What is it about the Poker Cheats?

Is it possible to cheat at online poker? The obvious answer is yes, as some evil players at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet have recently been found guilty of cheating the software system on a massive scale. By massive, I mean millions of dollars.

But how easy is it to cheat at online poker? And how to cheat? These are the questions discussed in this article. Note that this is an informative article only, and neither me nor Learn2Holdem.com are supporting or recommending any type of cheating or illegal activities.

The Big Online Poker Cheaters

How did the cheaters at UB/AP, now called the Cereus network do it? They were insiders who had access to the inner workings of the software dealing the virtual cards to the players. They found a backdoor in the program that let them see the cards of their opponents.

From this point, it was easy for them to make a lot of money by cheating all other players. They were caught because of their greed, as they played without holding back as if there was no tomorrow.

In their cheating frenzy, they generated impossible win rates which were detected by the database scanning of some computer savvy players, including some of the ones befuddled at losing so much to their apparent bad plays. This poker cheating story appeared on 60 minutes in 2008.

Don't try this at home. These poker cheaters were very lucky to work for a software company subcontracted by the poker sites and to find a flaw in the system. As an outsider you will never get this chance.

You may come across vendors who offer similar products enabling you to see your opponents' hole cards. Be warned, these products do not deliver on their promise. They usually rely on placing a Trojan program into the computer of other players, which is not just illegal, but also hard to do.

Of course a Trojan could send you copies of your opponent's screen. Some computer hackers have done that exploit before to high stake players, so always be careful when you download poker related software from an unknown 3rd party. You are more likely to be the victim rather than the perpetrator, unless you are a security network guru willing to do this type of poker cheating.

Realistic Online Poker Cheats

More realistically, there are a number of other approaches with respect to online poker cheating. In this section poker cheating should be understood as a lighter version of cheating, as in helping or aiding. There are dozens of online poker software in the market whose only purpose is to help you "cheat at online poker".

These poker tools are more or less tolerated by online card rooms, so I will start with the least tolerated: poker bots. This topic is discussed in greater depth in our article about poker bots.

One brief word about poker bots. The largest poker sites forbid them, so you must utilize stealth techniques to stay undetected. If they catch you, they will close your account and confiscate your entire bankroll. If you are willing to take this kind of challenge, it is a very intellectually exciting hobby. But it is extremely difficult to be profitable that way.

What is left in the software universe are cheating software which are allowed for the most part by poker rooms. They offer you an advantage, but it is not considered an unfair advantage, thus it is not forbidden.

First, player-profiling software such as Poker-Edge are large databases tracking millions of online poker players. They continually add new historical records to their data through a network of computers collecting information 24/7. So if you sit at a new table with unknown players, they can provide in depth information about their style of play before you have made your first move.

Second, poker trackers such as Holdem Manager are advanced programs running from your computer. These tools record all your playing history and enable you to conduct sophisticated statistical analyses in order to study your most feared opponents or to uncover your own so-called leaks. All advanced players use them.

Third, odds calculators such as calculatem are poker aids designed to help you with real-time odds. They are attached to the poker table and display all sorts of odds information, and sometimes play recommendation. They can help you make better decisions and be more informed about the mathematical aspect of the game.

Fourth, buddy list and buddy detection systems such as Smart Buddy follow the players that you are interested in playing with. Each time you play against a whale, you can input its username into the system, and you will be alerted every time this player reappears at the poker site. You can also use the system to follow and observe some of the top players.

Fifth, there are all kinds of other poker cheating software. You can check our poker software list for more information and some reviews.

In this day and age, you have to use some of these cheating tools; otherwise you will be at a disadvantage as most regular players use some of them.