Who is the best poker player when cheating is allowed?

Wouldn't it be fun if a scene had revealed that it's Picard that knows the dirtiest tricks, outconning everyone else?

Come to think of it, would have made for a nice unexpected addon scene after the closing credits and the Paramount logo in All Good Things, the entire group minus Picard and Beverley leaving the poker room being robbed blind - Worf without sash, Geordi without visor, and so on, and Riker and Deanna quibbling about those extra duty shifts they had wagered and lost.

 

Not with the approval of those who designed and conducted the test...

 

They gave him a commendation for original thinking.

 

Still technically cheating.

 

If the Computer was allowed to cheat, Holodeck Stephen Hawking would beat Data in their game we saw in Descent Pt 1

After all, it's literally creating the cards out of thin air - Royal Flush every hand!

 

It wouldn't even need to cheat so ostensibly. After all, it can also manipulate the cards a player gets (even if by only materialising the markings on them when the player chooses them at the last second).

 

You can play poker on the holodeck with your own real deck. It doesn't have to be a holo... deck

 

Guinan...? ...duh?

 

Worf, because nobody would dare to call his cheat while he is showing his war face.