Live Poker Cheating Scandals: When Players Cheated at the Tables

While the online gambling scandals of the 2000s exposed how digital poker could be manipulated through superuser accounts and rigged software, live poker has its own dark history. From sophisticated real-time signaling systems to old-fashioned collusion rings, cheaters have found ways to exploit the human elements that make live poker unique. These scandals remind us that even when the cards are physical and the players visible, the game isn't always fair.

According to the American Gaming Association, commercial casinos in the United States generated over $60 billion in gaming revenue in 2023, with poker rooms contributing a significant portion. Where there's money, there are those willing to cheat to get it. Here are the stories of when they got caught—and sometimes, when they almost got away with it.

The Mike Postle Scandal: Poker's Most Controversial Cheating Accusation

No live poker cheating case has generated more controversy, analysis, and debate than the accusations against Mike Postle at Stones Gambling Hall in California. What began as whispered suspicions among players exploded into one of poker's biggest scandals, involving lawsuits, careers destroyed, and questions that may never be fully answered.

Mike Postle was a regular player at Stones Gambling Hall, a Northern California cardroom that livestreamed its poker games on a show called "Stones Live." Between 2018 and 2019, Postle appeared on these streams frequently—and won at rates that professional analysts later calculated were statistically near-impossible.

The theory that emerged was devastating: Postle may have had real-time access to the hole cards of every player at the table. The livestream operated on a delay for viewers, but the card information was captured live through RFID technology embedded in the cards. If someone could access that data stream before the delay, they would know exactly what cards each opponent held.

What made the accusations compelling wasn't just the statistics—it was how Postle played. Video analysis revealed numerous hands where his decisions made no sense unless he knew his opponents' cards:

• Calling all-in bets with weak hands that happened to be ahead
• Making hero folds with strong hands when opponents had him beaten
• Frequently looking down at his lap during crucial decisions—where a phone could display card information
• Making bets sized perfectly to extract maximum value or minimize losses

The PokerNews coverage of the scandal documented how professional players analyzed hundreds of Postle's hands and found pattern after pattern suggesting he had information no player should possess. Veronica Brill, a player and commentator at Stones, became one of the first to publicly raise suspicions and push for investigation.

Postle has consistently denied any wrongdoing, claiming his success came from skill and reads on opponents. Stones Gambling Hall conducted an internal investigation and found no evidence of cheating, though critics questioned the thoroughness of that review. The tournament director, Justin Kuraitis, was fired but also denied involvement.

The scandal had lasting effects on poker streaming. Cardrooms implementing RFID systems for broadcasts have since tightened security protocols around card data. The case also highlighted how difficult it can be to prove cheating even when the statistical evidence seems overwhelming—similar to the challenges documented in the MIT blackjack team story, where casinos struggled to prosecute players using skill-based methods.

The Ali Fazeli Chip-Passing Scandal: Tournament Theft in Plain Sight

While the Postle case involved sophisticated technology, the Ali Fazeli scandal was almost comically simple: he allegedly stole chips from other players' stacks during live tournament play. The brazenness of the scheme, captured on camera, shocked a poker community that assumed such basic cheating would be impossible in the modern era.

Ali Fazeli was a regular on the Southern California tournament circuit, a familiar face at events across multiple cardrooms. In 2019, players reviewing tournament footage noticed something disturbing: Fazeli appeared to be taking chips directly from opponents' stacks when they weren't looking.

"You can see it on camera. He reaches over, palms the chips, and adds them to his own stack. It's not ambiguous—it's theft on video." — Tournament player describing the footage

The footage, compiled and shared on poker forums and social media, showed multiple instances of Fazeli allegedly taking chips from inattentive opponents. Unlike hole-card cheating, which requires sophisticated analysis to detect, chip theft was visible to anyone who watched carefully. The videos went viral within the poker community.

According to court records documented by Card Player Magazine, Fazeli was eventually charged with theft-related offenses. He was banned from multiple cardrooms and became one of the most recognized faces in poker—for all the wrong reasons.

The scandal raised uncomfortable questions about tournament security. If a player could repeatedly steal chips in full view of cameras, dealers, and other players, what did that say about oversight at poker tournaments? Cardrooms responded by increasing dealer training and encouraging players to protect their own stacks more vigilantly.

The Borgata Counterfeit Chip Scandal: When Fake Chips Flooded a Tournament

In January 2014, the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City discovered that someone had introduced counterfeit chips into a major poker tournament. The discovery disrupted one of the largest events on the East Coast and led to a criminal investigation that would end with a player's arrest.

The Borgata Winter Poker Open was a prestigious event with a $560 buy-in and thousands of entries. During the tournament, officials noticed something wrong: there were more chips in play than there should have been. A count revealed approximately $800,000 worth of counterfeit chips had been slipped into the event.

The investigation focused on Christian Lusardi, a player from North Carolina. Security footage and evidence collection led to his arrest. When authorities searched his hotel room, they found counterfeit chips—and discovered that Lusardi had attempted to flush additional fake chips down the toilet, clogging the plumbing and creating a trail of evidence.

The counterfeit chips were convincing enough to pass initial inspection but lacked the sophisticated security features of genuine casino chips. The case highlighted the importance of the anti-counterfeiting technology that modern casinos employ, including RFID chips, UV-reactive inks, and unique edge patterns. Borgata subsequently upgraded its chip security for future events.

Collusion Rings: The Invisible Cheating That's Hardest to Catch

Unlike dramatic cheating methods that make headlines, collusion is poker's quiet epidemic. When two or more players secretly work together at a table—sharing information about their hands, coordinating betting to trap opponents, or "soft playing" each other—they gain an unfair edge that's extremely difficult to detect.

Collusion in live poker takes several forms:

• Signal passing: Partners use subtle gestures, chip arrangements, or verbal cues to communicate hand strength
• Whipsawing: Colluders at opposite ends of the betting deliberately raise and re-raise to trap players between them
• Chip dumping: One player intentionally loses chips to a partner, useful for transferring funds or building a tournament stack
• Soft playing: Partners avoid betting against each other, checking down hands they would normally bet for value

The Nevada Gaming Control Board considers collusion a serious form of cheating, but prosecution is rare because proving coordinated play is extremely difficult. Colluders rarely admit their scheme, and the evidence is often circumstantial—patterns in betting or an unusual number of pots split between the same players.

Professional poker players are often the first to notice collusion, recognizing patterns that casual observers miss. The poker community has exposed several collusion rings through careful observation and hand analysis, often posting their findings on forums like Two Plus Two before cardrooms take action.

Marked Cards and Physical Manipulation

Before technology made sophisticated cheating possible, cheaters relied on physical methods that are as old as card games themselves. While modern casinos have security measures that make these techniques risky, they still occasionally appear—especially in home games and less-regulated environments.

Common physical cheating methods include:

• Marked cards: Subtle marks, bends, or scratches that allow a cheater to identify cards from the back
• Card mucking: Secretly exchanging cards between hands or with hidden cards
• Cold decking: Switching in a pre-arranged deck of cards
• False shuffling: Dealers or players keeping certain cards in position while appearing to shuffle

The history of casino cheating devices includes numerous gadgets designed to facilitate these methods: holdout machines hidden in sleeves, daub to mark cards invisibly, and even contact lenses that reveal special inks. While these tools are most associated with older scams, they occasionally resurface.

In 2017, a high-stakes private poker game in Los Angeles was disrupted when players discovered someone had introduced marked cards. The game involved wealthy businessmen and entertainment industry figures, with stakes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars per session. When the marked deck was detected, the game ended abruptly, and several longtime players were banned from future sessions—though no criminal charges were filed due to the private nature of the game.

How Cardrooms Detect and Prevent Cheating

Modern cardrooms and casinos employ multiple layers of security to detect cheating, though as the scandals above demonstrate, no system is perfect.

Surveillance: Cameras cover every angle of the poker room, recording all action. The footage serves both as a deterrent and evidence. As described in our coverage of how casinos track you, modern surveillance systems can identify known cheaters through facial recognition and track suspicious betting patterns in real time.

Dealer training: Dealers are trained to watch for signs of collusion, chip manipulation, and other cheating. They're instructed to call over supervisors if anything seems unusual. Good dealers notice when players spend too much time looking at their laps (potential phone use) or make unusual eye contact with other players.

Player protection: Many rooms encourage players to protect their own stacks and cards. Some have implemented chip protectors or card guards as standard equipment. After the Fazeli scandal, players became more vigilant about keeping their chips visible and secure.

Data analysis: Larger poker rooms now use software to analyze betting patterns and results over time. Players who consistently show down hands that beat the same opponents, or who win at statistically improbable rates, may trigger investigation.

Community reporting: The poker community itself serves as a watchdog. Players share suspicions on forums and social media, and viral exposure—as happened with both Postle and Fazeli—can force cardrooms to investigate when they might otherwise look the other way.

Famous Cases That Changed Poker Security

Each major cheating scandal has led to improved security measures. The poker industry, like the broader casino industry, learns from its failures:

• After the Postle scandal: Cardrooms with livestreams implemented stricter protocols around RFID data access, including longer delays, encrypted transmission, and limiting who can access card information
• After the Borgata counterfeit scandal: Tournament chips now feature more sophisticated security elements, and chip counts are conducted more frequently during events
• After high-profile collusion cases: Rooms began using software to flag players who appear together frequently or show unusual win patterns against each other

The Phil Ivey edge sorting case, while technically about advantage play rather than cheating, also influenced how casinos view sophisticated strategies that exploit technical flaws in games. The line between clever play and cheating remains hotly debated.

What Players Can Do to Protect Themselves

While cardrooms bear primary responsibility for game integrity, players can take steps to protect themselves from cheaters:

• Protect your stack: Keep your chips organized and visible. Count them regularly. Don't let other players reach across the table toward your chips
• Watch for patterns: If certain players always seem to win against the same opponents, or if someone makes decisions that don't make sense without additional information, pay attention
• Report suspicions: Don't stay silent if you think something is wrong. Talk to the floor manager, and if the cardroom doesn't act, share your concerns with the poker community
• Choose reputable rooms: Established cardrooms with strong reputations have more to lose from cheating scandals and typically maintain better security
• Be skeptical of private games: Home games and private clubs have less oversight. Know who you're playing with

The Ongoing Battle for Game Integrity

The history of live poker cheating demonstrates an eternal truth: where there's money at stake, some people will try to cheat. From the elegant schemes of advantage players to the crude theft of chip passing, from high-tech RFID exploitation to old-fashioned marked cards, cheaters continually seek new angles.

But the history also shows that cheaters usually get caught. The poker community is analytically minded and naturally suspicious—skills honed at the table that translate to catching fraud. Cameras record everything. Statistics don't lie. And the viral nature of modern media means that exposed cheaters face worldwide shame within hours.

The Mike Postle case remains unresolved in many minds, with believers in his guilt and innocence both citing evidence for their positions. The legal system provided no definitive answer. But the case changed how poker streaming works, how players protect themselves, and how seriously the industry takes cheating allegations.

For players sitting down at a live poker table, the odds remain overwhelmingly in favor of a fair game. The scandals documented here are remarkable precisely because they're rare. But they serve as reminders that vigilance is part of the game—watching your stack, watching other players, and trusting the community to expose those who break the rules.

After all, in poker as in life, cheaters may win some pots. But eventually, the truth has a way of coming out.

Related Stories: Online Gambling Scandals | Phil Ivey Edge Sorting Scandal | Famous Casino Cheating Devices | Casino Chip Counterfeiting | How Casinos Track You