Current advances in know-how have triggered concern about dishonest in poker, from private and non-private money video games to tournaments all over the world. There is a technique of dealing playing cards that would present a treatment.
Throughout an Solely Associates podcast episode in August 2024, Matt Berkey informed of an alleged dishonest ring involving pinhole cameras on the desk, a subject that caught the eye of WIRED for a function story titled “Poker Cheaters Allegedly Use Tiny Hidden Cameras to Spot Dealt Playing cards.”
Lower than a yr later, poker professional Mike Holtz sounded the alarm on what he believes to be widespread dishonest in some Las Vegas poker rooms, together with collusion between gamers who’re exploiting the excessive pitches of some sellers that he says exposes playing cards.
Banning telephones on the poker desk is one solution to deal with these new dishonest considerations. One other means is for sellers within the US and worldwide to transition from the normal card pitch to the sliding technique that has develop into in style in Europe.
PokerStars Publicizes Recreation Integrity Rule Modifications at EPT Barcelona
European Poker Tour Leads the Means
Whereas sellers usually “pitch” playing cards to gamers, sliding is a technique gaining traction abroad the place sellers flick playing cards throughout the felt to decrease the space between playing cards and the desk — making it tougher for potential cheats to see the underside of playing cards.
The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) introduced at EPT Barcelona in August 2024 that, amongst different sport integrity rule modifications, it might regularly implement the sliding technique.
Veteran match director Kenny Hallaert informed PokerNews on the time that he and different TDs had been warned about gamers utilizing hidden cameras in objects like AirPod circumstances to get a glimpse of playing cards.
The 2016 WSOP closing tablist stated the sliding technique ensures “the cardboard that is being dealt to each participant continues to be protected.”
The brand new model of dealing that debuted at EPT Barcelona acquired consideration on social media, with primarily optimistic responses.
“That is how sellers are taught to deal playing cards within the UK,” one Reddit consumer wrote. “It is easy to be taught, may be very quick, and minimises the possibilities of exposing a card.”
What Do Gamers Say?
Berkey and Holtz each steered that sellers within the US transfer to the sliding technique as a treatment for contemporary dishonest strategies. Each in a March 12 X video and later episodes of the PokerNews Podcast, Holtz particularly referred to as out Resorts World and sellers on the World Sequence of Poker (WSOP) Circuit cease at Horseshoe Las Vegas.
Bracelet winner Patrick Leonard voiced an identical concern about Las Vegas poker rooms and advocated for the sliding technique.
“Within the final 3 months I’ve informed the sellers 20+ instances that their pitch is just too excessive and I can see the playing cards,” Leonard wrote on X. “Why do they ‘pitch’ them and never simply slide them? Appears to repair so much?”
Different gamers have voiced their choice for pitching, together with high-stakes professional and EPT Predominant Occasion champion Steve O’Dwyer.
“I’ve been advocating for this modification for over a decade,” O’Dwyer wrote on X concerning the EPT’s change to sliding.
Psychologist and writer Maria Konnikova praised the EPT’s rule modifications, together with the transfer to sliding, and spoke about her personal analysis into trendy dishonest strategies in an interview on the Life Outdoors Poker podcast.
Is It Possible?
Instructing sellers to slip in poker rooms and on smaller match circuits appears possible sufficient. Implementing the change at greater festivals just like the World Sequence of Poker, then again, might current its personal challenges.
A whole lot of sellers are employed each summer season for the WSOP, lots of whom are newcomers to poker. Regardless of the size and sheer variety of sellers required for the WSOP, a gradual phasing in of the sliding technique looks like an inexpensive goal that may go a great distance.
Although it might show tough to implement a brand new dealing technique throughout main poker excursions, poker gamers and match administrators are in settlement that sliding is the most secure solution to deal.
Connor Richards
Editor & Reside Reporter U.S.
