According to conventional poker wisdom, there are eight types of cheating in poker: sleight of hand, collusion, fishing, marked cards, hand distortion, pot interaction, prepared decks, and fake chips. In this article, we will go over the basic techniques used in sleight of hand.

1. Mechanic control: Cheat players in charge of dealing cards hold the deck in a way that facilitates various types of cheating, such as peeking, second hand, and bottom hand (explained later in this article).

Tackle A: Rogue dealers hold the deck in their palms with the index and middle fingers on the short side of the deck away from them.

Grip B: Dishonest dealers hold the deck with their thumbs on top of the deck, with the index finger holding it around the front edge, with two middle fingers under the deck, and with the little finger around the back edge. In this case, most of the deck is covered by the dealer’s hand.

2. Watch: Dealers look at the top card of the deck before dealing, allowing them to find out who gets that card during the deal, or give it to themselves if necessary.

Using the mechanic’s grip, the dealers ensure that their thumb does not allow the top card to move to the right; Cheaters then slowly push the card to the right with their pinky and ring fingers, if necessary, so that the lower right corner of the card folds and the card number is visible. This maneuver is difficult to master, but can be done with enough practice.

3. Second hand: looking at the top card of the deck, the fraudulent dealer leaves the top card in place and starts the deal from the second card.

4. Bottom Hand: After choosing a card, the dealers place it at the bottom of the deck and deal themselves.

Using the mechanic’s capture to hide the action, dealers wait for everyone to have their cards to deal a known lower card.

5. Extra cards: As long as no one is paying too much attention to the deal, you can use marked cards for poker cheating. These cards give the dealers the opportunity to choose the best card among them and get rid of the bad extras at some point in the game.

Attentive players should look under the table for dropped cards after each deal, which may indicate additional card fraud.

6. Simulated Mix: The following are four ways of simulated mix

a) Keep the bottom card on the bottom – cheating dealers split the deck in two, shuffle them, link them. After ensuring that the middle with the bottom card selected is released first, the card remains at the bottom. This maneuver is useful for playing on the bottom.

b) Shuffle the bottom card to the top of the deck. Looking at the bottom card, the fraudulent dealers cut the deck, taking the parts of the deck that are held in one hand, with the other, they put them on the table, leaving the last card separately in the left hand to put it naturally in the left hand table on the top of the shuffled deck. This maneuver is used to deal a second card or an additional card.

c) Keep one or more cards at the top of the deck. This can be done using the above method of shuffling or blocking the cards, making sure that the half with the correct cards is the last. This maneuver is used to deal a second card or an additional card.

Paul Watson