[frob23]

I checked that yes I have cheated in live poker. Of course, my standards for what constitutes cheating are fairly high. I found it easy to answer yes because, in the past, I have taken advantage of every opportunity I could to see the bottom card on the deck. I would spot it if another player didn't protect it when making the final cut... or when I dealt by just pretending to take a glance at my watch (which was worn with the face on the inside of my arm for this purpose). A trivial bit of information to most players... even if caught, few casual players would be upset even if I admitted to what I was doing. But in some games more than others, and in almost any game if a specific hand situation comes up, knowing that this one card is dead can make a huge difference in how you play the hand.

It's hard to give concrete examples without being too technical. But imagine you're playing 7 card draw and you have an AKxxx flush and your opponent clearly was also aiming for an Ace-high flush. If the bottom card of the deck happened to be the K of his suit... you could raise with impunity. There is no way he's got you beat (with the flush). The same thing happens if the K of the suit was visible in someone else's hand or folded... but that information is open to all players. The opponent your playing has no way of knowing that you're sure he can't hold a flush higher than yours.

Or in Hold'em... as a more common example. If you hold 5-5 pre-flop. And you notice the bottom card is a 5. Well, your hand is unplayable. You just don't have the odds (implied or otherwise) to try and hit that one remaining 5 left in the deck. And unless there is outright cheating (dealing from the bottom), you know that the 5 on the bottom of the deck is never going to come.

I have used small stupid stuff like this in the past to gain an edge when playing against inexperienced players. It's a very small percentage cheat most of the time... but it does add up and in some hands can be critical.

Note: The reasoning behind this is one reason I dislike Rabbit-Chasing (dealing cards out after everyone has folded) even though it doesn't change any action. The cards which come might reveal that it was impossible for me to have held the hand I represented.

At this point, I insist on a Scarne shuffle kept down on the table and that a player keep the back of their hand on the felt while dealing, if we are not using a cut card. I follow the same rules for myself to keep the game fair. With a cut-card, I remind players that they shouldn't lift the top portion up at all... but rather bring it directly across and down onto the cut card... so that no one has a chance to peek.



Oh, and one other time. I was playing in a private tournament. And the dealer was not too experienced. During one hand, he accidentally started dealing the flop before anyone acted pre-flop. He was stopped after two cards and replaced them one by one on the deck. When he did that I could see that he put them back in the order K-A so I knew a King would flop and an Ace would be dead. I looked down and saw my hand was K-9 and was fully prepared to bet it. Even though it was a hand I never played UTG like that. But given the situation, I knew it was playable because of that cheating peek I had got. Another player at the table pointed out that the dealer had reversed the order of the cards when he put them back. The dealer corrected this. So now a King was sure to be dead and an Ace would flop. This turned my hand into an easy fold. I folded and life went on. It was just the one hand but that was cheating too.