POCKET ACES
 Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She has also written and edited numerous books on gambling.
Saturday, July 1, 2000
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Pocket Aces
Do You Know Who Your Opponents REALLY Are? Part I
By Maryann Guberman
Suppose you sat in a poker game with seven other players, all of whom were equally as skillful as you. Each of you shares the same tells, the same bluff and semi-bluff strategy, the same strength of position approach, the identical talent for spotting tells, and you all start with the same bankroll.
It doesnıt take a strategy expert or a noted theorist to realize that with this kind of setup the money is going to move around a bit but revenue (profit) is going to flow to the house. And it doesnıt take a member of MENSA to recognize that this would be one very boring situation destined to empty your pockets.
Fortunately, this kind of game is hypothetical, so letıs see if we can tilt the table.
Letıs say Player No. 2 is a shill. If youıve been on this earth for four decades or more, you might associate the word "shill" with carnivals where an employee would play the midway games, grabbing prizes left and right to demonstrate that the game was winnable. Their goal was to get the unsuspecting "rubes" to plunk down a dime or a quarter to win their share of stuffed animals and gold fish. Sometimes the games were legitimate but extremely difficult to beat; sometimes they were unbeatable.
In casino parlance, a shill is a player who is funded in the game by house money. His goal is to help start games and to fill in empty seats until other "real" players show up. Unlike shills from the carnival, however, these players do not have a hidden agenda. They do not actually play poker. They put up their blinds or antes and bring in the bet when they are low, but beyond that, they donıt get involved in the action. Theyıll even check an open pair. As soon as someone else wagers, they drop out, no matter what kind of hand they have. Their income comes from a salary.
With a shill in the game, the field is still fairly level, so letıs eliminate him and throw in a prop player. Here we have an individual who is paid a salary to play but instead of playing with house money, he is playing with that salary. Heıs going to be an active participant to the river whenever his hand warrants it. If heıs any good at his job, heıs looking for any edge he can get, not only because this is how he makes his living but also because at any given time, he might be yanked out of a good game and moved to another table thatıs in need of action. If heıs comfortable in a $4-$8 game, he might not change the flow of money but if heıs put in a higher limit where his bankroll doesnıt fit or his skills arenıt up to snuff, itıs to your advantage. And, if heıs a higher-limit player who gets antsy or bored in the lower limits, again, he could slip up and give you a slight edge.
In the bigger poker rooms where you often have to wait for an empty seat, you probably wonıt encounter shills and prop players. However, smaller rooms do employ these players. Generally, you have nothing to fear from shills and props. If their potential presence concerns you, just ask the floorman about the makeup of the game up front. They will tell you. Itıs the rule.
Now, letıs look at an entirely different situationone that will take some thinking on your part.
Letıs say Player No. 2 is a young upstart with talent but no real bankroll of his own. Because he can play poker with the best of them, he is being financed in this game by Player No. 6. Does this tip the table at all? I donıt know. Do you? The problem with this scenarioand itıs realis that other playersyou included--donıt know who in the game might be working for someone else in the game.
You could poll the table and ask if anyone in the game is being backed by anyone else, but whoıs to say theyıll admit it? Thereıs no rule on this one.
Ideally, Player No. 2 would go after every pot with gusto, even if Player No. 6 is in the battle with him. But two big questions arise. Is Player No. 2 playing for a salary (as a shill might) or for a percentage of his win or both? What happens when Player No. 2 and Player No. 6 are in the pot and youıre the only other participant? After raises and reraises, the pot can grow substantially. And if one of the two drops out, thereıs no ceiling on the number of raises, so conceivably you can get into a huge pot-building war. Does the word "collusion" ring a bell?
You might expect that backed players show up only in the higher limits but that assumption is incorrect. Borrowing, lending and backing exist at all levels they are more prevalent in the rarefied air of big money.
Iım guessing that most (if not all) backed players in live action are in it for a piece of the action rather than a salary, so there might not be any reason for concern. But I know Iım not going to feel very comfortable about being trapped between a backer and a backee, not matter how honorable and honest they are. I donıt believe in putting myself in harmıs way and the temptation level here can definitely lead to harm. I donıt know if it has, does, or will; I do know it makes me uncomfortable.
How about you?
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