Summary:
Can you really cheat in a game of online poker. Yes! People do it everyday. From Collusion to poker bots, it happens.
A sad and little know part of online poker is cheating.
Collusion: Think of 2 people chatting via aim or on the phone telling each other what cards they have. Then betting or raising to map larger pots. The player with a good hand now has a chance to win a much larger pot and the player with the bad hand just folds. Sure that could lose to a better hand, but if done right they could walk away with alot of your money.
Poker Bots: Here are some of the bot programs I have found. I do not recomend that you use a bot, infact I implore you not to, but you should know that they are being used and what they can do.
WinHoldem, Holdem Memory, PokerBot plus, and PokerBot Pro.
Here is some info on WinHoldEm, one of the most popular bots.
WinHoldEm
The WinHoldEm site does warn potential users that a stealth mode should be and must be used at many of the most popular Online Poker rooms. They also gove detailed instructions on how to do this.
You should also know, that just because someone is using a bot, even the same bot program you've played against before, it does not mean that this bot will play the same. The WinHoldEm bot forum has a section devodted to tweaking the formula used by the bot.
Imagine one bot playing at four tables. A bot that knows all the odds, and never makes a mistake. Sure, a live player could trick the bot, but he'd have to know it was a bot he was playing. The poker rooms do not want these bots used and do all they can to keep them off their tables, but bot users just keep changing the way the bots work.
Another type of cheating is the tracker. Poker trackers track your play as well as the play of everyone at the table. Is this cheating? Well....Not if you go by the poker rooms. many of the poker rooms allow this type of program. So maybe its not cheating, but it does give a huge advantage to the players using the prgrom.
These program show the user how often each player sees the flop. How agrressive they are. How often the go to a showdown and how often they win. In the end the player using a tracker still has to decide to bet, bet, raise, call, or fold, but the program gives them a lot of information to base their decission on.
Cheat is a part of online poker that I wish did not exist, but I wated everyone to know what they are up against when they do decide to play.