Losers and Cheaters In Poker

Poker is a skill game, and clearly, a person who less skilled than his opponents loses the game. But poker is sometimes a game of guts and psychology. Thus, a player becomes a stuck (someone who is losing in a game) when he makes bad moves.

When a player is simply inferior or inexperienced, he is called a drib or a duffer. There isn’t much this player can do except gain more experience and improve his mind. But, this player should at least have some measure of common sense to lay down his hand (fold) before goes down the chute and takes heavy losses. He should not play until he is dry (broke or out of money). Unfortunately, most duffers feed the pot or suck. To feed the pot is to bet or raise foolishly and to suck is to call a bet when he should have chosen to fold.

Sometimes, a player loses because he is a Jonah for the day. A Jonah is an unlucky player. He may have been dealt with a Mickey Mouse (a worthless hand), or been given a jinx (curse of bad luck) or have had a bad beat. A bad beat happens when the player believes that he will surely win the round but was beaten by an opponent who simply had a lucky draw. This loser, like the duffer, should fold before he reaches his case chips – his last chips. Or he may cool his heels in a rest farm. A rest farm is any place where a player seeks refuge after losing heavily and being driven away from the game. Players who bet until they are dry are sometimes regarded dubiously because they may become welchers, players who fail to pay their debts.

Cheaters are losers, too. A cheater is called by many names, “cardsharp”, “sharper”, “sharker”, “Greek” and “philosopher”. A cheater who takes a look at the hand of his opponents is called a “peeker” or a “peeper”. A peeper also peeks at cards that are yet to be dealt. Some cheaters are “four-flushers”. They try to win the pot by intentionally miscalling their hand. A Robin Hood cheater is one who cheats for the benefit of someone else. Sounds noble, but it is still cheating

Cheating is sometimes done by two or more players. When these players are in a conspiracy to cheat in a poker game, they are having a collusion. The partners or collusion cheaters often conduct the “crooked-honest system”. In this system, when one of them gets a strong or high hand, he signals his partner to raise. He raises up to the point that the rest of the poker players are squeezed out. The partner with the strong hand wins and the other one who raised the bet loses. But both of them will share the pot. Secretly, of course. This system is sometimes called Cross Life or Crossfire.