1. Cheating

Cheating involves the following manipulations of cards, money, or betting:

• Cards are covertly switched to alter the value of a hand. Cards are purposely flashed to see undeaIt or unexposed cards. The deck is culled and stacked to change the sequence of cards to be dealt.
• Money is stolen from the pot or from other players. Wrong change is purposely taken from the pot. Lights are purposely not paid.
• Mechanical devices such as marked cards, strippers, mirrors, and hold-out equipment, and techniques to smudge, nick, or mar cards for future identification, are used.
• Secret betting agreements or partnerships are made; the colluding partners signal each other when to bet or raise.

Honest poker allows any behavior or manipulation, no matter how deceptive, except cheating. Cheating is the only dishonest, illegal, or unethical behavior in poker. But where does deception end and cheating begin? Actually, a sharp distinction exists between the two. Poker cheating is the conjuring up of advantages unavailable to others. Poker deception is the taking advantage of situations available to all. For example, all cards are marked. A sharp-eyed player can find printing imperfections in honest decks of cards. Some common printing imperfections are ink spots, inkless dots, and slightly off-centered designs on the back side of the cards. Also, the normal use of cards produces identifying smudges, nicks, scratches, and creases on their backs. (Purposely marring cards for identification would, of course, be cheating.) Those natural imperfections and markings that identify unexposed cards are available to any player willing to train his eye and discipline his mind.

The good player willingly exerts the effort to learn and then use these natural markings. He may even increase that advantage by providing the game with cheaper (but honest) cards with less perfect printing patterns.

Sid Bennett cheats. While it is quite obvious, only John Finn fully realizes that he cheats. Quintin Merck suspects it, but never makes any direct accusations. The other players watch Sid’s cheating, but refuse to suspect him. His crude cheating techniques include—

• looking through the discards to select cards for use in his hand
• culling or sorting cards prior to dealing
• peeking at cards to be dealt, especially twist cards
• stealing money from the pot when going light
• slipping a good card into the hand of a losing player (Robin Hood cheating).

John estimates that Sid cheats once in every eight or ten hands.