Online Poker Cheating
We are often faced with the question if there is cheating taking place in online poker. The answer to this is a clear yes as it is unavoidable since poker is a game about money which will attract many types of people including cheating scumbags but this is no different than in live poker where a lot of cheating takes place too.
Mainly there are five areas of cheating to look into namely collusion, RNG security, super User, if online poker is rigged or not and Trojans.
Online poker collusion
It happens and it happens daily. It is evident that some smart asses think they can cheat the other poker players for money by colluding. Poker collusion mean that by knowing another players (friend) cards then it is possible to squeeze other players (victims) out of the pot by raising and re-raising or pump the pot up pre flop when one of the players hold a real solid hand and thus make sure the victim loses the maximum possible amount in the poker hand.
There is not a single online poker room that can protect you against collusion upfront as there is no evidence at that point in time that collusion are going to take place. However the poker rooms have very sophisticated software tools that measure many things and especially player habits, percentage of games/tournaments played with the same opponent, standard deviation calculation tools and many other ways of determining if collusion has taken place. The most important tool to prove collusion is the ability to look at the poker hand histories after the poker collusion has taken place as those in a clear way will show if players have taken advantage of knowing each other cards. Bear in mind that this ability is not something brick and mortar casinos have and live collusion is seldom spotted whereas the online collusion will be found eventually.
The resolution when colluders are found is that the poker rooms go through all hands and reimburse the victims their losses.
If you believe you are or have been a victim of online poker collusion you should do the following. First of all leave a table in case you feel unsecure about what is happening at the poker table. There are many other tables to choose amongst so no need to stay at a table where you do not feel confident about the integrity of the game. Send [email protected] the names of the person you believe are colluding and more or less forget about it from that point on. The poker room will return to you with the amount of info they can disclose in regards of the investigation that have been initiated and concluded by their fraud team. All poker rooms take collusion accusations serious but they need evidence to make a clear ruling. Colluders account is closed and all funds blocked.
It is also important to note that collusion seldom take place at tables stakes lower than $2-$4 and more or less never in multi table poker tournaments as it is not profitable for colluders at those stakes and almost impossible to predict if you get on the same table in tournaments.
RNG security
Is it possible that someone can break the RNG (Random Number Generator) code and know which cards will appear in the game?
No this is simply not possible as all security measures are taken to protect the deal and the way the RNG works. Even if it should happen then the poker rooms would spot if a player wins more than his fair share and thus perform an investigation of that specific account.
Super user
Well it happened so there are no real good arguments to state that it is impossible that it happens again. However players can be certain that all the big networks and poker rooms learned a lesson from the UB/AP super user scandal and that the software’s are protected better than ever. All the data mining many players do also ensure that players with abnormal winning rates will be caught fast.
Players should also note the fact that poker rooms are customers of a software company and that it is in their interest to make sure the integrity of the software is beyond doubt. Big brands like Pokerplex, William Hill, Ladbrokes and many more will have their reputation destroyed in case they are clients of rogue software and thus they all require the software provider to continuously proof the integrity of the software.
Rigged poker software
This is virtually impossible. The RNG does not know the poker rules and thus it simply has no chance of distributing specific cards to benefit certain players. Read a recent article called is online poker rigged ? to get a clear understading.
Trojans
This is most likely the second worst treat against you being cheated at online poker. If someone is able to install a virus or key logger on your computer then you are in bad shape. We recommend making sure that you always have your computer security updated. You can read more about this here (ROBOFORM)
All in all online poker is extremely secure and normal average leisure players do not have any risks at all. The real risk are for players playing higher stakes and as colluders are easily found by the poker rooms then players should not worry too much about online poker security as in fact this is a lot better than what is possible in live poker environments.