Hosting a friendly poker game in your home entails a lot of preparation and responsibilities. As host, you have to set up the poker equipment and accessories, send out invitations and arrange for snacks and drinks. But the most difficult responsibility of all is to keep cheating away from your home game. The poker cheat is always attracted to home games because unlike in a casino environment, the prospect of making an easy profit far outweighs the risk of being caught and legally prosecuted. Playing cat and mouse with the cheat in your home takes much of the fun and enjoyment away from an otherwise friendly poker game. It would do you well as the host to keep in mind a few pointers to defend your home poker game from cheats.
Your first line of defense against poker cheats is to keep them away from your home. This means that you should only invite close friends that you are comfortable dealing with and whose integrity would give you peace of mind for the rest of the game. The catch is when some of your invited friends bring along another friend or two particularly if you are organizing a large poker tournament. Another thing is that you can never tell how honest some of your friends are, especially when placed in stressful situations that would tempt them to cheat.
Poker cheats employ many methods in their nefarious operations. The most common is the sleight of hand, composed of many different variations similar to card tricks used by magicians. To counter this cheating method, you should change the cards in play with a fresh deck every couple of hours or so to reduce the possibility of palming and marked cards. Better yet, you could always deal from a shoe, which would slow down the game a bit, but would eliminate many of the cheating opportunities. Another method employed by poker cheats is to bring in phony chips into your home poker game. Many serious poker enthusiasts use chips that are custom made with their personalized inlay design or initials to discourage the use of phony poker chips in home games.
One of the most difficult cheating methods to catch is collusion between two or more poker players. To combat this cheating method, one resourceful host had set up a video camera on a tripod and aimed it at the gaming table. When there is reason to believe that cheating has occurred, the video camera can always be played back and reviewed to the satisfaction of all the players. Perhaps, the most effective way to protect your home game from poker cheats is to frankly inform your friends and guests before the start of the game that you would not tolerate cheating in your home. That way, all the players will help you keep vigilant watch against cheating.
