Cheating in Cardrooms?

[morgant]

Last sunday night i was playing 5/10 kill at foxwoods. I have about a years worth of B&M experience so i am very wet behind the ears, but i can hold my own in the games i have been playing. To the point, it was about 2am and the floor came over to our table and announced to everyone that we just had a new setup and that the last deck was found to have 5 bent(marked) cards in it. What do you look out for to see if you are being cheated? After the event the game went on as usual, no one left......What is the procedure for these kind of occurances and how can a player protect himself from this?

[LetsRock]

I think the most you can do for this type of thing is to look at your cards as you get them and if any are "disfigured", ask the dealer for a new set-up and tell them why (after the hand). If someone is doing this on purpose it will likely cease since someone's "on to them".

(It always drives me nuts when I see players bending the cards up from the table to look at them. It just adds to the possibility of the cards getting "marked" whether it's intentional or not. It's not that hard to pick the cards up and look at them while concealing them at the same time.)

[CrackerZack]

to mark Kem cards you either have to be trying or be really obviously rough with them. bending them has no affect. Picking them completely off the table and protecting them isn't every easy for older and less dexterous people.

[LetsRock]

I'm probably more sensitive about it in home games then I am at casino. We go through more cards then we need to and it eats into MY profits damit!

It's one of my pet-peeves and it just kind of gives me a fingernails on the chalkboard kind of feeling. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[squiffy]

I don't know, but it happens all the time. Dealers are constantly finding Aces with the backs scratched with a nail or ring. That's why they have frequent deck changes.

What I don't understand is how you can spot the mark on a card in another player's hand. It just seems like the cards are moving too fast and being manipulated enough to see any scratches.

But that's how it's been done for hundreds of years.

Just keep a close eye on people and how they handle the cards. If they make any strange hand motions or handle the cards roughly they may be an amateur trying to mark them.

A sophisticated card marker would be hard to detect but might have a long finger nail or a coin or metal item or ring.

[TruePoker CEO]

Props to the floorman for coming over to announce that. I am impressed.

[M.B.E.]

In an episode of CSI someone was cheating by marking the card backs with a special ink that you could only see with a contact lens with the right filter. Ciaffone and Reuben also talk about this method in their book on Pot Limit and No Limit Holdem.

[wontons]

When I was at the Turning stone casino an indian run operation in verona, NY I was told from one of the frequents when the casino first opened during play there WERE 5 ACES OUT and the ruling on it was the cards play!!! do you think that is the fairest way to deal with the situation...considering there was prolly several people involved in the pot?

[fluff]

[ QUOTE ]
In an episode of CSI someone was cheating by marking the card backs with a special ink that you could only see with a contact lens with the right filter. Ciaffone and Reuben also talk about this method in their book on Pot Limit and No Limit Holdem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that is one trick. Casinos got wise to it however: that is why you see dealers discard their card in a transparent, red-tinted holder. That way the dealer/pit boss can immediately see if cards are marked.

This however is for casino banked games. In the case for poker rooms, I have never seen similar counter measures employed.

[hutz]

If the profits are being eaten because you have to keep buying new packs of non-plastic cards, spend $20 or less and buy a new or used set-up of KEM cards on eBay. I've had mine for over a year now and they're like new.