By now, every online poker player on the planet has heard of the cheating scandal at AbsolutePoker.com. Almost everyone has left the site, knowing that the source code of Absolute has been completely hacked. Who wants to play there?

But on almost every major QQ Online site , there are different types of scams. The kind that no one can fix. I’m talking about collusion between players, over cell phones. Here’s how it works: The scammer and 6 or 7 cheating friends are connected in a group cell call. Each player is on the same virtual world site, and at the same table. They communicate the hole cards to each other, and the non-buddy(s) are left to play against only the “best” of the buddy cards. Now this is not the case in low stakes poker games, as the hard work and work involved is not worth it. But it’s very different in high stakes.

Imagine a player (hopefully not you) who can afford a 100-200 game, and on a bad night, may lose $2,000. That loss x 6 days per week = $12,000. divided by 8 equals $1,500. per week per cheater. Not bad for people who band together every week and swindle well-meaning players. This is almost impossible to stop, as each player can use multiple aliases. Computer programs written to “evaluate” the game are powerless to stop it, because statistically, evidence never emerges. And, why do they care? On large sites, thousands of customers play every day. Do you really think they would carefully screen out this kind of cheating? Me neither.

Play if you have to, but the scams are real and if you play at high stakes, you will eventually run into a pack of cheated wolves. By the way, the same thing happens in a casino card room, with hole card information communicated by subtle signals. How do I know that? I was invited to be a “player” in one of the newly formed groups.

Let Player Alert.