Playing 1-2 NL at a casino where cash plays. All players have 1 or 2 bills behind them, but no one has made a clear count of who has what. Two fish have been running great, have massive stacks, and have been pushing the action. 3 players get their money all in on a Q367hhhhTx board. The shortest stack of the 3 is a local grinder who has the Ah and one of the fish has 45hh and ships with the straight flush. The dealer is pulling the grinders stack away and someone catches the grinder pocketing some of the bills. He gets called out on it, floor comes over. Grinder FINALLY admits to pulling money off table, but claims he illegally added it during the hand and it shouldn't have played anyways. Floor goes to camera and this is confirmed. In this case, player was TRYING to cheat, didn't do it successfully, so should he still have to pay up with what was on the table? Your thoughts? Ill give result at the end.

I'm actually okay with making the bills play in this instance (which should be his last han at the casino anyway).

I don't think you can really make him pay what he ILLEGALLY put on the table in the first place, but I don't let him buy back in and ban him indefinitely.

Let him back in a month or so if he writes an apology and is a decent reg there.

Bills should play since they would've if he'd won...I doubt he would've been so forthcoming if his hand had been good.

Also...a KITN is standard in this spot.

Money added illegally during the hand does not play. Period.

And cheaters should be barred permanently. Period.

If he had won the hand I would hope someone at the table would realize he had too much money.

Ik I would be wondering how he got X amount of bills while he hasn't taken a pot down bigger than X amount in a while. Someone woulda realized either way I'm guessing.

And I could see a permanent ban being the best solution. But people make mistakes. Ban him long enough that he knows he's a douche bag in the very least.

Tell him if he puts the money back on the table he doesn't get banned. Once he does, ban him

Shoot him.

I kinda like this. I would also making a showing of him getting the ban as well. Maybe ask him to leave and announce the perma-ban over the PA system in the poker room (or casino if you can).

No, since it was added illegally it doesn't count.

But he should be banned.

OP told us that no one at the table really had any idea what anyone had. In games that have been going for a long time its easy for players to not know .... if they don't ask.

This wasn't a mistake. This was a two very intentionall acts .... first cheating by trying to add money when he thought he had the nuts. Second by trying to remove money after he realized he lost. Personally I would like to see such a move prosecuted criminally though I don't expect it to be ...... but I certainly don't think a temp ban is adequate to protect the integrity of the games.

Winner

EDIT: Oh and I'm pretty sure even if he was PERMAbanned you can still get unbanned with a good letter and a good personality.

He should pay,be banned and be prosecuted.

If he's a reg and there are no other poker rooms in the area a 6-month ban will be enough punishment for a small-stakes degen/grinder/reg

I really hate that the cheater gets to potentially freeroll with the additional bills if nobody had noticed that they were added and he won the pot. That's so gross.