Online Poker: Does Everyone Cheat? Part III
Conclusions
As I discussed in Parts I and II there can be a large array of exploits when it comes to online poker. What may be considered immoral to some, may not be to others. Is it a question of morals? If something isn’t specifically banned by a site, is it still wrong?
For me the answer is… maybe.
I certainly consider everything mentioned in Part I to be cheating. In Part II I’d only consider the “Dark Grey” areas to be cheating.
My theory on the whole issue relates to a generational gap between the players. As a parent myself I know first hand that the way a child is taught to act and behave in our present time is different than I was brought up. Socially children are taught that everyone’s a winner. Every child gets a blue ribbon now, deserving or not. The reality of course is that not everyone is a winner. In fact there are very few real winners and society is not dong the children any benefit by shielding them from that fact.
With the online poker community being comprised of mostly very young adults it also lends to a technological gap. Home video games were around when I was young, but not until I was about to enter High School. Now every kid has a video game console, or a PC, or both. My kids friends are always wanting to use cheat codes to beat the games. It’s an accepted practice and the real struggle to improve and beat the game on your own is a foreign concept to them. This could, and I believe does, spill over into online poker. After all, to them their just using the cheat code equivalents.
The purists that believe online poker should be the mirror image of live poker will never be satisfied. Their just not the same games.
Those that believe in taking every exploit available will more than likely always be able to. These things just can’t be policed effectively or even detected for the most part.
In the end, its a matter of if your willing to accept the flaws so you can have the convenience.
I have several casinos in town where I can go play live, but I don’t. Staying home with the family is too important. For that I’m willing to run the possibility of being “cheated”.
It’s also a matter of numbers. Let’s face it. For every smart person in the world there are 20 stupid ones. No amount of help will make these people winners so in the end it will probably all even out anyway.
