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Take quizEver since the earliest days of the game, poker players have found different ways to get around the rules and even flat-out cheat their opponents. Chip dumping is one of the many ways in which players look to achieve an advantage in the game of poker, whether it be in tournaments or cash games.
There are different motives to chip dump in poker and different methods to do it, and in this article, we will address them all.
If you were ever concerned about players chip dumping in your games, keep reading to find out how you can recognize it, how you can avoid it, and what you should do if you happen to notice it.
Chip dumping in poker is something you will commonly see in tournaments, as there is more incentive for one player to dump their chips to another. However, there are some cases in which it can be profitable for players to chip dump at cash game tables as well, although it might be less obvious.
One common example of chip dumping in cash games is players who make money through fraudulent activities dumping their chips to their co-conspirators in order to legalize the money.
Once the money has been won and lost at the poker tables and paid out at the cashier, it can be incredibly difficult to trace the original source of the funds in question.
In online games, players can also use chip dumping as a way to transfer funds from one account to another in online poker rooms.
Furthermore, some players may try to make use of poker site promotions or bonuses and dump the money they got through a promotion to their friends to get their hands on real cash.
In all of these scenarios, players who are dumping chips are breaking the rules of the game and may face penalties if they are discovered. Yet, chip dumping in cash games is usually looked at more leniently, as all the money in play is actual cash and not of big concern to other players in the game in most cases.
Chip dumping in tournaments is a much more serious offense, as it can very seriously hurt the equity of all other players at the table and in the tournament field. Players who use this strategy are straight-up cheating everyone else in the event by having one player dump their chips into another’s stack with no risk involved.
By one player accumulating chips from one or multiple co-conspirators, they will gain a significant edge over other players, as having a massive chip stack can be of great value in a tournament.
Even when done less maliciously, players may decide to dump some chips from their huge stack to their friend or a player they like in a tournament, all of which hurts everyone else involved.
Chip dumping in tournaments can be done in several ways, some of which are easier to detect than others, while others are quite subtle and hard to see.
Players may decide to make a terrible river call with a very weak hand, allowing their opponent to win a big pot of them despite having basically nothing.
On the other hand, smart chip dumpers will transfer their chips without a showdown. They will build a big pot, only for one player to fold to the final bet, leaving the other with all the chips.
In situations like this last one, it can be very difficult to detect chip dumpers, although players getting involved only with each other in big pots may be a big red flag.
Since chip dumping in tournament poker is definitely considered cheating, you should always do what you can to report such players for the sake of yourself and all other players in the field.
Chip dumping is sometimes performed openly and without much deception, with some players in small buyin tournaments even openly talking about it. In such cases, the dealer should inform the tournament staff about the incident, but if they don’t, you should definitely feel free to do so yourself.
Yet, there are other cases when detecting chip dumpers can be a lot harder, as they apply subtle methods of chip dumping that could also be explained as regular play.
Online poker sites have security teams dedicated to detecting players who are dumping chips or cheating in other ways, but it can take a long time for them to detect someone.
One way they do it is by finding players who end up entangled in big pots across games very often, with a recurring theme of one player having absolutely no hand.
In live poker rooms, however, it will be up to you and other players to alert the staff of any suspicious play when you notice it.
This leads us to the question of what can actually be done about players who chip dumps in poker and what punishments are in place.
For starters, you should understand that reporting someone for chip dumping alone is not enough. You will have to have a very good case to prove it, and one single big hand where someone folded the river will not be enough.
If players are repeatedly reported for chip dumping, the tournament staff may finally decide to punish them in some way.
This can include anything from getting a penalty lasting between one and three orbits to getting banned from the tournament or the tournament venue altogether.
The punishment itself will depend on how severe the case was, whether this is a repeat offense, and just how harsh or easygoing the tournament director is.
At the end of the day, there isn’t much you as a player can do about chip dumpers other than report them and hope for the best.
One way you can get the best of chip dumpers is by getting in between them. If you spot someone dumping chips, you could take advantage of this and make very light calls against the player doing the dumping or push them out of the pot by going all-in behind them.
Chip dumping, in the narrowest sense, is only one of the ways people can cheat in poker games to get an edge over their opponents. The term “collusion” is used to describe all behaviors players can engage in that help them gain an advantage over others by working together.
By default, poker is an individual game, and when you play the game, you are expected to always make plays that are in your best interest.
Players who are colluding can help each other by making raises until other players are eliminated from the pot and then checking the action down to showdown, and possibly even chip dumping on later streets after other players have folded.
If you play live poker tournaments, you will sometimes notice players never betting into each other when they are left in heads-up pots, which is another method of cheating called soft playing.
Players may choose to soft play against their friends or players they respect for any reason, but soft play is not only discouraged but also flat-out forbidden.
If you notice players dumping chips, soft playing their opponents, or colluding with others, make sure to report it to tournament staff, as adequate punishments are in place for players who repeatedly engage in such behaviors.
Chip dumping and collusion are some of the most annoying aspects of live poker play, as they can be difficult to prove even when completely obvious.
As a general rule of thumb, you should make sure to always avoid any offers of chip dumping or collusion, for both moral reasons and the fact you could get banned from events for doing it.
Furthermore, you should be sure to always report any players you notice dumping chips or soft-playing others, as such behavior has no place at the poker tables.
Always do your best to make poker games fair and enjoyable for everyone to play in, and you will gain far more from making the game better for everyone involved than you ever could by stealing a few extra chips through chip dumping or collusion.
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