Cheating in poker

Cheating in poker is any behavior outside the rules intended to give an unfair advantage to one or more players.

Since poker has a wide variety of rules and procedures, hands are played fairly quickly, and numerous people are involved in games, the occurrence of cheating is common. Cheating can be done many ways, including collusion, sleight-of-hand such as bottom dealing or stacking the deck, or the use of physical objects such as marked cards or holdout devices.

Cheating occurs in both friendly games or casinos. Cheats may operate alone, but also may operate in teams or small groups.

Following is a list of terms used to categorize specific card cheats:

• card mechanic — A card cheat who specializes in sleight-of-hand manipulation of cards, a card sharp.
• base dealer/second dealer — Also called bottom dealer/second dealer is a cheat that specializes in bottom/second dealing.
• paper player — A card cheat that exploits the use of marked cards.
• hand mucker — A card cheat that specializes in switching cards.
• machine player — A card cheat that uses mechanical holdouts.

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