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Self Defence for Beginners
'New deck, please' said the dealer, a pale, dark-haired man in his forties. 'The paper ones. They're easier to shuffle'. The tournament director handed over the new deck of cards and went about her business. As I watched, the dealer spread the cards out on the felt, scrambled the deck, and squared it in a fluid motion. As he did so, one card slipped away from the stock, apparently by accident, and he casually returned it to the pile. But there was something unusual about how he picked up the stray card, and about how he held the deck. I watched in amazement as the dealer performed an elaborate shuffle and then cut the deck, moving the mystery card to the bottom. Minutes later, that card - the ace of hearts - landed on the flop in an enormous multiway pot...'
Casinos in the UK don't have a lot of experience running poker games, and don't usually take their small buy-in tournaments seriously. These events are usually rebuy tournaments with a very small starting stack and very fast ante structure. The games are self-dealt, and often use chips and cards that are in very poor condition. In short, the casinos use these small tournaments to attract punters at minimal cost, hoping that some of the players will splurge their cash on the table games later in the night. The casinos don't care who wins, and the don't care how. This makes these tournaments an ideal environment for cheaters.
Don't get me wrong - the vast majority of poker players play a reasonably honest game. But if you decide to play one of these tournaments, you must take some simple precautions against cheating. First, let me describe some of the forms of cheating, some of which I've personally witnessed in these events.
Holding Out Cards
Any player, when dealt a desirable card such as an ace, can remove that card from play by concealing it about their person. They can then return it when conditions are favourable to them - perhaps exchanging it with another hole card to give themselves a very strong hand. This is one of the most unsophisticated forms of cheating - expert cheaters would frown upon it because of the indisputable evidence of cheating if a concealed card were discovered.
Marked Cards
Again, any player who gets hold of a card can mark it - using a fingernail, piece of jewellery, or dye. The only time I've actually seen this happen, a player was staining the cards with nicotine from his fingers. He could, of course, have claimed this was an accident had I accused him of cheating at the time. Anybody who has marked the cards has more information about his opponents' hands than they are entitled to, and is a threat.
Deck Stacking
This is a relatively difficult card manipulation procedure, which involves moving particular cards to a particular part of the deck - usually the top or bottom so that they can be located easily. Two methods are used to stack a deck - crimping and false shuffling. Using a false shuffle, the dealer can easily move the top card or stock to the bottom of the deck (or vice versa), or keep a card or cards in the same portion of the deck. Crimping involves making a slight bend in a card or series of cards so that it stands apart from the rest of the deck, making it easy to locate with the fingers. The card or cards can then be maneuvered into the desired position by false shuffles and cuts.
Bottoms and Seconds
Once a deck is stacked, the dealer must be able to give the target cards to the right person. Unless the cheater is skillful enough to stack an entire sequence of cards without being noticed, they'll have to deal from the bottom or middle of the deck. You can sometimes spot a bottom-dealer by watching closely. Look for them to be holding the cards in an unusual way - the mechanic's grip. Cheaters dealing seconds are harder to spot. You may be able to hear a slight difference in sound as the top cards slaps against the rest of the deck when a second is dealt.
So what can you do to minimise the effect that cheating has on the game? There are a few points and procedures that you can adopt.
Don't have a designated dealer
If a person can only cheat once a round, his or her effect on the game is minimised. Some of the better casinos don't allow designated dealers in their self-dealt tournaments, but most couldn't care less.
Use plastic playing cards
100% plastic cards, like those produced by KEM and COPAG, are much more difficult to crimp and mark compared to standard
plastic coated or paper cards. Magicians and card sharps don't use plastic cards, and for good reason!
Count the stub
Periodically and at random, count the remaining cards to check that fifty-two are in play. If one is missing, request a deck change. While you count the cards you can also look for marks and stains. Often, if a card is missing when you count the deck, somebody will 'discover' it on the floor next to them. Keep an eye on whoever finds the card.
Use a cut card
This is an opaque piece of material which is placed on the bottom of the deck. Its primary purpose is to hide the bottom card from view during dealing, but using one also makes bottom dealing very difficult.
Cut at the extremes
If you are required to cut a deck shuffled by another player, either perform a 'box cut' (separate the deck into three or more parts), or
cut the deck higher or lower than feels natural. This prevents a cheating dealer from manipulating the cut using a crimped deck.
Scramble the cards
Keep the muck to one side, and scramble the stock and any other cards together with the muck before passing it to the next player. This makes it much more difficult for the next dealer to locate any particular card without being obvious.
By following these simple procedures, you can minimise the effect that cheaters have on the game. At least then the playing field will be level. Winning is up to you.
A Note on Collusion
Some may be surprised that I haven't discussed collusion in this essay on cheating. I left it out for several reasons:
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Casinos do a fairly good job of minimising collusion among small groups of players by randomly assigning seats.
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The benefits of colluding in tournaments are relatively insignificant compared to cash games of similar stakes.
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Colluders still have to catch cards, and can be eliminated from the tournament as easily as anybody can.
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Most colluders are poor players anyway. Your edge against them should still be significant even if it was reduced slightly by possible collusion.
It is my opinion that collusion is not a serious issue in tournaments, especially those with small buy-in. Other forms of cheating are much more prevalent and dangerous - but hopefully now that you've read this essay, you won't have to worry about that either.
© Alex Scott October 2005
