Although I am interested in the history of poker, I’ve never been too interested in Texas Hold’em. I’ve always thought that the game’s most celebrated players were cheats. The game – their game - is a scam. While McManus may have set out to glorify the history of poker, and lionize the current crop of players, for me his book did the exact opposite. 

If one considers the sources cited, McManus knows very little about cheating. It is only near the end of the book, after he has given the play by play of some of the most publicized games, that he discusses the game’s dirty secret: collusion - two or more players acting in concert to affect the outcome of the game, and the tournament.

One way players collude is to self-insure: each person getting a portion of the winnings of the other members of his or her team. Sadly, McManus describes this as “legitimate”. On page 290, he writes,

1. (A note about deals: to insure themselves against spikes of tournament poker in general, many players legitimately trade or sell percentages of their action either before the tournament begins or upon making the final table. In 1983, for example, Johnny Chan had 20 percent of both Peate’s and McEvoy’s action.  Because each finalist had sold other pieces of himself before the tournament, the still unknown Chan netted more than either of them.)
   

Part of the mythos of poker, however, is that it is every man (or woman) for himself.  When one goes “all in” he does so with the knowledge that he may lose everything. Well, apparently not. Unbeknownst to others at the table, my “all in” is only 80% in because my undisclosed partner is going to give me 20% of his winnings, and vice versa. This will certainly affect play, particularly in the early stages, where players blitzkrieg those who wait for the ideal hand in order to capture as many small blinds as possible to build an insurmountable position.

Collusion can manifest itself in other ways. McManus finally discusses some of them near the end of the book. On page 406 he writes,

1. The most common form of cheating at poker these days is collusion. At a live table, colluders can signal the contents of their hands to each other, building pots when one of them has a strong hand. During tournaments, teams of cheaters pass around chips, usually from the members who have fallen behind to the one with the largest stack. The chips can be transferred by hand during a break or, at the table, by raising up a pot together before one of them folds, a maneuver called dumping. In either case, the beneficiary is given a big leg up toward reaching the final table, where whatever price money he wins will be split with his cohorts.
   

McManus appears to call a spade a spade on page 416:

1. Any form of collusion is illegal and unethical. This obviously includes teaming with partners to raise and reraise other players, but it also includes soft-playing each other – not betting strong hands, for example. Even if a friend is short-stacked a few places out of the money, not raising his blind with raiseworthy hole cards is cheating. Many such rules must be self-enforced, in much the same way that a PGA player uses the honor system to add a stroke for grounding his wedge in a sand trap, even if he’s the only person who could see or feel that it happened.
   

And yet, he appears oblivious to the form of collusion he embraces in the very next paragraph,

1. Another note about deals: Second place in a tournament usually pays about twice what third pays but only half what the winner receives. Thus, making a deal with fellow finalists often makes sense, especially when three or four players have similar stacks and the blinds are disproportionately high, in which case luck more than skill with determine the finishing order. A typical deal would involve dividing 90 percent of third- through first-place money equally among the last three players, then playing on for the bracelet (or trophy) and the remaining 10 percent of the money. But if you offer your opponents a deal, or vice versa, negotiate with the understanding that all deals are voluntary.
   

The ethics, it would appear, change to fit the situation. 

Sadly, while it is nice to say forewarned is forearmed, the only sure way not to be cheated is to not to play. 

But you knew that.