How to approach suspected cheating ?

OP, I was cheated in Houston at one of the more “legit” card clubs last summer. 3betting garbage, getting it in with little equity and getting there constantly, playing perfectly basically.

No hard proof just like your situation.

The guy was a huge whale when we played in one card club, but was unstoppable after a venue change that he requested. Other stuff that gave it away:

Would only sit in certain seats (7 in this case)

Brought a buddy for one session that was raise/folding preflop to juice up pots for when he 3-bet w garbage and got there (this was rather obvious so I just always folded when his buddy opened, but other guy playing with us was too stuck/tilted and kept getting caught in this),

Kept his phone on the rail and kept adjusting the position of it as one of my friends was changing seats (my friend was specifically changing seats to see what the guy would do),

Would only play on days where certain dealers (that spoke his native language) were dealing

Yes, obviously I and others were dumb for playing and losing large sums and should have figured it out faster. But, the point is, it definitely happens in live poker and you should always pay attention to your gut if you have vast experience and something seems fishy. Keep in mind: the guy needed this specific venue and specific dealers for the magic to happen, so it requires coordination with casino / card club employees to make something like this work.

The pokernews article mentions RFID, but that seems likely false. Most likely the swapped deck was printed with a bar code and the device found in the backpack was a bar code reader.

The difference between this happening in a Houston card room vs a Vegas casino are so massive it makes it incredibly unlikely to be happening in the latter, especially if it’s at smaller stakes

FWIW I’ve been told the Shufflemaster 2’s can relay who will be the winner of the hand but have 0 first hand knowledge if this is true. I would assume if it is true someone savvy enough could hack it and get that info which to me would be the only real possible way this MIGHT be happening in a Vegas casino low stakes game

DM2 have the information necessary to determine the winner even before the shuffle is complete. This is due to how they “shuffle”.

DM2 don’t put each card into a random location. They don’t do the opposite either (put a random card into a specific spot). The DM2 use a RNG to pick a random but specific order of cards. It then takes a card, reads it and puts it to the selected position. (I AM NOT SAYING DM2 ARE RIGGED. They are not. The card order is randomized but is known by the machine)

This is why DM2 can not only determine if a deck is missing a card. It will determine exactly which card is missing. It can also tell if there are 2 of same card, etc. it knows where each card is supposed to go.

This also allows the DM2 to sort decks to suit&rank order. They can be used to deal duplicate Bridge. Etc. So the exact order of the cards is known. (Something not possible via RFID regardless of what OP claims.)

But exploiting this is very challenging. First you need to physically plug in a device into the DM2 USB port without surveillance or anyone noticing. (And that is probably the easiest step).

The device has to be able to load its code wo corrupting existing code and bypassing internal security checks. The code (I believe) has multiple checks including at least one in ROM which thus can’t directly be altered.

This device needs to operate undetected, transmit the information to someone. And then cheater needs to remove the device when he leaves. Then DM2 needs to return to normal operation (which can be tricky if it made any fi4mware changes.

This is all doable. Something not true for op scenario. Something like this was supposedly done in TX (Houston IIRC) but it used an inside person. But doing it in a fully regulated room like in Vegas would be a high bar.

Are you thinking of the dealer in Houston who was caught stacking the deck with a false hand shuffle?

Although the vulnerability of the DM2 is known, I don't remember any reports of one actually getting hacked.

To me the question is: Why does anyone play this game. At all times one has to be aware of one's surroundings, because cheating can happen at any stake level. Then, of course, there is the natural ups and downs of the game. And let's not forget the people one is surrounded by: hillbillies, smug punks, and sad middle aged men who wonder why women want nothing to do with them, if they ever did. Well, I won't stop playing and I doubt anyone else will either, but let's at least understand the world one enters when one walks through the poker room door.

No I am not talking about a dealer stacking a deck. I might be wrong but I have a vague memory of cheating using auto shuffler. I have no details and might be wrong.

You did remind me of a step. Obv when dealer cuts before pitching, the actual cards coming out are set. So until the flop comes out or until you get your first hold card, you don’t know the board. But once you know a card and what number it was, the sw would need to calculate where in the known order the deal actually starts.

Not a big deal for the sw but something else to account for.

Back to the cheating. Here is what Gemini says. So the incident I recalled was May 2022 at Prime

Yes, there was an alleged poker cheating scandal in Houston, Texas, involving accusations of manipulating an automatic shuffler machine.

The scandal took place at Prime Social Poker Club in Houston. The allegations, which surfaced around May 2022, centered on the newly installed Deckmate 2 shuffling machines.

Key details of the allegations included:

Manipulated Shufflers: There were reports and suspicions that the new shuffling machines were being manipulated to allow certain players to know the order of the cards being dealt.

Suspicious Winning: An unidentified player at the high-stakes tables was observed playing an unusually aggressive and successful game, which raised suspicions among regulars.

Deckmate 2 Vulnerability: Poker commentator Doug Polk confirmed that the Deckmate 2 model has a feature that tracks the card order and that this feature is known to be exploitable.

Room Response: The poker room temporarily turned off the shufflers in question, and according to reports, the winning sessions of the suspected cheaters stopped. When the shufflers were turned back on, the winning resumed, leading other players to walk out in protest.

While the famous Mike Postle scandal involved RFID chips and a livestream in California, and other Houston poker rooms have had different cheating incidents (like alleged false shuffles by a dealer at Legends Poker Room), the specific allegation of "cracking" an auto-shuffler in Houston points to the events at Prime Social Poker Club.

If you would have read the linked article above, you would realize that there was an RFID cheating scandal in Houston this year. That cheating involved a confession from a card room employee who put the illicit deck into play for his cheating colleagues. The card room employee was caught on film and with an RFID reading device in his backpack.

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2025/06/poker-cheater-confesses-card-reader-device-scam-texas-48931.htm

pokernews

Cheater Confesses to Card Reader Device Scam; Banned from Texas Poker Room

Footage revealed that Carlito, Marcelo, and Ivan coordinated to swap in a preloaded deck equipped with RFID-enabled playing cards, paired with a concealed card-reading device. This setup allowed them to identify card values in real-time, giving them an unfair edge against unsuspecting players.

The "kill the messenger" energy in this forum is very strong. The willingness to learn and openly contemplate the possibility of cheating with an open mind is sadly missing.

In order for this to work, the cheaters would need to not only swap in the deck with RFID embedded cards, they would also need to plant RFID readers at every seat around the table to read the cards after they are dealt. Or, I suppose they could plant an RFID reader at only one seat and then know the hole cards for one targeted player.

What the RFID won't tell them is the order of the cards in the deck. If you placed an RFID reader on top of a deck of RFID chip embedded cards it would return all 52 cards in no particular order.

Now, what does make sense, is that the person who gave the quote for the article, or the writer of the article, has mistaken RFID for bar coding a deck. A deck can be printed with a bar code on the edge of each playing card and can be scanned with a smart phone. The way it works is you shuffle, cut, then you place the deck in front of the smart phone, the phone is able to scan all 52 codes on the edges of all cards as the deck sits and capture the exact order of cards. From there it is trivial for a few lines of code to tell you which seats get which hands, what the board will be, who will have the nuts, etc.

I know the article specifically mentions RFID, but RFID doesn't make any sense to the story. Your villain, if he is cheating, is not using RFID. The deck could be bar coded, or, more likely, the dealer is a mechanic.

Most likely of all is that he is just a fish on a heater.

Ironically, every single tin foil hat poker cheating conspiracy theory has come to fruition through the years. I'm more open to giving credence than I was years ago.

Do you have any actual evidence? I don't understand how you reached your conclusion, other than a winning player opening some hands that you consider bad and later making strong hands. You realize opening 106o on the button might actually be a plus EV play if this guy has a large post flop edge, right?

I've encountered a fair amount of cheating in live poker and I'm not at all dismissive of the idea. The stuff I've encountered has usually been very low tech stuff though, like someone palming a large denomination chip after I stacked them or putting a fingernail mark so they can see the aces when they're face down.

Not that technology can't be used to cheat. A spammer once posted an ad on here for an RFID deck that used like a fake iPhone 6 to read special cards as they were dealt out. They were selling that so the tech is out there. It wouldn't be hard to purchase that device and cheat someone in a home game, but doing it in a Nevada casino with branded cards and security would be much more difficult to pull off.

Anyway I can think of a number of ways of testing whether your concerns are legitimate, depending on how exactly you think this is occurring. I suggested making sure the suspected player isn't on their phone during hands.

You could also figure out a reason to get the casino to switch out the decks and see how he responds? There are any number of other more reasonable ways to figure out if he's cheating short of calling him out with no evidence and demanding he take a polygraph.

LOL, calling for a new setup and seeing how villain reacts or if he continues to win is a strong idea.

Here's the extended video from a presentation at Defcon 24 in Las Vegas from 2016 which explains how this RFID cheating works.

The presenters got their hands on a device which was packaged with a marked deck. Cost them $1,500 for the package. The people selling this could only justify the investment if they were planning to sell in volume.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU6bosBN...

All the folks who want to kill the messenger ..... I encourage you to watch the video presentation and come back with your criticisms after yourselves get educated.

What happens if they pass the polygraph test? Your gonna have to make them piss in a cup and pay for that test too?

Why do you ask this ?

Does expressing contempt for others give you pleasure ? No opportunity for an insult s/b wasted ?

Most likely since they openly advertise some machines can set the deck the card shuffling machine is the mechanic and a casino employee is in on it. Turns out that whereas the casino itself might oppose cheating individuals at casinos who see the casino raking in money while they get peanuts care more about themselves than loyalty to their employer. And everyone whining tin foil and conspiracy theory is why they get away with it.

Marked deck, not RFID.

Cheating for sure occurs. I did read your linked article. It says there was an rfid cheating but does not say how it worked.

It is impossible for a rfid reader to read the order of the cards. RFID can tell you what all the cards within a certain ragpnge ar3 but it c@n not tell you where they are.

News articles on technical topics are frequ3ntly wrong because the writer doesn’t understand th3 technology. As has been mentioned, there is a reasonable chance this cheating actually involved micro barcoding. There are many things it card be. Heck, maybe it even was using rfid. Bu5 it can’t be using rfid in the manner you described because that is impossible.

I have repeatedly said cheating occurs. It might even be happening in your situation. How could I know since I don’t have actual data. But I do know the laws of physics don’t ch@nge in your poker room and what you claimed to be happening is not possible.

Best approach is to name and shame imo.

Not much else you can do.

To me the story sounds like superuser and all he need is someone from the inside to use his deck...

This is live MTT. How does he get the decks since must be two to follow him.

This thread is a mess mainly because OP is confused about different cheating methods, mixing up RFID and barcoding. But his concerns could be valid and contrary to what some people ITT are saying, it is absolutely possible to cheat and know the winner of the hand, to the extent where a binary buzz would be enough for a cheating player to know that they are going to win the hand without looking at their phone.

Postle did not cheat using this method, as he was clearly looking at his phone during hands to determine what he should do in different spots. He did not know if he was going to win the hand at showdown or not, but he knew the exact hand of the other players, allowing him to make non human calls, bluffs or folds. So I dont know why OP keeps bringing up Postle.

A "barcoded" deck with a strategically placed scanner could be used to cheat in the way OP is saying, and it would result in exactly the kind of hands that OP are mentioning, where a big winner randomly opens trashy hands that somehow make straights or full houses all the time (he knows his hand is going to win and just plays it aggressively). That said, 2 hands is far from a big enough sample to make a case of OP being anything but a rigtard who doesnt understand variance.

This kind of cheating would have to involve insiders at the casino as well. Casinos dont use decks that the players have been handling. For a barcoded deck or decks to exist and be used at a casino, especially a live MTT environment where dealers and players switch tables constantly, one or more dealers would have to be involved. Even with dealer involvement, its hard for me to see how this player, if cheating this way, is making sure that the barcoded deck is being brought to the table that hes at. The dealers dont bring their own deck to the table and the player seating is random.

If you are truly concerned about cheating involving this player, like others suggested, just claim that you want a deck change every time you are at his table. If you see particularily egregious cases of weird play that "gets there" you could ask to get the deck afterwards to inspect it for "barcoding".

While OP comes across as a clown I think people like Fore and Borg23 are equally stupid. Especially Borg23 for claiming ''Plenty of people agreed with Veronica that it was obvious Postle was cheating right away''. This is just so false it's not even funny. Veronica even talks about this in one of her podcast episodes with Joey how the poker world at first just laughed at her. She most certainly was not believed ''right away'' and without Joey's livestreamed work she may have never been believed.

Again, while OP is a clown, the poker world needs to be way more vigilant/skeptical because cheating, yes in live poker, happens far more than some in this thread think it does.

I agree people need to be more vigilant. I'm amazed at how many dealers don't keep the deck level and nobody cares. Some really roll it bad when bringing chips in and nobody cares. Dealers expose a card, don't put it back over the burn card and nobody cares. And with today's technology it would be a lot easier to cheat than just a few years ago.

But when the OP says stuff like if you don't believe his (despite not even knowing where/who is is accusing) it's bc you're also cheaters he sounds like a clown. When he thinks he can demand people take polygraphs he comes off as an even bigger clown.

As for Postle- maybe I found out later along than I realized when the vast majority of people agreed with her. But I'll take your word for it if you say I'm wrong about that and appreciate the correction (makes me more factually wrong than stupid btw. )Still his logic is flawed. Even if most people thought Veronica was wrong early on, that doesn't mean people can just make baseless accusations and play the "people thought Veronica was wrong card" too. That's just moronic.

Veronica had TONS of evidence. This guy says zomg someone raised with 97 and 106 offsuit in LP and flopped the nuts. Ok so what. He doesn't even tell us how this guy normally plays, how often he raises when it's folded to him in LP, what a high percentage of the time he flopped a monster when he did etc. But yea we're all cheaters for not going along with it.

If someone wants to play the Veronica card then should be as diligent as she was.

Fair enough. I apologize for the choice of words, you're right. As for OP we are in agreement he's a clown and has to do a much better job I just get triggered when poker players auto reject these claims especially when you consider how much cheating we have seen in the last few years both live and online.

So; to put your last sentence into real world terms, we need get cheated for roughly 6 months before we mention it and if the cheater is bright enough to make a few misplays they should get to cheat for free.