cut is not optional), and the dealer just deals.

3. Use a cut card to hide the bottom card from being exposed. Can make bottom dealing more difficult too.

4. Have a lot of different decks and use them randomly. Anyone wanting to sneak a stacked deck into my game better bring about 15 stacked decks on them since it is hard to predict what brand and color of cards I will use on any given night.

5. Don't allow the deck to drop out of sight at any time.

6. Use some oddball chips. My chips are not customized, but they can’t be purchased at Wal-Mart.

7. Keep the stakes low.

8. Keep your eyes on the deck at all times. The most common cheat I have seen is the “peek”, where the dealer riffles up the top cards on the stub to see what is coming on the turn and river. This is easy to spot, but you have to watch!

9. If one of your players is a little sloppy (pitches high, doesn’t protect his hand well or otherwise flashes cards), watch the other players. A cheater at your game will miss no opportunity and will have his eyes glued on the sloppy player. I know, being observant of flashes is not blatant cheating, but you should watch the watcher closely when it comes his turn to deal.

10. Don’t allow players to splash the pot. Bets should be placed neatly in front of each player until all action is complete for the street.

11. Keep track of each player’s win rate. Even Doyle Brunson does not win 100% of the time. A player that wins too often might be cheating.

[TrvChBoy]

12. Don't allow persons under 21 to play.

13. Watch out for unemployed players. All of the people I have caught were unemployed (or called themselves professional poker players) when I caught them.

14. Count the cards a couple times each night. This also sends a message to the table that you are watching out for cheating.

[DavidNB]

<font color="brown"> 8. Keep your eyes on the deck at all times. The most common cheat I have seen is the “peek”, where the dealer riffles up the top cards on the stub to see what is coming on the turn and river. This is easy to spot, but you have to watch!
</font>
Not sure what you mean, I think. You don't allow dealers to look at the deck do you? I hope you don't allow the dealer to look at the card as/before he is turning it.

[TheCorona]

I've played in alot of home games and never had a problem with cheating. I do suspect the one game of being a little rigged, because of the guy always deals is a magician and can do a bunch of card tricks and a bunch of rookies seem to win pretty often.

[TrvChBoy]

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="brown"> 8. Keep your eyes on the deck at all times. The most common cheat I have seen is the “peek”, where the dealer riffles up the top cards on the stub to see what is coming on the turn and river. This is easy to spot, but you have to watch!
</font>
Not sure what you mean, I think. You don't allow dealers to look at the deck do you? I hope you don't allow the dealer to look at the card as/before he is turning it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Our players deal, with the deal rotating, so our players deal and our dealers play. Definitely not allowed to look at the stub, so it is cheating when they do. A dealer who is playing in the hand can slyly thumb through the top cards of the deck when nobody is looking, and this is the cheat I am talking about.