So very often I sit at poker tables and here the words “oh I never play online it’s rigged”.

Having had consulted in the industry to online sites and understanding how the software works, I usually chuckle a little, give a brief speech on why it’s not happening and move on. However, I just read a story that has scary implications and in fact might allow someone to cheat. Mind you I said someone not an online site itself.

Most of the online poker users know about poker tracking software, the ones that data mine the games you’re in and feed you real time stats about you opponents. These are great tools and can often be the decision maker for you as to how you should proceed in a hand. For example, you raise with A-Q and get re-raised by a guy who sees 53% of the flops and shows to be very loose aggressive. I’m calling this guys re-raise. If however in the same scenario, I get re-raised by a guy who enters 8% of all hands dealt, I’m going to muck that hand because I’m most likely behind. As I said it’s a great tool when used correctly.

The story I read was that a player who was a winning player was offered this type of program from another player he plays against on the site. I surmise the chat went something like:

- “Hey you use tracking software?”
- “No”
- “Well I do and I wouldn’t play without it”
- “How does it work?”
- “It gives you real time stats and is updated every hand”
- “Wow, sounds interesting”
- “Give me your email and I’ll send the program to you”
- “OK”

So the player was emailed the program and it did what it was supposed to do, it gave him real time stats and tracked his own play as well, but something strange happened. All of a sudden this winning player was losing. Getting called on all his bluffs and not getting calls when he had the nuts. So what happened here?

Before I answer be aware that this is a story I read and I have no proof, but the story said that the player was given a version of the tracker that had a Trojan attached to it and when the player downloaded and used the tracker it also opened a port where by the other player could see his desktop (much like PC anywhere). So now when this guy was in a hand with this player he knew exactly where he was at.

Can this happen? Well I know this both tracker software and PC anywhere software exist and work well. As far as PC Anywhere is concerned, In my experience, it would be easy to see that someone else might be viewing your computer because your screen slows down, your mouse moves differently etc. Maybe it’s been greatly improved since I used it last.

The thought though that this can be out there for cheating in online poker is now a scary thought to me, one which I discounted before. My advice of course is to never take a WAREZ version of this tracking software or download it from someone else and use their key to get it free. Buying it directly from the producer of the software and downloading it from the producer’s site would be your safest bet.

You wouldn’t want to play poker with this Trojan as protection!!