Poker Cheating at 2010 WSOP...What and How Much of it Will We See?

Now that the 2010 World Series of Poker Championships have kicked off in Las Vegas--accompanied by the sudden breaking news of a tournament chip thief caught in the act in the 2009 WSOP championships and banned for life from the WSOP--people are asking me about what kind of poker cheat tactics we will see this year and whether or not cheating overall will increase during these world-famous poker tournaments.

Well, first thing off the bat I´ll say is that the probability of us seeing any more chip thievery is slight if not nill. I think that tournament directors, supervisors, and especially dealers will be watching out for this during the player breaks. In fact, we may see a few innocent hands getting slapped if they don't draw a perfect direct line from the pots in the middle of the table back to their own player areas in front of them where there own stacks of chips sit on the table. The cheating poker player chip-thief made his cheat move while scooping the chips in a pot he'd just won.

As far as the other typical WSOP forms of cheating go, we will see (or not see) the collusion and softplaying revolving around the professional WSOP tournament syndicates. My point here is that collusion and softplaying always goes on at the WSOP, whether or not it is suspected, seen, sensed or whatever. I doubt anyone will try more graphic forms of cheating such as card-switching or card-marking. However, the most important form of World Series of Poker cheating will not take place during the play of the tournaments or during the play of the championship event but rather during the long break between the determination of the final nine players of the main event and the beginning of play at that final table. During those approximate 100 days, the dirty-dealing of arranging what will happen at that final table will be decided. In other words, that huge pie of prize money will be cut up before it is even baked!

Oh how I wish the main event would go back to its old format without the 3 and half month delay!