|
Cheating in online poker - Bots, Collusion and Trojans.
|
|
I read an article the other day about cheating in online poker. They claimed that advanced cheating made it harder and harder to win for the honest players, and an anonymous cheater said that the cheating would kill online poker sooner or later.
But is it really this bad? I play online poker almost every day and I have no problem winning. Whith my experience in online poker I believe I can detect cheating when Im exposed for it but I rarely have reasons to suspect cheating. But there are of course cheaters out there and you have to be aware of that.
Poker Bots are a reality. WinHoldem is an auto playing poker program you can download on the net. The user have to program/teach Winholdem how to play and a good poker player can program Winholdem to play almost as good as him selves. But most of the time this is not enough. There are a lot of unique situations in poker where a skilled player can make a better play then a program. And to play relatively good poker doesn’t make you a winner in the long run at limits higher than micro. But the idea with the bot is to let it play almost around the clock at low limit tables. And if the programming is really good the bot can make some small money. I think its possible to make a few dollars per hour at limit Holdem $1-2 with WinHoldem.
But the poker rooms are of course aware of the bots and see them as a big threat against their business. The big poker rooms puts in massive resources to stop the bots. They have sophisticated software that is constantly searching for this kind of programs and other kinds of suspicious plays. And sooner or later most bot users will be caught. And when they are the poker room will freeze their accounts and ban them from playing.
But I think most bot users never succeed to make the bot profitable and are actually loosing a few dollars per hour when they are trying.
The most common type of cheating, collusion is also the biggest threat against the honest player. Collusion means illicit collaboration between two or more players at the same table. The cheaters are in contact with each other over the phone or Messenger when they are playing. The fact that the cheaters have knowledge of more cards then the other players is a big advantage. They can do better calculations of their odds, and if the cheaters don’t push it harder than this it will be almost impossible to detect them. But they can also coordinate their game and bet each other’s hands or reraising each other, forcing the opponents out of the hand. If you are exposed for this you are in big trouble. If you’re continuing playing at the table the cheaters will take your money. The good thing is that it is relatively easy to detect this kind of cheating. Two players reraising each other when more people are involved in the pots looks suspicious. Or if one of them are betting hard at a pot and then are folding to a small bet from the other player or showing very poor cards at the end of the pot.
What can you do to defend yourselves against collusion?
To accuse the other players at the chat are just stupid. You will just sound like a sour looser. And if your opponents are cheating they will be warned and can act more careful.
The first thing to do is to take notes. If you play the same people at some other time you know what they are doing.If you have a substantial suspicion that they are cheating you should report them to the poker room. They are used to investigate cheating and they have software to investigate different factors like: How often are these players playing at the same table? Is there any abnormal pattern in their play or anything else suspicious?
If they are cheating and have done it before they will get caught, their account confiscated and banned from the poker room.
Some poker rooms will even pay your money back if you where exposed for cheating.
To minimize the risk I think it’s a good principle to leave a table where you are loosing money.
Maybe you loose because of bad luck, but it can also be because the opponents are too good or because they are cheating.
One good thing with online poker is that you have lots of tables too choose from, so why play at one where you are loosing?
A very advanced form of cheating, witch it has been a lot of talk about among online poker players, is the use of Trojans or spy ware.
If someone can get a Trojan into the opponent’s computer or in any way take over and remote control his computer he can se the opponent’s card. And if he can do that it will not be too hard to take his money.
It’s a bit hard for me to believe that this is very common. If you can do this you can win incredibly lots of money very fast. This opportunity to make really big money should attract the world’s best hackers and computer criminals. And someone should have been caught and written about in the press.
But it is probably some truth in this. If you search the net you will find lots of websites that are selling information and software to make it possible to see the opponents cards. This is in most or all cases a scam and only a way to take money from greedy and stupid people.
There exists cheat programs, which makes it possible for everybody with the same software to see each other’s cards. Cheaters use these programs to collude. But it also means that the people who made the program have the possibility to see the cards of every player who use this software.
There have been a lot of rumours about one of the world’s most successful online players, the Swede Mohammad Kowssarie (The Terrorist, Terror of Sweden, Fast Freddie). They say that he has won his millions with the help of this kind of cheating. They say that Mohammad, with the help of a Russian computer expert, have succeeded to get into the opponents computers. They used a security hole in MSN messenger to get in and get access to the opponent’s cards. The cheating was done at absolute top-level poker against the worlds best poker players. Mohammad won the biggest pot in online poker history against ”bad_ip”, Johnny Lodden, $465.451 with tree aces and a jack kicker. Mohammad plays regularly at Full Tilt against players like Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen and Howard Lederer.
The fact is that Mohammad plays in a way that seems to be impossible if you cant see the opponent’s cards and he has won millions of dollars in a short time.
I’m not so sure that he really is a cheater. Maybe he’s just a very talented player with an extreme ability to read the opponents cards, and sour losers spread the rumours.
What can you do to protect yourselves?
Do not download any software that gives someone else access to your cards, f ex WinHoldem.
Make sure that you have a good firewall and an updated virus protection.
Be careful with Microsoft Messenger, it could be a security risk.
Newer play Mohammad Kowssarie, you will loose even if he doesn’t cheat!
Play Online Poker
|
