I Cheated At Poker By Hacking A Casino Card Shuffling Machine - Hacklab - WIRED
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Date: 2025-10-11
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Comments and reviews: 19
warhead42gaming
Poker player here. Seeing some of the winning hands that you showed down would definitely have raised some SERIOUS alarm bells. The first one, not so much, but multiple times with absolute garbage that somehow ends up winning That's not good play and luck only goes so far. The only other possibility (cheating, however improbable, seems more and more likely.
When the shuffler is integrated into a system with the IDs of players seated at the table, it would be much more feasible and much less detectable to give cheaters reasonable hands that can be played in a reasonable way which end up winning. This can be made even easier for the cheater by having a set of conditions pre-determined to know when to get aggressive and when to fold out.
Example: If the player receives the Queen of diamonds with any other card 10 or higher, or a pair of 4s with the 4 of spades, or 98 of hearts, the cheater knows that they will have the winning hand. No need for a phone or an accomplice at the table. This, coupled with a runout that makes their aggressive actions look more or less correct, will belay most suspicions of cheating.
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Poker player here. Seeing some of the winning hands that you showed down would definitely have raised some SERIOUS alarm bells. The first one, not so much, but multiple times with absolute garbage that somehow ends up winning That's not good play and luck only goes so far. The only other possibility (cheating, however improbable, seems more and more likely.
When the shuffler is integrated into a system with the IDs of players seated at the table, it would be much more feasible and much less detectable to give cheaters reasonable hands that can be played in a reasonable way which end up winning. This can be made even easier for the cheater by having a set of conditions pre-determined to know when to get aggressive and when to fold out.
Example: If the player receives the Queen of diamonds with any other card 10 or higher, or a pair of 4s with the 4 of spades, or 98 of hearts, the cheater knows that they will have the winning hand. No need for a phone or an accomplice at the table. This, coupled with a runout that makes their aggressive actions look more or less correct, will belay most suspicions of cheating.
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jfbeam
The minute he said there's a camera in the thing. Game. Over. That's the dumbest thing a shuffle company could ever do. When the machine can tell what each card is, and grab a single card, it's only a matter of seconds before someone rigs the damned thing. While Sal _says_ he hasn't heard of it, I'm 100% positive it's being done. Remember, there was the guy working for the NV Gaming Commission who rigged the very machines he was supposed to be ensuring were _NOT_ rigged. You'd never know if a _dealer_ was rigging their table. In this case, the cheating and signalling is subtle but still very noticeable - every time the deck is shuffled, he folds the first hand and then goes to his phone. (good security would spot the 1-2-3 chip signal as well. it's a very recognizable pattern, esp. when one guy is cleaning out the table)
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The minute he said there's a camera in the thing. Game. Over. That's the dumbest thing a shuffle company could ever do. When the machine can tell what each card is, and grab a single card, it's only a matter of seconds before someone rigs the damned thing. While Sal _says_ he hasn't heard of it, I'm 100% positive it's being done. Remember, there was the guy working for the NV Gaming Commission who rigged the very machines he was supposed to be ensuring were _NOT_ rigged. You'd never know if a _dealer_ was rigging their table. In this case, the cheating and signalling is subtle but still very noticeable - every time the deck is shuffled, he folds the first hand and then goes to his phone. (good security would spot the 1-2-3 chip signal as well. it's a very recognizable pattern, esp. when one guy is cleaning out the table)
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xliquidflames
Yeah, it's not that simple. Just like that suspicious televised hand, the way he was playing while cheating would have raised a ton of eyebrows with pro players. Doubling the pot on every card with nothing but a straight draw probably would have been the final straw. Nobody does that, especially when they're getting called every time. Maybe you bluff on the flop with 100k but when the player behind you calls that and then bets into you in the turn I'm not even a pro and the betting pattern and play style was highly suspicious. It looked like someone who knew nothing about poker but was getting help somehow. Maybe I only say that because I went into it knowing he was cheating but I think if you could run this same experiment with some real players, they'll sniff it out quickly.
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Yeah, it's not that simple. Just like that suspicious televised hand, the way he was playing while cheating would have raised a ton of eyebrows with pro players. Doubling the pot on every card with nothing but a straight draw probably would have been the final straw. Nobody does that, especially when they're getting called every time. Maybe you bluff on the flop with 100k but when the player behind you calls that and then bets into you in the turn I'm not even a pro and the betting pattern and play style was highly suspicious. It looked like someone who knew nothing about poker but was getting help somehow. Maybe I only say that because I went into it knowing he was cheating but I think if you could run this same experiment with some real players, they'll sniff it out quickly.
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MrBeatboxmasta
Pro players after a while will call just to see what you have. If you keep winning with marginal hands, they will play very aggressively vs you. If you keep calling and winning with the marginal hands and someone never lose at showdown, they will know something is up.
Therefore, to balance it, the signaler should signal based on the likelihood of the opponents folding the best hand and calling with worse. not based on who has the best hand. That way, when the pros do what I mentioned above, you will sometimes lose at showdown. The pros will simply think you're a maniac as opposed to being a cheater. Nobody always wins, so you need to lose once in a while. Just make sure your loses are smaller than your wins.
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Pro players after a while will call just to see what you have. If you keep winning with marginal hands, they will play very aggressively vs you. If you keep calling and winning with the marginal hands and someone never lose at showdown, they will know something is up.
Therefore, to balance it, the signaler should signal based on the likelihood of the opponents folding the best hand and calling with worse. not based on who has the best hand. That way, when the pros do what I mentioned above, you will sometimes lose at showdown. The pros will simply think you're a maniac as opposed to being a cheater. Nobody always wins, so you need to lose once in a while. Just make sure your loses are smaller than your wins.
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SvenCallsNL
I see a bunch of anti-poker people in the comments, please watch the full video.
Online poker is very safe, the card distribution isn’t getting hacked online.
There are other concerns but not this, poker is extremely easy to beat the game long term because the standards are lower than ANY other game.
1/20000 chess players make money
1/10000 footballers make a living
1/20 poker players are profitable
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I see a bunch of anti-poker people in the comments, please watch the full video.
Online poker is very safe, the card distribution isn’t getting hacked online.
There are other concerns but not this, poker is extremely easy to beat the game long term because the standards are lower than ANY other game.
1/20000 chess players make money
1/10000 footballers make a living
1/20 poker players are profitable
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wired
Would it not be much more effective to just be able to setup a random winning hand when a button is pressed and do it every now and then for crazy returns like you could have the button built into a watch or something it would be so subtle nearly impossible to notice if your keeping the amount of times you do it to a minimum
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Would it not be much more effective to just be able to setup a random winning hand when a button is pressed and do it every now and then for crazy returns like you could have the button built into a watch or something it would be so subtle nearly impossible to notice if your keeping the amount of times you do it to a minimum
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oyuyuy
What an unexpected episode, very interesting.
And yeah, on the topic of 'if Robbie was cheating' - it's like a game where 'you and the opponent get a random number between 1 and 100' and you draw a 3 and still bet $100k that you have drawn the highest number. She's a pretty obvious cheater.
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What an unexpected episode, very interesting.
And yeah, on the topic of 'if Robbie was cheating' - it's like a game where 'you and the opponent get a random number between 1 and 100' and you draw a 3 and still bet $100k that you have drawn the highest number. She's a pretty obvious cheater.
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wired
My opinion as a poker player and blackjack dealer watching unsuspecting players being cheated makes my stomach turn. I can’t imagine how much this kind of thing happens in unregulated poker games and no one knows about it. It’s such a scummy thing to do I hate cheating!
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My opinion as a poker player and blackjack dealer watching unsuspecting players being cheated makes my stomach turn. I can’t imagine how much this kind of thing happens in unregulated poker games and no one knows about it. It’s such a scummy thing to do I hate cheating!
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Mequals13
Cool video and nice theory and all, but if he sat down at the table with pros and you didn’t carry yourself like a card player the way you handle your chips, your cards, the terminology you use and you started making advance plays, I would get suspect real quick
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Cool video and nice theory and all, but if he sat down at the table with pros and you didn’t carry yourself like a card player the way you handle your chips, your cards, the terminology you use and you started making advance plays, I would get suspect real quick
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chadroggs
Very interesting. I'd like to see you play against at least 4 other REAL poker players. Any decent player could carve Fernando's 10 high anytime. Without cheating. It'd be nice to really put it to test against good players.
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Very interesting. I'd like to see you play against at least 4 other REAL poker players. Any decent player could carve Fernando's 10 high anytime. Without cheating. It'd be nice to really put it to test against good players.
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jeremyrogers6179
This is how Michael Mizrachi won both the PPC and the Main Event in the WSOP the same year, which statistically is impossible. The powers to be wanted him to win. The card shuffler was rigged in his favor.
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This is how Michael Mizrachi won both the PPC and the Main Event in the WSOP the same year, which statistically is impossible. The powers to be wanted him to win. The card shuffler was rigged in his favor.
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howgoodisit
Playing online these days i feel is completely rigged, been playing for 20 years, good player and cant seem to final table a tournament. getting the weirdest calls deep in tournaments to get 2 outer bad beats.
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Playing online these days i feel is completely rigged, been playing for 20 years, good player and cant seem to final table a tournament. getting the weirdest calls deep in tournaments to get 2 outer bad beats.
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martindim7182
I read some of the comments and no one mentioned that the dealer cuts the deck once they take it out of the machine. So, even if you manage to put the deck in the order you like, the cut messes everything up
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I read some of the comments and no one mentioned that the dealer cuts the deck once they take it out of the machine. So, even if you manage to put the deck in the order you like, the cut messes everything up
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kylec. 5476
It was decent till the end, but the whole scene where they actually play was laughable and easily faked/orchestrated to tell whatever story the production wanted. But overall, I guess I enjoyed it.
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It was decent till the end, but the whole scene where they actually play was laughable and easily faked/orchestrated to tell whatever story the production wanted. But overall, I guess I enjoyed it.
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mark. mazzarella
So why does the shuffler have that camera in the first place Arranging the deck in order is a nice trick, but I feel like it isn’t useful enough to justify the potential vulnerability.
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So why does the shuffler have that camera in the first place Arranging the deck in order is a nice trick, but I feel like it isn’t useful enough to justify the potential vulnerability.
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rugbychampion1
This doesn’t really mean anything. A solved deck for 4 handed poker Nice except poker is almost never played 4 handed and then using the camera will be nullified by the cut again.
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This doesn’t really mean anything. A solved deck for 4 handed poker Nice except poker is almost never played 4 handed and then using the camera will be nullified by the cut again.
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JesseBeahm
I think alot of people here are missing the point that the machines are hackable, and if they can figure this out as fast as they have, what's possible. thats whats scary.
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I think alot of people here are missing the point that the machines are hackable, and if they can figure this out as fast as they have, what's possible. thats whats scary.
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NomadPoker1
Inaccurate and ill informed for a slew of reasons that have already been pointed out. You should take this video down as it damages your credibility as a journalist.
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Inaccurate and ill informed for a slew of reasons that have already been pointed out. You should take this video down as it damages your credibility as a journalist.
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Asgardinho
why would a shuffler be aware of the values of each card and even have the option to arrange the deck that doesn't make sense, the only propose for that is cheating.
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why would a shuffler be aware of the values of each card and even have the option to arrange the deck that doesn't make sense, the only propose for that is cheating.
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