CHEATING IN YOUR HOME GAME

[Full-House]

Does he hold the deck off the table...if he does theres a good chance he is looking and the flop and the turn and river before they even come

[abuljooj]

he occasionally does hold the deck off the table, but we have a small poker table that is usually overcrowded with people, so many of us have to keep the deck in our hands.

[phish]

Don't know why you feel you have to be so polite. Just tell him you have suspicions and you won't let him deal anymore. If he doesn't like it, he can leave.

[AaronBrown]

Remember, cheaters are the easiest players to beat. If you suspect someone is cheating, don't make a scene, it won't get you your money back and you won't prove anything. Instead, play on the assumption they are cheating. If you're right, you'll make back the money. If you're not, they'll never know.

Hold'em is an exceptionally easy game to cheat at. One good precaution is to have one player gather and shuffle, a second player cut and a third player deal. This will frustrate most amateurs.

About the only thing left is what this guy is probably doing if he's cheating: looking at the turn and river cards before they're dealt. Enforcing burn cards makes this harder, but it's still not impossible. He could also be doing some second or bottom dealing. Again, burn cards make this harder.

One way to deal with this is wait until he does one of his big flop bets when he's dealing; and when you have a good hand. Then, before the turn is dealt, ask him to burn a card. If he's cheating, he won't make a fuss, he'd be too afraid of being found out. But there goes his third queen and you win. He probably won't try anything again. If he makes a fuss, he's either honest or clever.

A safer technique is wait until you have him beat even if he can see the turn and river. As long as you know what his big raises on the turn and flop mean, you only lose your preflop bet when he's got you beat, you should be able to more than make up for that when you've got him beat.

If you must satisfy your honor by exposing him, wait for the next situation. Ask him to put down the deck and explain your suspicions. Offer to bet him a large amount that the turn and river cards will fill his hand. Whether or not he takes your bet, the problem should go away. And if you've accused someone unfairly, you'll pay for the mistake, as you should.

[shermn27]

There was a guy who got caught cheating in a home game I played in occasionally. He only did it when he dealt. What he would do is lay his head on his cross-arms on the table and then slightly check his hole cards (at least that is what it looked like.) In actuality, he had already burned a card (right after dealing 4th street) and was looking at the next card.

He would then make monster semi-bluffs and get players with superior hands to go all in against his draws. Of course he knew he already made his hand and would take down a monster pot, looking like he just got lucky. Someone caught him and he can't play anymore. Honestly, I would go with Aaron's advice. Good luck.

[Schmag]

Dude, seriously, this post belongs in the hoome game section of this forum.

[vexvelour]

Tell him to keep his hands on the freakin table. If anyone at my home game (accidentally or not) puts the cards anywhere but on the table in front of us, they're gonna get an earful. That kinda stuff would never fly, and it shouldn't.

The only cheating I've ever seen at a home game is one of our 'shadier' regulars used to pluck chips in play off the table when no one was looking. I watched him do it one time, brought it up nonchalantly: "Hey, you just picked up a chip thats in the pot dude" and he got the point. He wanted to continue to play with our group so he shaped up, hope this helps if you need to confront Mr. Shady Dealer.

[sinfulslick18]

had some cheaters back at college. they worked as a team..lucky for me they were easy to read. with them dealing looking at their partners cards and then rig the deck under the table or something..i didnt play with these guys but told the other guys bc they were my dumb friends...supposedly they took them aside told them what they knew and then knocked some sense in them physically or some other way. do not know the end result.

-sinful

[CancerMan]

Me and my friends suspected one kid, who I used to be friends with, of cheating. We didn't really want to say anything because we were all pretty good friends, we just waited and watched him play. One night, my friend Josh caught him rigging the deck under the table. I'm talking the entire hand, who got dealt what, so on so forth. We played with two decks as well because it would help speed things up, but it also took concentration away from the person who was getting ready to deal the next hand. Once we caught him, we wrote him a letter and told him we would forgive him if he repaid us the amount he had stolen from us over the past few months. He gave it back, I haven't talked to him since. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If you catch them, be nice about it. Put up a front like you want to forgive them, this way you at least have some chance that you'll get your money back. We now rigorously cut the deck, no matter who is dealing, and we allow for one random burn card, that the big blind can call for at any point in the hand. Well, good luck, I hope they're just a lucky idiot instead of a dirt bag. But in life as in poker, I'm usually wrong when I'm optimistic.

[Lottery Larry]

Who is shuffling the deck that he is dealing with?