When playing poker, one must always be aware of cheats. When playing online, the number of people that dont play fair is significantly reduced. The dealer cant be bought because the dealer is a program, that randomly deals the cards and programs dont care about money, they cant cheat or have preferences. Unlike real life poker, online poker doesnt have real cards, so no one can trick you by hiding them down their sleeves or swapping them somehow. Those abilities mean zero here.

Lets talk a little about hackers, the ones that are so feared amongst some online poker players. In the past, way back there were hackers attacks. But many years passed since then and all technologies have improved. If a hacker should try to somehow turn the odds in his favor or influence the program, he wouldnt be able pass all the way through the poker rooms. Like thieves are stopped in real casinos by security, so are harmful programs stopped by the protection software every online poker room has.

But there is a form of online cheating and it is manifested by players talking to each other, it is a type of player conspiracy. The players involved would tell each other what cards they have and evaluate together the odds, trying to make one of them win. The winnings will be eventually split between them. In real poker rooms this is impossible, but online they can talk on the phone or be sited at adjacent computers.

Luckily the majority of these players are beginners and they are not doing it to cheat the others, but simply because they dont know how to play or what to do. They dont know the power they are holding, so they pose no real threat. Anyway there are ways to stop them. Online poker sites usually check players that use the same IP or play at the same time every time in the same poker rooms. If spotted in any of these situations they are either banner or warned or even kicked from the rooms. As this can only be a coincidence, sites do not ban payers before really looking into the situation.

So, here are some thinks to spot when you want to see if you are cheated.

1. Some players that try to get the others players to leave the game. They will raise each other so that they can be left alone in the game.

2. Players that dont play quick pre-flop. They might be having someone to protect or someone they are teamed with.

But it is very rare to met real online cheaters. If you think they cheat, do not under any circumstance accuse them directly of cheating. Just follow their actions and contact the webmaster, he will deal with this. Or, if you dont want to get into any complications, just leave that room and enter another one.