Alcohol has a double-effect where it pertains to poker-cheating. On one hand, alcohol can encourage cheating (even from a repressed cheater) through lapse in judgment. On the other hand, alcohol can target cheating by making sloppy the techniques and maneuvers of the cheat. Again on the negative side however is that alcohol can impair the perception of the honest players, and allow them to be cheated.

The best advice is to drink responsibly while playing poker at any time, but to allow suspected cheats to drink as much as they please. The skilled poker cheat, however, will not drink to intoxication unless he or she did not originally intend to cheat.