GUARANTEEING
YOURSELF AN HONEST games
Just how difficult
is it to guarantee yourself an honest games on the Internet?
Cheating, a concern in almost any poker games, seems at first
glance to be a greater threat online (where you can't even
see your opponents) than in a brick and mortar cardroom.
What's more, you can't physically scrutinize the deck, the
shuffle, or the deal for anything suspicious.
A series of bad beats from online opponents seems worse
online than in person. It's partly because the pace of play
is much faster in cyberspace: A normal downturn compressed
into a far shorter time period may feel like an avalanche
rather than just a cold shower.
But we believe it has more to do with the impersonal nature
of the playing environment.
Unknown Internet opponents seem mysterious and intimidating,
and it's easy to project all sorts of fears and apprehensions
onto them, and to suspect them of the worst possible motives.
Because they make such ideal scapegoats, it's easier to
doubt the security and integrity of online games than to
doubt one's own luck or skill.
We know veteran poker players who steadfastly refuse to
play online for fear of losing money to technically sophisticated
cheats. Meanwhile, many players who have tried Internet
poker but lost, insist it's plagued with unscrupulous conniving
folks teaming up on adjacent or multiple computers, tipping
off card holdings to colluding buddies on Instant Messages
or cell phones, passing hand results ahead of time by hacking
into programming codes or - worst of all - conspiring with
site operators to dupe unsuspecting clients.
Yet thousands of players hail the Internet as poker's new
frontier, and they're wagering large sums across cyberspace
tables as easily as they do on real felt. More computer-savvy
as a group than average players, they believe that security
aspects of online games offset or even exceed those of brick
and mortar card-clubs.
They point out that Internet poker casinos use sophisticated
detection software programs able to track betting patterns
of any player (or group of players) over any time period.
Resulting data can provide evidence of collusion, hacking,
and other forms of cheating. At the best sites, these programs
zero in pro-actively on players with unusually high win
rates, cross-correlating their betting patterns with those
of other winners in an effort to detect illicit teamwork.
When there's a proven match, the culprits are summarily
and permanently banned from further play - usually with
their funds frozen so that ill-begotten bounty may be redistributed
to victims.
Aficionados cite other security advantages of cyberspace
poker: Superiority of the purely random shuffle generated
by computer software over any shuffle wrought by human hands;
one hundred percent accuracy and lightning speed of bet
verification and pot-accounting by games programs; elimination
of such human dealer errors as misdeals, flipped cards,
and misread hands; certainty that all players act in turn
because there's no way to circumvent the programming to
do otherwise; and inability of opponents to practice deception
by making physical "moves," hiding table stakes,
or removing chips from play without actually leaving the
games.
Even so, the anonymous nature of the Internet almost guarantees
at least some instances of folks maintaining separate accounts
on multiple computers to unfairly play more than one seat
at a time, or networking colluders who share hand information
against unknowing opponents.
Your best protection against such cheaters is to either
stick to very low limits (including play-money games) or
develop enough experience - a real "feel" for
the games that comes only with time and study - to discern
any telltale abnormality in the betting action. But if you're
in doubt. you can always request that the casino aim its
detection software to investigate specific complaints.
To assist you, we offer a ten-point program for assuring
yourself an honest games. Though we think some points are
common sense. it doesn't hurt to emphasize them: We've learned
common sense has a way of becoming uncommon when folks are
itching to play - whether online or off. (You'll find our
ten-point program conveniently boxed at the end of this
page.)
