“What do you mean, I need to watch myself”. A very direct question to what had been a very direct warning from me. A close friend of mine called Dave had been playing poker for about a year and he had only ever played online. He had asked me for advice on poker about a year ago as he had told me then that he was seriously interested in taking the game up.

I basically told him what I could in the short time that we had together. He was doing rather well in the poker games that he was playing in but he had now got it into his head that he wanted to try “real” poker in a proper card room.

I didn’t have the time to go with him as I don’t play much live poker these days myself. Nearly all of my time now is spent either playing online or teaching and writing about poker. I did not like the thought of Dave going off on his own without me.

I sort of felt a responsibility towards him because he used to listen to my stories of how well I was doing and this must have spurred him on to actually playing the game because Dave had never been a gambling man.

“So are you saying that I should never play in a real card room Carl?”
“No Dave I am not, it’s just that it won’t be like playing poker like it is on TV which is all gentlemanly and straight up”.

“So your saying that people cheat in real card rooms”

I smiled and told him not to be so naive. “People cheat in life Dave and poker is no exception whether it is played online or in a real card room. It is just that online poker the site does actually go some way towards protecting you and the other players cannot get hold of the cards which is important”

“So what do I need to look out for then” he replied.

“Well for a start, make sure that you are playing in a cash game that has a house dealer if at all possible. Some of these players can be very slick when it comes to cheating and there are still card mechanics out there plying their trade”.

“What else do I need to look out for?”

“Watch out for players communicating with each other, some of them will blatantly talk in their own language and they are not always talking about the weather either. If you see this then inform them to speak English only and if they refuse then take the matter up with the card room supervisor and if you get no joy from them then a casino manager”.

“Have you ever cheated Carl?” said Dave with a rather cheeky look on his face. I avoided the question by saying that it was a terrible thing to say to a “gentleman” like me. Seriously though, I will take the fourth amendment on that one.

“So are there any specific moves that I need to look out for?”
Look out for part two of this series coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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