I have about a half dozen different decks. The same pattern/color never gets repeated from one night to the next. I do not switch decks in the middle of a session unless a player asks for a deck change or something happens.

It is a good practice to count down the deck every one in a while. My games are self-dealt, so I don't hold the deck that often - but when I have a chance a quick count is a good thing.

I like that idea DrStrange, have you ever had any cheaters in your games and how did you deal with them?

Yes I have dealt with cheaters in my games, but it was small potatoes stuff.

A couple of times I found pot splashers were shorting the pot. It was hard to prove the shortages weren't a drunken error though so there was not an easy way to say cheater vs honest mistake.

One lady made all sorts of mistakes both in her favor and against. I judged her as just a harmless bumbling player. A couple of others made mistakes consistently in their favor. They earned a private chat plus a little shaming at the table. Problem solved for the most part.

I never found a pattern to the dings and nicks on the backs of cards. I also never figured out which players were the source of the damage, but it happened often enough that I started buying several identical decks to have a source of replacement cards. It was annoying to be dealing with damaged cards but I did not judge the issue to be cheating.

DrStrange

jesus if u r not man enough to do it yourself pay someone to break his legs

It's called mucking, which is confusing because of the normal meaning of the word muck in card games.

This is an issue we are having in our league games right now. The cheat is the owner of the home we host our games. He's a giant whale. Theres 3 of us that know its happening. Only myself has made mention of it to the host. I said "please stop what you are doing, I know the move you make." He's stopped when I'm at his table due to talking with him. Should the others make mention that they know of some shady business as well? This way the host will know there are multiple eyes watching.

We are 3/4 of the way thru our season and this host has hosted every tournament for nearly 3 years(20+ tourneys). If we pick up now and try and move our entire league integrity goes out the window. He's a super whale as well. I torn on what action to take.

yeah

Well you mentioned it (privately ?) and it helped. The other two fellows should each do the same. You owe this to the rest of the players IMHO. After the league season is over I would consider further action maybe. If a guy will cheat one way, he will do it another way if he can. But it's your choice. Your game.

How do you play a home game with regular people you've known for years and Cheat?... Also - how do you let a guy get quads multiple times a night and not start thinking somethings up?

This would be the most brash but I would confront the actual cheater(s) in front of everyone. Most of the time it would make that individual so uncomfortable that they would stop immediately or quit playing. If they act defiant and righteous then dont play with said cheater. Losing to said cheater every game for years on end.. I'd say being modest and appropriate is not warranted. He basically has stolen from the game. It would be no different if I walked into your house grabbed your wallet and left. It's the same thing...

If you can catch him even better. If not - I'd scream the high heavens and then not play with him anymore.

There is something else here that is interesting to me, after reading this thread and the one from before. It shows how results oriented people are, even here at 2p2.

Person says someone is a total luckbox, mentions how often they seem to get quads. Most, (not all, but most), of the people here say the poster is overreacting, and that the person in question is just obviously better than them.

Later, poster reveals that indeed that person is proved to be a cheater. Most, not all, but most, now say the person is basically oblivious, that the anyone should have known it was a cheater.

I was thinking about this at my local home game, and I know they have had to throw someone out in the past. (Had me actually wondering if this WAS my home game, laugh) I determined it couldn't be, cause noone ever those kind of results.

Makes me wonder if I find out random local playerX is found cheating, would I wonder how in the world I missed it all this time.

The Movado threads on the home game cheater were very extensively discussed and as more information was revealed opinions certainly changed. A few folks suspected cheating from the beginning ( they were right of course) , but most , me included, felt the OP was likely overstating the results and , besides, the OP was fairly adamant that no cheating was being detected. Later when the OP posted his 2nd thread revealing the nature of the cheating, many of us were incredulous that his group had been so oblivious for so long. All in all it was a very useful discussion with lessons on how to spot cheats and how to structure your games to limit their success.

This really caught me by surprise. Your league has no integrity, if there is a cheater who has not been outed and/or ousted.

I read it more as "integrity" = cohesiveness, as in "the integrity of the weld is failing" i.e. its at a location that is central for all participants and any other location will be a burden on some.

Granted, either interpretation still doesn't justify not outing the cheater

Thats really stinky about your situation OP. At my game, we have caught cheaters like this.

The cheater would mark the cards and get everyone drunk to keep everyone preoccupied. This cheater was also caught bottom dealing, yet still denies all accusations.

The sad thing is, this is a person Ive known from "around the way" for about 20 years, and i just turned 30.

This person is what we call a hustler. This person that cheats, does it for the thrill of taking advantage of others with their sleight. I simply stopped attending the game.

Another sad thing is that the other players who Im close with, we all joke and laugh about this player cheating and it doesnt seem to bother them since the cheater isnt very skilled in actual poker so it is possible to beat her even with cheating going on.

I haven't read entire thread, but in my experience when I have quads (in HE, not Omaha), I usually end up getting no action or certainly very little!

I would think you have to be an extraordinary mechanic to not only deal yourself quads, but also make sure another player/players also wind up with a hand that will get them to donate a healthy pile of chips!

I saw it in The Sting, but that was a cold deck...which of course is much easier.

If it were me, i would just quit the league and give your reasoning to the host and others will follow your lead.

Despite what others have posted on how the situation was handled by not calling the guy out in front of everyone, I still think it was the best with no violence/destruction in the stand alone poker room of the house. The player was outed and the majority of players had his phone number and address of his residence to contact or pay a visit. We changed the handling of cards . I found out that the chapter moved out of state to Kentucky (Lexington area) late in 2016.

As for our game, we have had 0 issues since the cheater has been dismissed. We changed the handling of cards with cut cards and having a different person shuffle, cut and deal. The copag decks are randomized and are free of markings.

Handle the cheater they way the cheater was handled in the movie Casino��

OK do you mean the cheater moved to Lexington Ky late 2016? Since Our game is in Lexington, KY, this is quite a bit of news to me as a host of a weekly cash game !!! Any further info on this individual would be very welcome Please! Thank you!

PM sent

Thanks a bunch! Does not ring any bells, but I will not forget the info you sent.

Bad idea