4. Robin Hood Cheater

Some players cheat for others without benefiting themselves. The beneficiary is usually a poor player or a big loser. That kind of Robin Hood cheating is relatively common and benefits the good player by—

• distributing losses more evenly among players
• decreasing losses of big losers
• making the hands of both the Robin Hood cheater and his beneficiary more readable.

Sid Bennett often cheats for big losers like Ted Fehr. For example, Sid folds, then looks at Ted Fehr’s hand and sees a four-card heart flush. Quickly he grabs Ted’s draw card—it is a club. Sid then rummages through the discards. Finding a heart, he switches it with Ted’s club.… Ted smiles and wins the pot with a heart flush.

While Sid’s card switch is crude and obvious, no one except John lets himself fully realize what happened. Later in the same game, Sid attempts a partnership with John. This is what happens:

The pot is large. Five players are in for the last bet— including John and Sid, who are sitting next to each other. Sid bets and then his knee nudges John’s leg. John promptly folds his three queens. Sid wins with a full house.

“Remember that,” Sid whispers to John while pulling in the pot.

A few hands later, Sid Bennett is dealt a pat straight. Again he nudges John, who folds immediately. Sid grins and winks a faded-blue eye at John.

Later that evening, John draws to a lowball hand that he has bet heavily during the first round. But he catches a pair of fives to ruin his lowball hand. Still John bets the maximum in trying to bluff out his two remaining opponents…. Ted Fehr folds because Sid is sitting behind him with a pat hand. John’s knee nudges Sid’s leg. Sid smiles and then shows everyone his eight low as he folds. “Thanks,” he whispers to John. Promptly John Finn spreads his hand face-up on the table to win the $600 lowball pot with a pair of fives…. Sid looks at the ceiling and sputters dirty words.

Instead of simply saying no to Sid’s collusion cheating offer, John earns a good profit while making his answer clear.