FROM Klastv las vegas:
http://www.klastv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4566074 -------------------------Interesting VIDEO---
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
I-Team Exclusive: Dirty Poker, Part 2
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate("Mar1,2006,1:23 AM EST"); document.write(wn_last_ed_date);</SCRIPT>March 1, 2006, 01:23 AM EST <TABLE cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width=180 align=left bgColor=#ffffff border=0 NAME="D20"><TBODY><TR><TD><!--FEATURED VIDEOS--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#b2b2b2><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top bgColor=#ffffff></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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Trust everyone, but cut the cards. The old saying is still good advice for new poker players. One of the world's most successful card cheats, retired thief Richard Marcus, says while poker is riding a wave of popularity and glamour it's still just as crooked as in the Old West because of online cheater syndicates. Marcus spoke exclusively with George Knapp of the I-Team.
Marcus said, "Somebody might kill me, George. Somebody might kill me." For 25 years, Richard Marcus was the smoothest casino cheat in town, maybe in the world. He can still walk into a gambling hall, even into a poker room, and not draw much attention, but that's about to change.
"It's about time somebody said what's really going on," he said. What's going on, according to this self-described thief, is a whole lot of cheating. Poker, Marcus says, is rigged, as crooked as a marked deck or an ace up the sleeve. Marcus has written it all down in a book, Dirty Poker, and expects his expose' to blow the roof off this suddenly red-hot game.
Poker showdowns are on television pretty much around the clock. Online poker rooms are booming. Hordes of those computer players flock to Las Vegas to test their mettle in live games against the best. The biggest tournaments now need vast warehouses to accommodate tens of thousands of entrants and Hollywood celebrities add a splash of glamour to games once played in seedy smoke-filled rooms.
What tipped off Marcus that something was fishy? "There are poker players who are now household names who worked with me in cheating casinos before they got involved in this craze. As soon as I walk in and see these guys, I know they're cheaters, so I know."
How is it done? You name it, he says. The time-honored tactic of marking cards is still alive but with a twist. "People use what's called a dowb. They dowb the cards with a solution that's invisible unless you're wearing certain contact lenses but it disappears and doesn't leave a trace," Marcus said.
Some players gain an advantage by slipping counterfeit chips into the stacks. Some use personal computers to calculate the odds. But the primary way to cheat, Marcus says, is as old as the game itself -- collusion -- working with a secret partner, or two, or ten. Marcus says it happens in every card room in Las Vegas, even during major tournaments. Marcus says, "The cheating that's going on, it's like syndicates. It's organized."
Essential to collusion is communication. A player needs to know what cards his partner is holding. Ever watch the constant stacking, restacking, and movement of poker chips? Marcus says this is one of the best ways cheaters signal each other. One system uses cards like the face of a clock. Putting a chip in a certain place tells someone what's in your hand. "They only do it for a split second. It's like in baseball where the third base coach gives a lot of signals but only one means something. It's the same thing. They go like this, then in a split second he drops two chips like this. Like that ace-king off suit. Only have to do it once."
And there are verbal signals. Marcus explains, "If there's a big pot going on and I say to the dealer, would you send me a cocktail waitress please, and that tells you on the other end, I just made a full house."
Plenty of honest players must know about it but don't say anything, Marcus says, because, for one thing, collusion is almost impossible to prove. But the card sharks of Las Vegas are only too happy to fleece the naive newcomers to the game. "When I see 8 to 9-year-old kids looking up to poker players as heroes, that bothers me. I can't stomach it. Kids talking about players as heroes when they're nothing but cheaters."
Richard Marcus says the casinos don't police poker too closely because the money being gambled doesn't belong to the house. The best way to keep from being cheated, he says, is to learn the tricks yourself and be able to spot them.
His book, Dirty Poker, will be released in mid March.
Email investigative reporter George Knapp at gknapp@klastv.com
http://www.klastv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4566074 -------------------------Interesting VIDEO---
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
I-Team Exclusive: Dirty Poker, Part 2
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate("Mar1,2006,1:23 AM EST"); document.write(wn_last_ed_date);</SCRIPT>March 1, 2006, 01:23 AM EST <TABLE cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width=180 align=left bgColor=#ffffff border=0 NAME="D20"><TBODY><TR><TD><!--FEATURED VIDEOS--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#b2b2b2><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top bgColor=#ffffff></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Trust everyone, but cut the cards. The old saying is still good advice for new poker players. One of the world's most successful card cheats, retired thief Richard Marcus, says while poker is riding a wave of popularity and glamour it's still just as crooked as in the Old West because of online cheater syndicates. Marcus spoke exclusively with George Knapp of the I-Team.
Marcus said, "Somebody might kill me, George. Somebody might kill me." For 25 years, Richard Marcus was the smoothest casino cheat in town, maybe in the world. He can still walk into a gambling hall, even into a poker room, and not draw much attention, but that's about to change.
"It's about time somebody said what's really going on," he said. What's going on, according to this self-described thief, is a whole lot of cheating. Poker, Marcus says, is rigged, as crooked as a marked deck or an ace up the sleeve. Marcus has written it all down in a book, Dirty Poker, and expects his expose' to blow the roof off this suddenly red-hot game.
Poker showdowns are on television pretty much around the clock. Online poker rooms are booming. Hordes of those computer players flock to Las Vegas to test their mettle in live games against the best. The biggest tournaments now need vast warehouses to accommodate tens of thousands of entrants and Hollywood celebrities add a splash of glamour to games once played in seedy smoke-filled rooms.
What tipped off Marcus that something was fishy? "There are poker players who are now household names who worked with me in cheating casinos before they got involved in this craze. As soon as I walk in and see these guys, I know they're cheaters, so I know."
How is it done? You name it, he says. The time-honored tactic of marking cards is still alive but with a twist. "People use what's called a dowb. They dowb the cards with a solution that's invisible unless you're wearing certain contact lenses but it disappears and doesn't leave a trace," Marcus said.
Some players gain an advantage by slipping counterfeit chips into the stacks. Some use personal computers to calculate the odds. But the primary way to cheat, Marcus says, is as old as the game itself -- collusion -- working with a secret partner, or two, or ten. Marcus says it happens in every card room in Las Vegas, even during major tournaments. Marcus says, "The cheating that's going on, it's like syndicates. It's organized."
Essential to collusion is communication. A player needs to know what cards his partner is holding. Ever watch the constant stacking, restacking, and movement of poker chips? Marcus says this is one of the best ways cheaters signal each other. One system uses cards like the face of a clock. Putting a chip in a certain place tells someone what's in your hand. "They only do it for a split second. It's like in baseball where the third base coach gives a lot of signals but only one means something. It's the same thing. They go like this, then in a split second he drops two chips like this. Like that ace-king off suit. Only have to do it once."
And there are verbal signals. Marcus explains, "If there's a big pot going on and I say to the dealer, would you send me a cocktail waitress please, and that tells you on the other end, I just made a full house."
Plenty of honest players must know about it but don't say anything, Marcus says, because, for one thing, collusion is almost impossible to prove. But the card sharks of Las Vegas are only too happy to fleece the naive newcomers to the game. "When I see 8 to 9-year-old kids looking up to poker players as heroes, that bothers me. I can't stomach it. Kids talking about players as heroes when they're nothing but cheaters."
Richard Marcus says the casinos don't police poker too closely because the money being gambled doesn't belong to the house. The best way to keep from being cheated, he says, is to learn the tricks yourself and be able to spot them.
His book, Dirty Poker, will be released in mid March.
Email investigative reporter George Knapp at gknapp@klastv.com
