Cheating in Poker - Angle Shooting

Angle Shooting

Angle shooting is engaging in actions that may technically be within the scope of the rules of the game, but that are considered unethical or unfair to exploit or take advantage of another player. For example, an angle shooter might motion as if he were folding his hand to induce other players to fold theirs out of turn.

One form of angle shooting which is exclusive to online poker is to abuse the disconnect protection (DP) rules most sites have in place. DP is a rule exclusive to online poker whereby if a player is disconnected from the site in the middle of the hand his hand is played out as if he were all-in without the player actually having to put any more money in the pot. The online poker rooms that offer DP usually have specific tables set aside for this so that all players at the table are aware that the special DP rules will apply.

How this is used by angle shooters is if a player is in a hand that he is unsure if he has the best cards and doesn't want to invest any more money to find out. He can unplug his internet connection and then wait for the hand to play itself out. On a DP table the remaining cards in the hand would be dealt and the pot would be awarded to the player with the best cards. If there were multiple opponents in the hand then he would be eligible for a side pot.

A similar form of angle shooting which is mostly confined to the online game (although not theoretically impossible in live poker) is repeated short buying or short stacking. While to rathole in the traditional sense is impossible in an online game, behavior considered to be similar to ratholing is quite easy. Short buying at a table, winning and then cashing out only to short buy right back in again would generally be an impractical strategy in live games with long waiting lists, but the situation is different in online games where players sometimes have immediate access to a table. Although such behavior is not technically against the rules, it allegedly flouts the principles behind table stakes poker to the extent that some players consider it an ethically dubious variation on ratholing. Most sites try to reduce this strategy's effectiveness by imposing a waiting period during which a player wishing to rebuy at the same table must do so for no less than what he removed from the table (unless this exceeds the maximum buy-in - then the player would be required to make the maximum buy-in). However, players can mitigate the effects of these restrictions to a considerable extent by joining many tables at the same time (which in itself is both acceptable and somewhat commonplace) or by establishing accounts on different sites and rotating play between them (note that while there is nothing unacceptable about someone playing in as many online poker rooms as he pleases, establishing multiple accounts on the same site violates virtually all online poker rooms' terms and conditions and is thus by definition cheating).