Poker is a card game that many people around the world enjoy. Poker is played at kitchen tables, in casinos and cardrooms.

There are a lot of ways to cheat at poker. They are mainly divided into three areas with subdivisions:

• Sleight of Hand
• Protection
• Other methods

Much cheating occurs with players who are able to manipulate the deck or cards in their hands. These types of tricks are similar to those employed by card magicians, and much of the techniques are the same.

These methods are called Sleight of Hands.

The Mechanic's Grip
To best understand this grip, pick up a deck of card as though you were preparing to deal some cards out. It is likely that you are currently holding the deck in the palm of your hand with all four fingers on the long side of the deck, and your thumb on the top of the deck.

When you deal, you use your thumb to push a single card onto the tips of your four fingers. The thumb holds the card in its place until the thumb and index finger of the other hand grabs it and deals it across the table. Now, holding the deck in this manner, move your index finger from the long side of the deck to the short side of the deck away from yourself. In a very general sense, this is the Mechanic's Grip. It is through this grip that such cheating as peeking, second dealing, and bottom dealing are facilitated.

The Peek
This maneuver is a way in which the cheating dealer sees the top card of the deck before the deal. By doing so, the dealer will know who has been dealt this card in their hand. In the case of an exceptional card, the dealer may combine peeking with second dealing to ensure that the card is dealt to him or to herself. Utilizing the Mechanic's Grip, the cheat ensures that his or her thumb is blocking the top card of the deck from being pushed in that direction. The cheat then slowly pushes against the other long side of the top card using the pinky finger. Using this in poker will usually require an additional cheating maneuver to make effective use of it.

The Second Deal
This maneuver is a way in which the cheating dealer deals the second top card of the deck rather than the top one. If the dealer is aware that the top card is one that he or she wants, then the dealer may 'second deal' to everybody before his own hand.

Utilizing the Mechanic's Grip, the dealer uses his or her thumb to subtly push the top card away from the rest of the deck. The cheat uses the thumb to ease the second top card outward and the opposite hand to grab the card to deal it out. This is useful in any game, but only after the cheat has discerned what the top card is. Second dealing is useless unless the top card is being saved for something, most likely the cheating dealer's own hand.

The Bottom Deal
This maneuver is a way in which the cheating dealer places the card of his or her choice on the very bottom of the deck and then deals it into his or her own hand. When the card is at the bottom, the dealer deals normally to all players until arriving at his or her own hand. The cheat deals the bottom card with the help of the Mechanic's Grip in such a way that goes unnoticed. Even the players looking directly at the deck may not notice that the cheat has dealt the bottom card instead of the top card. A "hanger" is used to describe when the bottom card is mistakenly dealt out with too much force, bringing the next bottom card out a little bit from the bottom of the deck.

Extra Cards
This maneuver has limited usage in one session and only some proven benefit. When the cheat is dealing, the cheat deals himself or herself an extra card, or more, in the deal. This can be done with relative ease, as long as nobody is focusing too much on the deal. When the dealer deals his own hand, he pushes two cards with the top of the hand holding the deck, and grabs both cards with the thumb and index finger of the other hand. This maneuver provides the dealer with extra card(s), while everybody else has been dealt less cards.

False Shuffling
There are four manners of false shuffling. The first one is keeping the card on the bottom and this is an ideal opportunity for the cheat to glance at the bottom card and he will deal in such a way to keep that card at the bottom. This trick is useful for a cheat who anticipates bottom dealing.

Another type of false shuffling is shuffling the bottom card to the top of the deck. At the ideal opportunity, the cheat will glance at the bottom card, after that shuffling it to the top of the deck. This trick is useful for a cheat who anticipates second dealing or dealing extra cards.

The third type of false shuffling is shuffling to keep one card or a number of cards undisturbed at the top of the deck. The last type of false shuffling is stacking the deck. This maneuver requires considerably greater sleight of hand ability.

For example, the dealer has to shuffle the cards until all four Kings have been positioned at the top of the deck. Then the dealer proceeds to shuffle the cards in such a way where each King is separated by a number of cards equal to the number of players at the table. This way, the dealer performs a natural deal with all four Kings landing in his or her own hand.

False shuffling allows the dealer to give the impression of mixing up the cards randomly but all he or she does is to manipulate the deck to place certain cards in certain places.

Palming
This is the act of secretly hiding individual cards, moving them either from the deck onto one's person or one's hand or from one's person into one's hand or back into the deck.

Basic palming involves hiding a card in the palm of one's hand. A playing card can fit perfectly into the palm of one's hand, held at one end by the last bend of each finger and at the other end by the cup of the palm.

From the deck, the cheat may palm cards into shirt pockets, under the leg, onto the floor and covered by a foot, etc. From there, the cheat may bring the palmed card into play by adding it to his hand as an extra card, palming that hand's worst card into the place where the originally palmed card was being kept.

To protect yourself from being cheated you must always be very careful with strangers. Try to check them up before getting involved in a game with them.

You can always choose the method of working together with one of your friends in order to win some money. Pretend like you don't know each other and play as a team.

Angling is another way of cheating. It is characterized by any acting out of turn. It is considered angling when any player folds out of turn or signals to bet when it is not that player's time.

Marked Cards is another method to cheat at poker. Marking consists of small cosmetic alterations to the backside of cards. This includes surface scratches, a bend in the corner, or a minute change in design. They can be done before the start of the game or during the game.

Misrepresentation of a hand is another way of cheating at poker. This is the act of a cheat revealing his or her hand at showdown, and calling it something better than it is; for example, throwing down an all-red Straight and calling it a Straight Flush.

If nobody notices the cheat's 'mistake', then the cheat could very well win the entire pot on a lie. If somebody notices the cheat's 'mistake', then the cheat claims that it is just that...a mistake.

The prepared deck, another method of cheating, will contain a certain number of cards in the right places, either before they are shuffled, or used by the cheat who may claim that the deck is already shuffled. Anglers may also use this trick as one angler may pass the prepared deck to his partner to use.

What happens if one of the players at your game cheats?

There is obviously no easy way of dealing with such a situation.

If you think one of the players is cheating do not make accusations before you are sure that he /she was in fact cheating and that it was not an accident.

Since being absolutely sure of a player cheating is almost impossible use your best judgment when dealing with the situation.

If you know the player is cheating the best way to handle this is to ask him to leave the game. You do not want to give second chances simply because you will set a precedent.

Also important in dealing with cheating is to make sure you have a rule about it in your house rules. Make sure everyone knows your house rules before beginning to play.

You can make a rule to split the cheater's money between the rest of the players or you can make a rule that the house gets the cheater's money just make sure you have a rule for such a situation and that everybody knows it.