Some Online Poker Players Consider Use of Heads-Up Display Cheating...Is it?

Firstly, if you are unfamiliar with Heads-Up Displays (HUDs), they are informational online poker tools that allow users to instantly display information about poker adversaries and their hand-histories directly on the poker table on their monitors. Information ranging from statistical data from tracking and analysis software databases such as Holdem Manager and PokerTracker 3 to probability occurrence info generated by calculator tools like Holdem Indicator combine to give users a great wealth of data. Just like its use in modern aviation, Heads-Up Display gives users sharper insight into their opponents' actions, allowing them to make better and quicker in-game decisions. Online poker players using HUD efficiently definitely have an advantage over players not using it.

But is it online poker cheating?

I think not. Simply because the highly efficient informational tool is available to all poker players online and is not cost-prohibitive. And as far as its advantage is concerned, its use alone is not going to make anyone a winning online poker player. It is only one ingredient of the recipe to being a winning online poker player.

A Day in the Life of a Professional Casino/Poker Cheat Team

I received an e-mail today which inspired this blog post. The e-mailer, a university student writing a paper on criminal and illegal organizations, asked, "What is the daily life of a professional casino cheating team like? Do they train the way a professional football team gets ready for a game?"

Yes, the second part of his question did make me laugh, but then I thought back to my days as the leader of perhaps the world's best casino-cheat team and came to the realization that the life was somewhat similar to that of a professional football team, although not as regimented as far as training and practice is concerned.

My answer to the e-mailer was:

There are certain simularities in the preparations of professional casino/poker cheating teams and professional football teams inasmuch as they both constantly train and practice. However, the practice sessions for a casino-cheating team (at least mine) are not as strictly schedulized (not sure if it's a word but it sounds right). Whereas during the NFL season, football teams practice Tuesday thru Friday with some light workouts on the Saturday before the game, poker and casino cheat teams vary their schedules.

When I was in the heyday of my professional casino-cheating career, my team practiced for two days before leaving for whatever casino destination we were headed for. In my Las Vegas apartment I had a full-size regulation roulette wheel and blackjack table, both loaded with full racks of casino chips (unknowing guests found my living room both peculiar and interesting). Our team, usually four-man, would gather at the apartment and practice for three hours or so while listening to music or even watching a sporting event or movie. There was never much tension as we knew we were good and were very comfortable in one another's company. Of course, when we were working on the development of a new move, such as the famous Savannah Pinch Move, the practice sessions were longer and more intense. Same for when a new member was being trained.

In our business there is no off-season but rather weeklong or two-weeklong vacations, sometimes taken in that very casino area before going to work in those casinos. This was the usual way we handled the Caribbean Islands. We would arrive in Aruba or the Bahamas, hang out on the beach for a week and party and chase women at night, then when we finally had enough we turned strictly to business and hit the casinos.

Besides the practice, we lived a pretty normal life. Most of us had girlfriends, some of whom went on the trips and participated in the cheating moves, others who went on the trips but stayed away from the casino-cheat action, and still others who were totally kept in the dark for our own security reasons. We played softball in Vegas leagues, and believe it or not, one of our softball teams was called the "Vegas Switchers!" This was for the fact, however, that we had five switch-hitters in the lineup, not for the fact that four of the teams star hitters were professional chip-switchers in the town's casinos!

In short, the life was sometimes hectic, but mostly loads of fun!...and profits!

Oh!...Even though we never compared ourselves to the Beatles, we did go on a heck of a lot of world tours!

Mobile Poker Cheating Growing!

Source: blackjackchamp.com

While both Apple founder Steve Jobs and Google CEO have declared moratoriums on mobile gambling applications within the Apple App Store and the Android Market (respectively), software developers continue to create mobile poker apps.

Now, two more internet gambling firms have publicized new mobile poker applications which enable players to wager real money in as many days.

On January 19th, Austria-based Bwin, which may be merging with Party Gaming, launched what they are hailing as the first ever native iPhone gambling app that enables poker players to wager real money. While this poker app can currently only be bought from the Apple App Store by iPhone users in the United Kingdom or Austria, Bwin plans to release the poker application throughout the rest of Europe in the foreseeable future.

On January 20th, Microgaming software declared that their own real money Android poker app would be available by the end of this financial quarter. The application will provide access to all online poker rooms available within the Microgaming network. Lydia Melton, Microgaming’s head of poker, stated “For years now, industry experts have speculated on the mobile market’s possibilities for gaming…. The technology is ready, the software is ready, and we believe the players are ready as well. The future is here. We are extremely excited about this release.”

Even though mobile gambling has proven to be a growth industry for the past few years, progress porting real money wagering, especially for poker, to smart phones has been limited by legal and moral objections in some regions and confusion about the same in others. Additionally, mobile poker has more complicated technological requirements since more data is transferred and securing the applications to prevent cheating requires greater sophistication. Compounding the issues, the Apple App Store has long resisted gambling apps and recently Google declared real gambling is not allowed in the Android Market.

Despite all these obstacles, additional internet poker rooms and poker networks can be expected to join the mobile gambling market – the market hold too much potential for profit to be ignored.

Want To Buy a Special Poker Cheating Card Table?... Just Check Out This Poker Cheats Equipment Auction!

Throughout the 1970s, a Las Vegan by the name of Ray Carson was a dealer, floorman and pitboss at the fabled Horseshoe casino, which at the time was home to legendary poker cheats such as Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim and Puggy Pearson. He later became a surveillance supervisor at Caesars Palace. But what Carson is well-known for in gambling circles was his ability to design and manufacture gambling cheating devices, especially cheating devices used to cheat poker games.

Carson died last year at 102, so he surely had a long life that revolved around lots of poker and casino cheating. His first cheating device was the famous blackjack prism card shoe, which allowed cheating blackjack dealers to peek at the next card in the shoe to be dealt, as well as give them the capability to deal the second card beneath it. However, his most notorious cheating device was the poker holdout table. You have probably heard of poker holdout devices that poker cheats used to pack and carry cards up their sleeves, but the poker holdout cheat table was really something special. It looked just like a regular poker table, but when the cheat sat at the ideal spot and applied pressure in a certain area of the table, it sucked up the card in his hand. Then when he applied pressure in another exact spot right next to the first, the table spit out the card the cheat had already hidden there. To camouflage the entire cheat operation, all the cheat had to do was lay his hands or cards and chips over the two spots, very easy to do without drawing suspicion.

One of Carson's prized holdout tables was a 32 by32-inch folding card table with a smooth wood top and felt inlay supported by plain metal legs. It was cheap and completely innocent looking. But it was the most functional holdout card table in the history of cheating at poker and gambling. It worked with a springboard hidden underneath the felt on the table. When the cheat pressed the exact spot, the spring pushed a card through the slot where the felt center bordered the wood. Well-known magician Jason England said, "The Carson table was most likely also used for gin. In gin, a single good card, like an ace, seven or eight, could be very useful. And if you’re playing in a big game, where twenty-five or fifty grand could change hands, a single good card could be really useful."

So, why am I writing about Ray Carson and his poker cheat tables? Because next week one of his special holdout cheat poker tables will be auctioned off at Potter and Potter Magic Memorabilia's auction house in Chicago, Illinois. It is expected to fetch up to five grand! I don't know if any perspective buyer is planning to use it to actively cheat poker games or if he could recoup the five grand if he did, but it sure is a handy piece of equipment to have around the house and show and tell. It would certainly generate some good poker cheat war-stories if the eventual buyer knows a thing or two about the history of card cheats.

Magic historian Gabe Fajuri, who is presiding over the auction of Carson's gaffed poker table, said, "Ray Carson definitely built this table for crossroaders--cheaters. But we're selling it for entertainment purposes only. It will probably go to a magician or to a collector who can show it off. It's not our goal to arm Legion of the Night with tools of their trade."

We will see about that!

Fajuri said that these type of poker cheat tables are not generally available to the public. "This stuff trades privately. It's rarely available by auction. You can count the number of times these things have come to auction on one or two hands." Did Fajuri mean "poker hands?"

When asked about the danger of the cheating device falling into the wrong hands, Fajuri said it was unlikely to happen, that "most magicians don't have the balls to be card cheats, let alone use a holdout table (this is true, the magicians I have met at gaming shows are ball-less)). If you secretly palm a card or do a shift or second deal and get caught, there’s no real evidence against you. But if you get caught using a holdout table, it'd be hard to deny."

My take: Heck, if you ain't gonna use it, don't buy it!!!

Humongous Online Poker Cheat Russ Hamilton Involved in Florida Brick and Mortar Poker Room Fracas!

Source: Poker News Daily

A recent sighting of 1994 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winner Russ Hamilton in a Florida poker room and a verbal altercation at the tables have sparked the ire of the poker community once again.

A poster on the TwoPlusTwo forum named “Slifdog” detailed a trip to Gulfstream Park’s $5/$10/$20 No Limit Hold’em tables on Tuesday evening. Slifdog and a friend allegedly sat down on each side of a player with “well over $10K” in front of him, only to realize that the mystery man was the alleged mastermind of the Ultimate Bet scandal, Hamilton. From that point, Slifdog and his partner decided to take a few potshots at Hamilton.

According to Slifdog, his partner dug into Hamilton about how he is “karmically screwed” over his actions at Ultimate Bet before the duo administered their coup de grace that set him off. After Slifdog bluffed the former WSOP Main Event titleholder in a hand, his friend commented, “(It’s) a tougher game when you cannot see your opponents cards.” Then, Hamilton erupted in fury.

“You are a f***ing d*ck… a f***ing d*ck,” Slifdog quoted Hamilton as saying. “If you believe everything you read, you are just stupid, just a stupid f***ing d*ck. You do not know what you are talking about; you were not there. You just read about it and think you know.” Soon after this tirade, the floor tried to gain control of the situation, which only seemed to prolong the disagreement.

Slifdog reported that the floor man, apparently in response to Hamilton’s status at the betting windows and on the felt of the Gulfstream Park facilities, came to the table and “[asked] Billy to stop tormenting this lard a**. Billy says loud so that most of the room can hear, ‘You let cheaters play here and then you make me stop talking when he screams at me?’ The floor says that Billy is going to have to leave if he does not settle down and Billy responds, ‘I don’t want to play anywhere that caters to this type of cheating scum.’ We pack up our chips and leave.”

Poker pro Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar, who apparently was at Gulfstream as well on the night in question, confirmed the incident. On his Twitter account, Aguiar chirped, “Playing PLO in a Florida casino and Russ Hamilton is here walking around!” Several of Aguiar’s followers responded to his Tweet, including 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, who added his insight regarding Hamilton: “You gotta be brave.”

Hamilton masterminded the $20+ million cheating scheme on Ultimate Bet and used a superuser program to empty the bankrolls of hundreds of players like top pros Brad “Yukon” Booth and Prahlad Friedman. The latter is now a sponsored pro of UB.com, which was formerly Ultimate Bet.

The resulting outrage over the involvement of Hamilton has earned him the scorn of the poker world. Because of the unregulated nature of the online poker industry, no charges were filed in any jurisdiction that could hear the case. Hamilton himself was excluded from the 2009 WSOP Champions Invitational, which featured all of the living WSOP Main Event champions, and the scandals on Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker were chronicled in a feature on the CBS news program “60 Minutes.”

Not unexpectedly, the forums were overwhelmingly against Hamilton regarding the events of Tuesday night. On PocketFives.com, poster “iamthedeck ftw” said, “LOL well played. Can’t even believe this scumbag shows his face at a poker table still.”

At TwoPlusTwo, a ten-page thread had developed by this morning, once again with many the comments praising the duo for their efforts in Florida. Poster “Jetto” perhaps summed up the situation when he commented, “Thing is the guy is still out and about and many people still respect him. You could score one for the good guys. But he scored big against many.”

Minnesota Mystic Lake Blackjack Dealer Cheated His Casino To Attract Hot Women!

No doubt that casino action and hot women go together, and no doubt that cheating and cheating go together whenever there are hot women playing blackjack in casinos. I am talking about hot women cheating on their boyfriends and husbands and, of course, hot women involved in casino and poker cheating.

Jacob Christensen, a blackjack dealer at the Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, Minnesota, must have been dealing blackjack with a constant hard-on watching those midwestern lovelies stroll across the casino floor. When a trio of them sat down at his table, Christensen got really excited and blew his load...or I should say "blew the casino's load." Without a word to them about what he was going to do, Christensen began paying their winning hands...as well as their losing hands and push (tie) hands, which is a very amateurish cheat scam. I guess he was trying to get into their pants by giving them a very lucky night in the casino, which turned into many lucky nights!

Casino surveillance eventually caught on to Christensen's shooting the casino's load and Minnesota State Police were notified. They conducted an investigation and busted the smitten dealer. Christensen immediately admitted cheating the blackjack table and explained he only did it because the women were good-looking and he wanted to impress them. He pleaded to fraud on January 6th.

It was determined that Christensen paid out a total of $3,875 to one woman, $9,500 to another (who happened to be the daughter of his landlord), and $5,075 to a third. The prosecutor entered into evidence a number of suspicious checks written by the landlord's daugheer to the dealer, which suggests to me that Christensen was at least getting something out of the blackjack cheat scam. However, the judge presiding agreed that Christensen's motive was his lust and not his greed, so she gave him a lenient sentence of eighty hours of community service and three years' probation. Christensen will also have to reimburse Mystic Lake Casino for $18,720, the amount he paid out to the women. He has also been placed in the Minnesota Casino Black Book, which bans him for life from all the state's casinos.

The women were not charged.

My take: Well, I hope the poor guy at least got laid for his casino-cheat efforts! At least by one of hot ladies if not two or all three! But I would bet my last dollar that he didn't get any sex, as that's the way it usually goes.

I was a casino dealer myself and cannot deny the temptation of all those big-titted, round-assed strutting their stuff through the casino, but the worst thing a dealer could ever do is get involved in a cheating scam with people he doesn't know--especially women!

Women will rat you out faster than casino security can get the handcuffs on you! Luckily for Christensen, the judge was a woman...who probably felt sorry for the poor chap.

Off-Duty Poker Dealer Caught Cheating Poker Game as Player and Subsequently Fired Loses Wrongful Dismissal Lawsuit

Rezi Ghadipasha had been employed as a poker dealer for 12 years, the last four of which he dealt at the Cascades Casino in Langley, British Columbia in Canada.

Back on January 11, 2009, Ghadipasha was playing in a high/low poker game at the Boulevard Casino in nearby Coquitlam after his shift at the Cascades Casino. He was accused of cheating in that poker game by way of
switching cards from his high poker hand to his low poker hand after the dealer had exposed his hand. The effect of this poker cheat move was getting a push (where the player wins one hand against the dealer and loses the other) instead of a loss, so there is no exchange of money. In some cases, that poker cheat move results in the player winning both the high and low hands.

When the dealer caught on to Ghadipasha's cheat move that resulted in a push and confronted him, Ghadipasha denied it and kept his original $500 bet instead of losing. But then surveillance at the Boulevard casino reviewed the video of the table and determined that Ghadipasha had indeed switched cards from one poker hand to the other. The poker-cheat dealer then admitted to having cheated and gave the $500 back to the casino, but he was banned from the Boulevard for one year.

Ghadipasha stated to authorities that he made a dumb mistake that he couldn’t explain, but perhaps it had something to do with his drinking heavily that night. In spite of his coming clean, the British Columbia Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch terminated his work registration and he was fired from his poker dealing job soon thereafter.

He then filed suit and lost. "This is a very sad case," British Columbia Provincial Court Judge Jim Jardine declared. Jardine ruled that the Gateway Casino Corp., the owner of the Cascades Casino, had every right to terminate his employment based on his being convicted of a gambling offense.

My take: When I was a casino and poker dealer some 30 years ago, I witnessed many dealers get into trouble gambling away their tokes (tips) after their shifts. Some of them then resorted to cheating the games to get their money back so that they could pay their rent. Unfortunately this is a problem that occurs readily today as well, and I believe that casino and poker employees should not be allowed to gamble in their own casino or in other casinos in the same jurisdiction, which is the case in many gambling areas.

Poker Cheat and Casino Cheat Hall of Fame Lady Pleads Guilty to Masterminding Tran Organization Baccarat Scam!

The female co-founder of the criminal organization bearing her last name pled guilty in San Diego federal court yesterday to felony conspiracy in connection with her involvement in the biggest casino cheating scam ever to hit brick and mortar casinos. The key to the scam was recruiting baccarat dealers in dozens of US and Canadian casinos to join their huge scam, which relied on false shuffling to enable the baccarat cheats to scam millions of dollars from several large casinos including the two giant casinos in Connecticut, the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods.

45-year-old Van Thu Tran, who has been inducted into the Casino and Poker Cheats Hall of Fame, admitted that in the summer of 2002, along with convicted co-conspirators Phuong Quoc Truong and Tai Khiem, she helped organize the Tran casino-cheating operation for the purpose of cheating casino baccarat tables in the two countries. She told the court that the cheating organization netted more than $7 Million from the huge baccarat scam (I believe the true figure is more like $20 Million). She agreed to forfeit various assets to the court, including cash, jewelry and cars. She will be sentenced on April 11 and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. There will also be restitution to the casinos victimized (I don't know how much that will be and how it will be distributed). With Miss Tran's plea agreement, that makes the total number of baccarat cheats to have pled guulty in the scam forty-two.

Assistant US Attorney General Larry A. Breuer said of the latest Tran co-conspirator to go down, "Today's guilty plea by the co-founder of the Tran Organization marks the final chapter for a group that targeted as many as twenty-nine casinos in the United States and Canada in their card cheating scheme."

My take: Long live the Trans! What should they do upon their releases from federal prisons? Well, for starters...maybe change their last name! LOL

Seriously: This was the largest and most well-organized massive casino-cheat scam in history that involved inside help from casino employees. These kinds of casino-cheat scams involving so many people always end up getting busted, but I have to say it is miraculous that their cheat scam went on for five or six years before that happened.

Repeat Roulette Cheating Scam Busted at Delaware Park Casino!

Jhon Soriano-Alequin of New York apparently doesn't get the message that rinky-dink roulette scams just are not worth the trouble, even in rinky-dink casinos. Soriano-Alequin, who comes from New York and apparently has more street smarts than casino smarts, was arrested for the ages-old roulette cheat scam of buying in for low-value roulette chips at one table and then passing them off to accomplices who snuck them into another roulette game in the casino after having bought in for higher-value roulette chips of their own. Since roulette chips are non-redeemable at the casino cage and assigned values on the table according to players' wishes, this type of scam is possible, although it is quite known by virtually every casino roulette dummy supervisor on the planet. What makes this worse is that Soriano's three roulette cheat accomplices; Joe Diaz, Nelson Gonzalez and Robert Dominguez, all from New York, got busted for this same scam in another casino back in September 2009 and were out on bail awaiting trial when they got caught with this new scam--last July! That's right, this latest scam happened six months ago, which leads to a load of questions such as "What took so long for the casino to bust these guys?"

The cheat charges this time are conspiracy and cheating at gambling, and theft. Soriano, who wasn't in on the first bust, got bail while his roulette-cheat buddies are gonna have to sit in jail for awhile. They won't be able to go for strike-three while awaiting trial this time.

My take: There is a lot of idiocy and delinquency involved here. First of all, did Soriano know his roulette-cheat cohorts had already been busted for the same scam, or was he duped into getting involved? I sure hope for his sake that he was duped! If not, he is an idiot and will surely be nominated for Casino-Cheat Turkey of the Year next Thanksgiving.

As far as Delaware's Delaware Park casino is concerned: Why did it take six months to arrest these guys? Is there surveillance team so inept that they didn't catch on when it was going on? If so, then how DID they catch on? Sounds like it may have been a rat job with one of the cheats' girlfriends or something???

Another Casino Refusal to Pay Slot Machine Jackpot...Phony Cheating Allegations?

Ernőné Marics, a very sexy Hungarian woman, thought she won a €25,000 jackpot at Casino Sopron in Budapest Christmas Day. But she is still waiting for the casino to pay her jackpot. Why the wait? Same old story: Casino Sopron claims Miss Marics somehow cheated, and if not, then the slot machine was out of order.

Looking at the sexy Hungarian, about the only thing I can think of that she cheated on is either her husband or boyfriend, as casinos would be full of men eager to hit the jackpot with HER! I surely would have loved to have her on my casino-cheating team!

As for the cheating allegations, Miss Marics told a Hungarian newspaper, "I own Hungary's most expensive wine. Why would I need to cheat this casino?" She said she was very upset. She then said that when she went to collect her jackpot, the director of the Sopron said there wasn't sufficient cash in the casino cage to cover it. (Who seems like it's doing the cheating here? Then the casino had the audacity to tell Miss Marics that she would be paid the jackpot money no later than December 27. She was given a promisory note to that effect along with a bottle of wine. (Like she really needed the wine!)

But when she returned to the casino on the 27th to cash out she learned that her membership card to the casino had been revoked and she was officially being accused of having cheated the slot machine. Then when that didn't go over too well, casino officials said the machine she'd hit the jackpot on was new and not functioning properly, its random number generator hitting too many jackpots at random, whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. Finally, the casino said it would have the manufacturer examine the machine to determine if or not it was faulty, and if not they would pay Miss Marics the jackpot.

The woman said she'd been loyally playing at the casino for fifteen years and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened when she hit smaller jackpots on the Sopron's slot machines.

My take: For those of you who don't remember, the Casino Sopron was the original victim of the Hungarian cheat trio who scammed roulette tables using laser devices in cell phones to clock the spinning wheel. That same team then went on to scam the Ritz Casino in London for $3 Million, and got away with the cash when a British court ruled that they were not guilty of cheating. These roulette cheat incidents may have made the Sopron Casino paranoid about cheating, thus their negative reaction to paying a slot jackpot that seems to me rightfully won.