Imagine never having to bluff and always coming out on top in every poker game. A Chinese manufacturer created a sleek new product to do just that. It’s an adapted smartphone with a built-in device that can reveal what the other players have in their hand. It’s an interesting bit of devious technology, and the story behind it is even more intriguing. Elie Bursztein works for Google’s Anti-Abuse Department and is part of the research team.
On booting up the device you are taken to the main cheating page (as seen in the screenshot). The top half displays a view of the deck as seen by the device’s secret camera. The bottom half shows various bits of info, such as the current result (H6, D8), the number of players (which can be changed discreetly during a game via the volume buttons), and whether or not the haptic feedback device is connected.
In addition to its special card-detecting camera, the device appears as a regular smartphone with 8GB of memory and 1GB of RAM. It also ships with a remote control that allows cheaters to change the game’s parameters over Bluetooth without being detected. To further conceal the device, it can be incorporated into items such as a power bank, watch, cuff, leather belt, or lighter. A common way of improving the accuracy and reliability of poker analyzers is to add an external scanning camera. The next article in this series will focus on the device’s accessory and how it works.