Book on Poker cheating

[Baby Mantis]

I have been playing online poker and B&M recreationally for about 4 years now. My Question is that I have recently read the book "Dirty Poker", by Richard Marcus. If you are familiar with it then you know it is about cheating both online and B&M. I was wondering if any of you fellow 2+2ers have had any experience with being cheated (or I guess if you are willing to admit it doing the cheating). He discusses people cheating online with programs called "peeker", that allows people to see all of their opponents hole cards. I would say collusion goes on a lot, but I was mainly wondering if anyone out there had heard of peeker or any similar programs and how prevelent cheating was that they knew of. Also any cheating that I have not mentioned and how cautious or worried you are about being cheated.

C-ya

[Baby Mantis]

Also would like to know if any of you have read the book and if you think Marcus knows his s.hit or is just full of it.

[Gonso]

[ QUOTE ]
He discusses people cheating online with programs called "peeker", that allows people to see all of their opponents hole cards.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not quite as easy as he (presumably) makes it out to be. Those "see their cards" programs are pretty much all scams, many are no more than hand histories.

It IS possible to infect another player's PC, and have a virus transmit the hole card info to you (or something similar), but that's something else. The hole cards of the other players are not included anywhere in the data that goes to your computer - so there's really nothing that a program could even decrypt. It just isn't there - you'd have to find a way to steal it from the site, your opponents, or from some point in between - which, again, is not easy to do.

Also, there's a thread on this book:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...p;Main=5347574

[Gonso]

Here's one of many examples of the garbage people are selling. One of these supposedly gives you AA every time - I'm willing to bet it just replaces the pic files for all of the cards to aces, so it only LOOKS like you have aces.

So, while it looks like you're calling all-in with two Aces of Hearts, you actually have 95o or whatever. Real smart.

These programs are for suckers, and I sincerely hope the authors make a killing on these. Anyone looking to cheat deserves to get ripped off.

[Mason Malmuth]

[ QUOTE ]
Also would like to know if any of you have read the book and if you think Marcus knows his s.hit or is just full of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I consider this book to be a complete fraud. The situations Marcus describes are so ridiculous that there is virtually no way they could have ever happened. In fact, in all my years of playing I have never seen hands like he describes.

The best book on this topic is Poker Protection by Steve Forte.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Baby Mantis]

Marcus states in his book that a very good friend, and cheating partner has had this program called peeker that is only on the "white market". The program cost 30k to purchase and according to him is not able to be copied. Marcus didn't state if the cards were seen in real time exactly, but his play by play account of watching him cheat sounds like real time to me. He also stated that his friend had been using this program since 2004 and as of the copyright of the book 2006 was still using it in the highest limit cash games online. So I don't know if all of this is to sell a book and make it interesting or if some of it holds true.

thank you mason, I personally only have about 2 years experience online, and less B&M. It did seem a little far out in his book, but I had no way myself to verify the info. So most of you would say that the above situation and the entire book is crap. I know it doesn't mean everything, but he does claim to be ranked the best casino cheat; I guess he feels he needs credentials to write this book though.

thx all!

[Baby Mantis]

i might also add that in a couple of places in the book there are typos. For example the author was mid-sentence at the bottom of a page and then on the next page started the same sentence over again. This happened 3 times I think, and really annoyed me for some reason. I guess I feel like it is a major publication and I can't believe the author and editors would not catch this on 3 occasions. I don't know if it hurts his credibility, but in my case it made me think enough to post it.

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
Marcus states in his book that a very good friend, and cheating partner has had this program called peeker that is only on the "white market". The program cost 30k to purchase and according to him is not able to be copied. Marcus didn't state if the cards were seen in real time exactly, but his play by play account of watching him cheat sounds like real time to me. He also stated that his friend had been using this program since 2004 and as of the copyright of the book 2006 was still using it in the highest limit cash games online. So I don't know if all of this is to sell a book and make it interesting or if some of it holds true.

thank you mason, I personally only have about 2 years experience online, and less B&M. It did seem a little far out in his book, but I had no way myself to verify the info. So most of you would say that the above situation and the entire book is crap. I know it doesn't mean everything, but he does claim to be ranked the best casino cheat; I guess he feels he needs credentials to write this book though.

thx all!

[/ QUOTE ]

These programs exist, but you need access to the target's computer. They generally aren't poker specific, it will allow you to see anything on the target computer's screen in real time, capture it's keystrokes and/or mouse clicks, etc. Its usually installed as a Trojan horse. The host computer is called a zombie, and feeds data back to a bot working on an IRC channel this way it cannot be easily traced back to an individual hacker. The hacker enters the IRC channels and commands the zombie (via the bot) to perform tasks - one of which can include screen sharing.

Marcus is an idiot if he thinks these programs cost 30k, they are free. And they will also have the FBI knocking on your door if you get caught.

[Baby Mantis]

Are these programs you speak of capable of only seeing one computers operations or could it see everyone at a tables hole cards. The way he describes it in his book he says his friend logged on to a site, sat at a table, with people he had never seen/played with before, and made a few mouse clicks and voila! there were all of the hole cards at the table big and plain as you can see!

Sound like a fairy tale or a nightmare!

[Piemaster]

[ QUOTE ]

Sound like a fairy tale or a nightmare!

[/ QUOTE ]

It would be, if it wasnt completely impossible.

If the book says this, then it is a complete scam.