Poker Cheats: Beware Of Pot Clipping And The Stacked Deck

Poker cheats come in all shapes and sizes, from the business
professional to the much loved grandmother. Poker cheaters are
also always coming up with new and innovative ways to try and
cheat players out of their money.

One of the ways cheaters try to win is with a move called
clipping the pot. This sleight of hand cheat does not involve
manipulating the cards at all. Clipping the pot is when the
cheater either makes a bet with too little money, or takes too
much money out of the pot.

The only way to safeguard against is for the players to monitor
all monies flowing into or out of the pot. Some of the friendly
get together type poker games allow for players to make change
from the pot. This is prime time for a player to clip the pot
while his comrades are looking to their cards or are engaged in
conversation. Although it may seem something that isn't done at
a friendly game, this is expressly the prime time for the
cheater to use this tactic. The cheater knows he is trusted
among friends and that no one would suspect or accuse another
friend of clipping the pot. Even if caught, the cheater could
plead that he simply miscounted, and did not intend to
intentionally clip the pot.

The Stacked Deck is perhaps one of the first poker cheats one
thinks of when the subject is raised. The stacked deck is an
easy to do cheat. It can only be used once in a game, as the
deck would be shuffled before the next game. The stacked deck is
prepared before hand and can be used to start, or even used in
the middle of game play.

The cheater's deck will consist of a certain number of cards
inserted by the cheater into the right places before the deal.
It is often used by the cheater who claims that the deck has
already been shuffled. It's also common to substitute a stacked
deck after the real deck has been shuffled, or passed among
cohorts in the game for their deal. This is of course called
collusion, when two or more players team up to cheat the others.

A stacked deck may also consist of something as simple as
turning certain cards in the opposite direction when cards that
have non symmetric backs on them are used. The target cards are
turned as to be upside down from the other cards, marking them
for the cheater.