As someone who was once upon a time enthralled with TV poker in its heyday, it saddens me to see some of the ruin technology's wrought upon the game. Despite joining the online crowd some years ago (and considering myself the best UK-based, 5-foot-11, under-bankrolled, hazel-eyed, bearded, break-even micro-stakes player to ever grace the virtual felts of GG Poker) I never liked how technology—AI in particular—has changed the game, either.
Consider me vexed, then, to find out (via Wired) that high-stakes poker rooms now have to worry about hearing devices "so small that you can’t take it off with your fingers" and cheap DIY mirror contraptions that can seemingly best even specially designed casino shoes. All in the name of earning a few extra bucks... okay, maybe more than a few.
According to Wired, a case in France has shed light on how some of the latest cheats are performed. Essentially, it boils down to smaller or more hidden cameras and smaller or more hidden communication devices.
In the case of a casino in Enghien-les-Bains, France, the cheating players modified smartphone cameras with mirrors so they could lie a phone down flat and still record horizontally, across or around the table.
The camera then captured images of card faces as they were dealt, and these were sent to the other cheater who would communicate back to the seated cheating player to let them know who has what.
This was communicated using a "device is so small that you can’t take it off with your fingers", according to Stéphane Piallat, commissioner of the Central Racing and Gaming Service (SCCJ), who also said, "You need a magnet to pull it off, otherwise you can’t do it. It looks like a typical James Bond movie device."
In some ways, it doesn't surprise me that poker cheaters are using stuff like this. I used bone induction earphones for some time, and it did cross my mind that one could probably make some pretty ingenious audio transmitters these days for relatively cheap.
Wired points out that this particular mirror-camera method isn't the only one easily available these days, either, given that fake power banks, camera pens, and pinhole cameras are all publicly available devices.
What's disheartening is the thought that in-person poker games might, unfortunately, be playing a losing battle against the rising tides of newer and better tech.
It might be that the best solution is vigilance regarding how players are actually playing. For instance, Wired spoke to poker pro Matt Berkey, who spotted a cheater at some high-stakes cash games. What tipped Berkey off wasn't noticing any tech, rather it was how the cheater was playing, namely because they were winning all the Rivers they played—all the hands they played to showdown after all community cards are dealt.
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Berkey said: "Playing all rivers perfectly over an eight-hour sample—that’s an anomaly that isn’t really statistically possible, especially from a recreational player... When you start to see things that don’t add up, like the least skilled player in the game never showing down a losing hand, that kind of begins to trigger your suspicions."
Poker is the kind of game where those observations can be reasonably made over a large sample. Although you only want to be going to showdown when you're pretty sure you can win (or make your opponent fold), to win in all such scenarios in a game of imperfect and incomplete information is sussy, to say the least.
In which case, maybe cheaters need to get smarter with their play to hide their cheating. But that'd involve actually learning to play, something I doubt they'll bother to do. Mirrors and tiny earpieces it is, then. Let's hope casinos, dealers, and players can keep ahead of the curve.
