Unfortunately, one of the main concerns with playing online poker as opposed to real life poker is the notion of cheating happening in online poker. Considering that online poker is played via internet connections and computer screens, players have no way of telling exactly who they are sitting at a table with. Yes, Ultimate Bet tells us what country players are representing if we hold our mouse over the player chair, and Party Poker even tells us what city or town a certain player is from. But who is to say that player in seat 1 at a table does not have a relationship with a player in seat number 5 at their table. What is to stop a player from calling up one of his buddies and saying, “Hey, you wanna hop in a 3/6 game together and tell each other our cards so we can team up (otherwise known as collusion) against the other players?”

How can you trust the nobody is cheating at poker online?

Cheating is a very sensitive topic in the online poker world. There are many poker players who are anxious to jump into an online game, but simply don’t trust it because of the possiblity of people who cheat at online poker. How are online players to feel safe playing at virtual tables, with virtual dealers dealing virtual cards? While it is certain that there are players out there who make every possible effort to cheat, there are most definitely ways to avoid and look out for cheating. Hopefully this article will shed some light on ways to find good and honest tables to play at. And you will overcome your fear to play poker online.

Collusion – A Popular Form of Online Poker Cheating

In this day in age, everybody has the ability to communicate with anybody right at their finger-tips. With AOL instant messenger, MSN messenger, and Yahoo messenger, players are bound to communicate with each other outside the beloved chat box. This is formally known as collusion, when two or more players are teaming up against others at the table by letteing each other know what cards they are holding. Of course the two cheaters do not want to take money from each other, so they will purposely stay out of big pots with each other. An example of this would be if cheater #1 was holding AK and cheater #2 was holding QQ and the flop came 10, J, Q, and cheater #2 came out with a big bet, and cheater #1 folded the nut straight. Of course since players have no way of knowing what cards were folded only the two cheaters would know the magnitude of that fold.

How to Stop Colluding Poker Cheats

If these two cheaters were constantly playing at the same tables with each other, and consistantly making these types of similar folds, without question this would ring alarms to the online poker room(s) that they are playing at. Since all online play is tracked through computers, this type of collusion would most definitely be picked up, and these accounts would be ultimately frozen.

How to Limit People who Cheat at Poker on the Internet

The key to limiting cheating at online poker tables is to take action. Most all online poker sites provide immediate 24/7 customer assistance where you can report any strange actions to. If you know of any online poker players that might be guilty of this type of illegal behavior, it is important that you contact customer support and report them right away so a service representative can watch the table and confirm the cheater’s actions. Part of making the game safer to play is taking action like this and bringing matters to the attention of those who monitor the game play. Of course detecting cheating in online poker as a regular player is extremely difficult to do and is hard to be truly certain that players are in fact cheating. However, there are ways that are a little more obvious to the naked eye that players are cheating at the tables.

The Popular “All-In Disconnect” Poker Cheat

A more visible example of cheating at online poker is players who cheapishly use their “all in” disconnect protects at convenient times. For example, one player has a lot of money commited to the pot knowing that they are behind in the hand, yet they are chasing a flush draw that could very easily win the hand. The player with the solid hand makes a very large bet to try and get the other player to fold his flush draw. Since the player on the flush draw does not want to risk more money by calling to see the river, he disconnects his internet, (or times-out) so the last bet that the player made does not count. Ultimately, the player on the flush draw, now gets to see the river for free and still has a chance at winning the large pot because his hand is treated as “all-in” and he doesn’t have to call the other player. Poker sites give players these “all in” disconnect protects, because they realize that at any given time internet connections go down at the wrong times. When you witness someone taking advantage of the disconnect protection that they are given you should notify the poker site immediately.

Using 3rd Party Poker Software to Cheat – Gaining an “Unfair Advantage”

Another way that people may cheat is through 3rd party software that players pay for. Whether or not this is considered cheating is determined by the morals of the players who use it and the online poker rooms themselves. Poker software programs such as Texas Calculatem and Poker-Edge are some examples of software that people use to “cheat at poker” online.

Can poker cheats see my cards on the internet?

I highly doubt it. Anybody who is capable of doing this made their own private software and is very wealthy because most online poker rooms use Thwarte 128-bit security to encrypt all of their code. In addition to that, players are not directly connected to each other, but are connected to the online poker room, so hackers would have an impossible time doing this. Some people do claim that they have software that can show you other people’s cards. Apparently this software allows you to see other player’s hole cards, or force opponents to only have one option, fold. Don’t worry about this though because online poker gaming software is incredibly advanced and the developers have already made efforts to detect this type of software before poker cheats can sit down at a table. Don’t waste your time or money on this software because it’s not only an attempt to cheat, but also won’t do anything but ultimately get your account frozen and all of your money would be forfeitted.

Final Words About Online Poker Cheating

While online poker cheating does exist in certain forms, it is actually not as bad as people may think it is. Even if two players who know each other sitting at the same table and know each others cards, it most likely will not help them. Most players do not know how to play their own two hole cards, much less play knowing another person’s hole cards that they are trying to cheat with. The internet is a safe place to play, and online poker sites are taking every possible step to build trusting relationships with their customers, such as these reputable online poker rooms. If you suspect cheating, no one is stopping you from withdrawing your money and trying out a different site, or quitting all together. It is only proper, however, that if you believe cheating is going on, to notify the proper people and help make the game safer for the rest of the honest online poker community.

Good luck and don’t worry about running into a poker cheat too much!