Bettie: Cool new poker cheating book out

[Bettie]

Steve Forte, who made a splash a couple of years ago with his Casino Game Protection, a book on cheating methods and devices for games throughout the casino, now has a book out called Poker Protection: Cheating and the World of Poker.

Essentially, the book took CGP's 37-page chapter on poker cheating and turned it into a 320-page monstrosity. It's not quite as big as CPG, which weighed in at 8 pounds, but it's still a monster of a book, a large-format hardcover weighing nearly 3 pounds. For that reason, the book will ship via media mail unless you request priority mail for an additional $3.

I've provided a link below to the online catalog page for the book, but here is an excerpt of the e-mail that Steve sent me last week when he announced the book:

Major additions to PP which were not covered in CGP includes a history of cheating in the cardrooms; a significant treatment of the scams and methods used in private/home games (including a chapter called Peeks, False Deals, Coolers and More); tournament scams; online poker scams; identifying the crooked game; a detailed player?s checklist of what to watch for should you suspect a problem; and essays on the topics of paranoia, the incidence of cheating, the game?s reputation, poker technology, and the future of poker. There are even instances where you?ll come across casino information that did not appear in CGP.

The book costs $49.99 and is in stock now. This is a limited print run, so be sure to get your hands on one if you spend any time in poker rooms at all, whether you're a player, dealer, or manager.

Bettie

Poker Protection: Cheating and the World of Poker

[Norm Wattenberger]

a book like this. It indeed gives instruction on how to cheat. (I assume as he is a true gaming expert.) And therefore people will use it to cheat others. But, people need to know what to look for. Poker is an old game and there are so many, many ways you can be cheated and never know what hit you.

> Steve Forte, who made a splash a couple of years ago
> with his Casino Game Protection, a book on cheating
> methods and devices for games throughout the casino,
> now has a book out called Poker Protection: Cheating
> and the World of Poker. Essentially, the book took
> CGP 's 37-page chapter on poker cheating and turned it
> into a 320-page monstrosity. It's not quite as big as
> CPG, which weighed in at 8 pounds, but it's still a
> monster of a book, a large-format hardcover weighing
> nearly 3 pounds. For that reason, the book will ship
> via media mail unless you request priority mail for an
> additional $3.

> I've provided a link below to the online catalog page
> for the book, but here is an excerpt of the e-mail
> that Steve sent me last week when he announced the
> book:

> Major additions to PP which were not covered in CGP
> includes a history of cheating in the cardrooms; a
> significant treatment of the scams and methods used in
> private/home games (including a chapter called Peeks,
> False Deals, Coolers and More); tournament scams;
> online poker scams; identifying the crooked game; a
> detailed player?s checklist of what to watch for
> should you suspect a problem; and essays on the topics
> of paranoia, the incidence of cheating, the game?s
> reputation, poker technology, and the future of poker.
> There are even instances where you?ll come across
> casino information that did not appear in CGP. The
> book costs $49.99 and is in stock now. This is a
> limited print run, so be sure to get your hands on one
> if you spend any time in poker rooms at all, whether
> you're a player, dealer, or manager.

> Bettie

[Bettie]

> a book like this. It indeed gives instruction on how
> to cheat. (I assume as he is a true gaming expert.)

Well, Forte does make a living as a consultant to casinos on how to keep their games honest and how to detect cheating dealers and players. He also has an amazing collection of gaming devices, cheating and otherwise. I could spend days looking through everything that he has; the couple of hours I had wasn't nearly enough. He's been researching this stuff for years, just as a personal interest, and turned it into a business for himself.

> And therefore people will use it to cheat others. But,
> people need to know what to look for. Poker is an old
> game and there are so many, many ways you can be
> cheated and never know what hit you.

He does include several chapters on topics such as "Detection Skills," "Identifying the Crooked Game," and "Protecting Yourself." It really is less of a book on how to cheat than what to watch out for, much in the lines of Zender's How to Detect Casino Cheating at Blackjack. In Forte's e-mail, he stated that "PP paints a reasonably positive picture of the modern game, not because this was the goal of the research, but because this is what the research concluded."

Of course, that's the glass-half-full point of view.
Bettie