The death of a card game

[HitHard69]

I've been playing in the same home game run by the same guy for almost two years now, only taking breaks when everyone is away at school. Real nice set-up, about 15 different people with 5 regualrs, nice poker table, good chips, free drinks, his parents are cool with a bunch of 20 year olds being over untill all hours of the night, it was a great game. Almost always 1-2NL with $100 buy-in, so 8 handed with people buying back in can lead to a few thousand on the table.
When we were home for Thanksgiving break, I suspected our host of cheating and setting the deck. It seemed like he always has big hands when he's dealing. I told some of the other more regualar guys, and we agreed to watch him. We played one more time over that break, and we agreed that although he looks like he does some wierd stuff when he shuffles, it all looked ok. (I know, I know, we shouldn't let the dealer shuffle, but thats the ways it's always been. We always thought it was a game among friends who we trust.)
X-Mas break comes and goes, and we played quite a few times and no one noticed anything fishy, so we all kinda forgot about it. Last night was our first game of the summer. Again, most of his big hands came when he was dealing, and I pointed that out to two of my buddies after the game. They agreed and we again decided to watch him.
So tonite, every time he was in the SB and shuffling the deck for the next hand (we use two decks) our eyes where on him. About an hour into it, we seeing him doing what looked like counting cards off the bottom before he made a cut, putting a card he wanted, and then 7 cards on top, on top of the deack. He'd riffle, making sure those 8 cards stayed on top, then do it again. That hand he had KK. We all looked at each other and nodded. About an hour later, we see the same thing. One buddy says "Stop, put the deck down, don't touch your cards." He looks at me and says "What's he got?" I say KK. Our other buddy who was watching agrees, he saw the same thing, and thinks he has KK. First buddy says "I'll do one better...K of spades and K of hearts." We turn his hand over and there's the K of spades and K of hearts.
Everyone else in the game was clueless, but we explained what we saw, everyone cashed out thier chips and went home.
Shitty way to end what we had always thought was a great game. Didn't take him out back and knock him around only becasue we were at his house and his parents were there. Unfortunatly, theres really nothing we can do now but never play with him. Although he keeps very carefull records of his wins and losses, and he's up quite a bit and loves to brag about it. We're thinking of telling him he owes all that money back, but that might be hard to get him to pay. Only satisfaction I get out of this is knowing that I was right, and after 6 months we finally caught the scumbag.

[smoore]

hell, completely ostracize him from your circle of friends.

Since you're young (supposedly impetuous), diesel fuel in a pump sprayer (like for gardening) is GREAT for writing on people's lawns.... "CARD CHEAT" would be acceptable.

[chesspain]

So in this game no one ever bothered to cut the deck before the deal?

[VBDave]

At my game, we also use 2 decks. We have the dealer who just got done shuffle the cards he just used while the next hand is going. When it's time to pass, the deal is 2 to his left, and guy on his left cuts before passing to the new dealer. We've never had a problem in over 5 years playing weekly.

[mmdma67]

use fertilizer it will kill the grass and the grass will grow real thick and green around it. it makes anice outline,plus itsbetter for the enviroment.

[HitHard69]

I was thinking more along the lines of egging his car. Although his parents just got a new driveway. cement was poured today...some markings on that would be a nice touch too.
And yes, the dealer always shuffled his cards and then dealt. No cuts. Thats the way it was before I can into the game, and the way it's always been. Not a good idea, I know. We used cut cards for a little while, but everyone always forgot because it was "no big deal"

[fbomb101]

[ QUOTE ]
use fertilizer it will kill the grass and the grass will grow real thick and green around it. it makes anice outline,plus itsbetter for the enviroment.

[/ QUOTE ]

My school did this at our rival's home staduim a few years (SMU at TCU) with seed that grows in the winter. For about three months, their home football staduim had a huge SMU across it. The band members each had a bag of seed and dropped it out of their pants when they were in formation during halftime.

Unfortunately, it was the highlight of the SMU football season (and for several seasons).

Keith

[tubalkain]

[ QUOTE ]
We're thinking of telling him he owes all that money back, but that might be hard to get him to pay.

[/ QUOTE ]

He owes that, plus interest and whatever you feel like tacking on for not reporting him for cheating at gambling and first degree theft. I'd say it would total out to be about his life savings plus about a year's pay. If he doesn't pay, his parents should... after all, they don't want to see their scumbag kid face down in that nice wet driveway, amirite?

[Conspir8or]

Have everyone involved from the night you caught him show up on the usual card night, then tell him you're evening things up and take his chips. If someone has a truck, take the table. If he bitches, tell him this was the agreed-upon alternative to kicking the sh!t out of him in his own house.

Then cut him out of your circle.

[KenProspero]

As appealling as kicking the snot out of the SOB is -- I could just see an a-hole like that calling the cops and getting you busted when you did.

Life's too short to deal with people like that. I think you did fine!!