Cheating and collusion by opponents

Poker is a game vulnerable for cheating, as the money involved entice people to get that extra edge. While playing online, you do not have to worry about someone making a false shuffle or peaking at your cards. Instead you have to worry about people colluding by sitting next to each other or using chat programs etc. Another danger exposed to online poker is also the bots.

Players who have teamed up can gain a small edge by feeding each with information and manipulate hands by betting patterns. Collusion is luckily quite easily recognized by the poker room with either manual or automatic supervision. And, again, this is another time when checking hand history can be very useful for you as a player. Do not hesitate to notify support when you suspect something fishy or believe that players act irregularly.

Players who use two computers and two different identities while playing at one table are another form of cheater, and are also easy for the poker room to detect technically by tracking IP address.

"All-in protection" has limited abuse as the players often report these immediately if any pattern is noticed. The poker rooms also take action quickly. Unfortunately, however, it is impossible to completely protect users from this method of cheating, so long as the function remains available to players. This is by far the most common form of cheating you will face. Many rooms now offer tables without all-in protection which is always a good choice unless the connection is really bad.

The risk that someone is able to hack into your computer while you are playing is extremely unlikely. However, if you are concerned that this is a plausible reality, you should install a firewall. Most ISPs provide firewalls as part of their standard offering.