Cheating at Online Poker

Posted on February 19, 2008 
Filed Under General

Cranky89
It is way past time that someone had a few sane words to combat all of those "high moral" opinions being yelped about all over the web. Our topic today: cheating at poker on the internet. By the way I respect your right to find my words insane or at least devoid of morals or standards. I will exercise those same rights when your four letter responses arrive duct taped to the back of turtles. These are opinions, you have the right to hold different ones, which does not make mine any less valid or logical. So here goes:

There is very little real cheating in online poker.

What we have are a bunch of very stupid rules that do not take into consideration either the reality of the internet or the basics of human nature. Time and time again, it has been proven that making rules which have no possibility of being enforced is a fool's errand. We don't need to have this legal and social debate again in the tiny world of online poker. Governments have gone through this redundant exercise for centuries to the same conclusion: If you can't enforce it, don't legislate it. So here are the rules.

If you can see the other players cards; you are a cheat, a crook and a thief.

Because I am in the middle of a rant, I will refrain from any absolute comments on this topic, other than to say that this is the ultimate example of cheating and must be prevented and when it does happen there actually ought to be real punishment.

One player to a hand is a incredibly stupid and unenforceable rule.

Base on the nature of the internet, no rules should be written that cannot be enforced. I had my nephew play my hand for nearly an hour this past Sunday, while I finished cooking dinner. He would call out the cards and I would tell him what to do and in the process he learned a bit about early MTT strategy. Some will say: "Well the intent here was not to cheat." But others claim: "Rules are rules." I agree with the rules are rules people, but they have to be rules for everyone and since certain rules cannot be enforced, they are not rules but suggestions for high moral behavior, which belong in the pulpit and not at the poker table.

Multi-Accounting cannot be prevented with today's technology.

Go to any wired college dorm in the world and you have the ability for multiple player accounts with different ISP tags. Or stay at a certain Las Vegas casino hotel and discover you cannot play on one of the bigger poker websites because several months ago two players in different rooms tried to play the same tournament and now the hotel's ISP is blocked. Same logic as above, if it cannot be monitored and prevented then it should not be a rule. Sorry folks, I know the purists want everyone to play fair but they don't. The only way to catch people and punish them is if they are: a) stupid and allow simply software detection; or b) they talk about it in public. I am OK with punishing the stupid but making honesty a crime seems counter-productive.

Self incrimination is simply speaking the truth.

This brings me to my one solid suggestion: Players shall not be punished based on their own words. You know that thorny issue of self incrimination. Some players admit they have taken over accounts of other players. So they should be punished for telling the truth about what happens in every major tournament every weekend on the net. Why? The truth is that since account sharing cannot be prevented, it should not be illegal.

Yes, I know there are legal arguments against each of my positions. But reason and logic should prevail here not morals or wishin' and hopin'. I would like internet poker to be as fair and level a playing field as live games but that is not possible at this time. Internet gaming creates a different kind of poker with different rules and only rules that recognize the reality of the uniqueness of the internet should even attempt to be enforced.

Show one, show all. Catch one, catch all or leave everyone alone. Why is learning to use poker spy software any less of a skill than learning how to slowplay or bluff? Why..... ah enough, end of rant. I gotta get back to my game, I am leading a tournament and I am in ninth place too.

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