Monday, March 31, 2008

Poker needs this




I know essentially nothing about console video games. But I use Yahoo as my browser's home page, and their lead story when I logged on just now was about how Microsoft has implemented some sort of upgrade that detects players who have used other software to post higher scores in some games than the players have actually achieved. (See http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/87620.) Those accounts will still be usable, but when their accomplishments are displayed publicly, they will be branded with the "cheater" label shown above. (I don't know why it was blurred for news release.)

Poker SO needs something like that. Of course, it's really better to perma-ban the cheaters from all games everywhere. But as long as we're dealing in fantasy, I'd love it if a player caught cheating at poker--internet poker, casino poker, home poker, whatever--would have a scarlet "C" burned into his forehead and both hands for all to see. Even in my fantasy world, I can't really get an exact equivalent to what Microsoft is doing online, because the player wouldn't be allowed to establish or use an online account at any site anywhere on the planet, so the electronic labeling would not be necessary. But having the poker gods sear it into the most visible parts of the cheater's flesh would be quite satisfying. Every casino in the world would have a rule not to even let such a marked person in. People running home games would be warned about who is in their midst.

Have I made it sufficiently clear yet how violently I detest poker cheaters? (See http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/search/label/cheating.)

1 comment:

Lucypher said...

I concur. Cheaters are despicable and should be banned once discovered.