Michael Kaplan: How Many Cheats Are Actually Out There?There Might Be More Than We Realize |
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Prior to me hitting the stage, Maria Konnikova was up there giving a talk of her own. Konnikova, author of The Biggest Bluff, a fantastic book about Erik Seidel training her to become a skilled tournament poker winner.
Her next book is about cheating.
Conference attendees care deeply about sharps who illicitly get over on casino games, such as blackjack and baccarat. But Konnikova clearly has a soft spot for poker, and she asked the crowd of game protection specialists how many of them worry about cheating at the Texas hold ‘em table.
Hardly any hands got raised.
After all, they focus on losses in the pit – which add up to hurt casinos. They don’t care as much about the losses to the players.
The response led Konnikova to point out that poker-room cheating is prevalent and that the attacks, coming from multiple fronts, can bleed into pit games.
She revealed that at the poker table, there are marked cards, hidden cameras (sometimes embedded in high-tech eyewear), and compliant dealers who merely have to pitch the cards a little bit high in order for game integrity to break down.
Curiosity piqued, a couple days later, I reached out to former Card Player columnist Houston Curtis of kardsharp.com, a cheating expert and former high-stakes player, who, last year, logged allegations about dealers playing it crooked in a Texas casino.
After hearing the alarm bells sounded by Konnikova, I wondered where Curtis sees the current state of nefarious poker games. He told me it is not a great situation.
For the most blatant offenders, Curtis looks toward jurisdictions where poker is a gray area enterprise.
“You play at your own risk in Texas,” he said, offering an example. “They don’t have regulations. It really is the Wild West.”
Curtis maintains that bosses running rogue casinos in Texas and beyond carry some of the blame.
“They tend to look the other way,” said Curtis. “Whoever draws the action also draws the cheaters. And the casinos want the action. Some casinos [in less than fully regulated areas] operate legally, taking advantage of loopholes in the law, and then they take illegal rakes. It can be hard to tell which place is on the level and which is not.”
As to what players in unscrupulous casinos will have to contend with, Curtis reeled off a range of shady moves.
“There are card mechanics who fix the games, rigged decks that get swapped in and out, and shuffling machines that have been tampered with. They use all kinds of different methods.”
Curtis warns that it is stunningly easy for things to go south, with the odds of winning suddenly stacked against those who play on the square.
“All you need is a staff that is asleep or one person on the inside who has been corrupted,” he said, recalling a recent example of a scam that was successful until the perpetrators got made – and that only happened due to sheer ineptitude.
“One guy was doing a very poor push-through shuffle. You riffle the two packets of cards together. Then you push one all the way through and pull it apart. So, it doesn’t get riffled at all.”
Curtis and Konnikova see no sign of roguish behavior slowing down. Considering that, Curtis offers defensive advice for scrupulous players who may be in danger of getting cheated by a card mechanic.
“Don’t forget, you can always get a reshuffle. If you see something suspicious call for the floor man to shut it down.”
It (sort of) works.
“I have spoken to a floor person at Legends," a Texas casino where dealer-cheating is alleged to have transpired, Sean Deeb posted last year on TwitterX. “Multiple dealers were fired for messing with the decks, but the dealers were not prosecuted or outed, so they can go do it elsewhere.”
And, as Curtis sees things progressing on the cheating front, they will.
“Bottom line,” he said, “anywhere people can get away with cheating, they’ll try to.”
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of five books (“The Advantage Players” out soon) and has worked for publications that include Wired, GQ and the New York Post. He has written extensively on technology, gambling, and business — with a particular interest in spots where all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Sun and Phil Ivey is currently in development as a feature film.
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