Dealing with cheaters in a homegame...

henrikrh · #1 06-12-2005, 11:06 PM

We play a small 7-8 person home game, and two aussies, who we know well outside of school play with us, one is a LAG and really sucks, the other is so fishy deoderant couldn't keep the wet market smell away. Anyways, we have caught little hints of them cheating before, though they don't do it well, this time however we outright saw one show the other his hand whilst both still had hands.

At the time we mucked both their hands (one had shown 77 to the other to tell him to fold), and one of us got up to cash out, pissed that they tried to cheat, we played for about twenty minutes more and the all cashed out. I cashed last and there was a small sum missing, having won loads in the past I didn't complain, but just more shadiness.

Anyways, how would you treat these guys? On one hand, they pay off, on the other they are liable to cheat. We are considering not playing with them again.

dedmoney · #2 06-12-2005, 11:22 PM

um, if you let them play, you're a moron, no mattter how badly they suck.

Lottery Larry · #3 06-13-2005, 05:48 PM

I agree- why encourage their behavior, even if they are ATMs?

It's not them I'd be worried about, but the message that gets sent to the group as a whole.

jafager · #4 06-13-2005, 06:31 PM

Bad players get better, but cheaters rarely turn into model citizens.

jafager

tubalkain · #5 06-13-2005, 11:00 PM

Let them play, continue your regular withdrawals, and never seat them close enough to each other that they can cheat?

henrikrh · #6 06-14-2005, 12:29 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I agree- why encourage their behavior, even if they are ATMs?

It's not them I'd be worried about, but the message that gets sent to the group as a whole.

[/ QUOTE ]

The whole group know is the us i'm referring to, we are all considering not letting them play, we are all against cheating. They suck at it though and there is no way they are gonna make it profitable, we do sometimes ensure that they end up sitting apart.

"um, if you let them play, you're a moron, no mattter how badly they suck. " -dedmoney

Thanks for this totally unnecesary and pointless comment.

EMcWilliams · #7 06-14-2005, 12:36 AM

If they are your friends, I would definately talk to them first. Even if they are not your friends, I would first warn them and tell them if they are caught doing it again they are outta here with no refund, and are not being invited back. People that fishy I want to keep around in my home games.

JTrout · #8 06-14-2005, 12:48 AM

[ QUOTE ]
If they are your friends, I would definately talk to them first. Even if they are not your friends, I would first warn them and tell them if they are caught doing it again they are outta here with no refund, and are not being invited back. People that fishy I want to keep around in my home games.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very good advice!

Kyo Souma II · #9 06-14-2005, 06:34 AM

Let them be aware you're paying attention to their shadiness without overtly saying anything. A questioning, puzzledd look while glancing back and forth from one to the other is appropriate, as if you're trying to figure out whether you just saw what you thought you saw.

Note their reactions.

-kyo

TimsterToo · #10 06-14-2005, 07:07 AM

I had a first home game yesterday. We all put in 5 euros and sadly enough it lasted all night :-)

We played really small stakes (first time, most of them totally new to the game, don't want anyone to lose more then they can afford anyways) but still we agreed that someone caught cheating would take the stairs down the really fast way and after that be thrown in the canal. (I live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, ending up in a canal is not a good plan)

I would never allow a cheater to play again as it really spoils the game and takes all the friendliness out of it. I'm not sure how strong I feel about this collusion though, probably should have been there. If they really suck this bad and one showed the other his cards to warn him off seating them apart from each other should take care of matters. Somehow I don't see this in the same league as having cards up your sleeve etc. In the game yesterday one of the guys showed the person next to him (who was on a losing streak) his cards with the advice to just fold as he was going to beat him for the third hand in a row with a flush whilst both raised and rereraised every hand. There was still someone else in the hand to who folded straight away. To me it was just a good laugh as it was to the rest of the table.

The missing money is serious though, I would not accept that ever. The fact that the amount missing doesn't hurt you is not the issue.