We are more than halfway through the 2009 World Series of Poker tournaments, and many of you must be wondering how much cheating is going on at the poker tables, both the tournament tables and the cash games. Here is what I know so far:
Not much of noteworthy cheat complaints have come my way in the tournaments. I have heard some snippets about softplay on final tables and an instance or two of adding chips to stacks during breaks, but none of this appears to me to be significant. However, like I have written about many times, I expect the bulk of the 2009 WSOP Tournament cheating to take place during the period July 15th to November 7th, that of course being the time between the determination of the final table and the first day of play at that final table. This is when the dirty deal-making begins, which leads to softplay and chip-dumping at the final table.
In the poker ring games, however, I have heard significant reports of cheating from several different sources. The Russian collusion teams have been hitting the mid-stakes tables, mostly between $15/30 and $75/150. There are three Russian poker cheat teams that I know of, and they are all excellent. They avoid the bigger games because they are hesitant to engage the well-known pros who play them, not scared of their play but rather scared of being detected.
Their is also a card-switch team working both the mid-level and big games. This is the team that is based around the L.A. card clubs, whom I have seen in action on four occasions. They have about fifteen members know, equally divided between men and woman, and they are all excellently trained and never have a losing session.
If anything else on cheating at the WSOP comes my way I will post it.
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