https://youtu.be/vCPaI8Pqyg8

Interesting that former Prime Social TD Justin Hammer and GM Brent Pollack have both distanced themselves from Prime.

Did Joey do an 8 ball before filming this?

Seems like Justin Hammer all of a sudden left Prime or got fired recently.

These guys also took it on, too:

Seems cliffs were Berkey saying the allegations were rigged shuffle machines and he goes on big rant about how every game in texas cardhouses should be treated like a potentially sketchy private game because there are no regulations and doesn't take much $ to bribe staff if someone was trying to cheat etc


Also Landon was in the game and says he has no idea what happened and joey probably knows more , somehow. But game was mostly NL then switched to half n half PLO NL, seemed all the regs were losing in what seemed like a soft game over time but no talk of what exactly tipped them off, Martin zamani lost big (the guy who outed Bryns frog shaman) Berkey says Landon did not lose much compared to other regs they know

Near end they talk about Justin hammer leaving along with some other staff since the 'cheating' happened (speculating to distance themselves from the place) and that since Justin hammer is TDing in vegas for MGM series they will try to have him on the podcast to talk with him

I've found this is often a pretty good Cliffs for many episodes of S4Y's OnlyFriends podcast.

I'm not a religious watcher/listener, but even in the 30-40 percent of episodes I've consumed, there is a good Top 10 Things Landon Surprisingly Doesn't Know list to be made. (High on the list: he had never heard of the movie A Few Good Men.) Seems like a nice kid, but almost the textbook illustration of a person who has spent so much of his life dedicated to one thing that he's clueless overall.

is this the only thread on this topic? i hadn't heard of the allegations until i saw the video.

What card room did this take place at?

I quickly watched Joey's vid and it sounded like it was a private game in the back of a public card room? Am I mistaken?

it says it in the OP and in the video description on youtube. Prime Social Poker Room in Houston, Texas.

you are mistaken. it is a public card room with membership requirements in order to circumvent texas laws. the video is 15 minutes long, just watch it. it's obvious you haven't

I don't know all the details of this case. But years ago in another 2+2 thread I tried to explain that one shuffle machine could order the cards in another machine. And no one wanted to hear it at the time. The info I had from a source was that the maker of the shuffle machine had a technolgy goal to be able to for instance be used in a Bridge tournament. One shuffle machine on one Bridge table would shuffle the cards and then pass that exact deck order to every other shuffle machine at every other table in the Bridge tournament. The master shuffle machine sent its exact order of the cards to slave shuffle machines.

That would be extremely powerful way to cheat if you were inclined. Put a master shuffle machine out of view and tell it to order the slave shuffle machine at the target poker table.

Wait rumors of more cheating in poker? Nah no way!!

I don't have info on exactly how these shufflers work but at a minimum they are on a private network and all access is done via keys to other known hosts (i.e. no passwords). To hack such a system would require inside help. And this would be way more complicated than the Mike Postle level of cheating.

I would think it would be easier for a skilled dealer to cheat on a hand shuffle.

That would be both less incognito and much less effective.

If the allegations are true it's a moot point, because obviously there is inside involvement.

I have to check this out, very surprised I haven't heard of this until this thread. The game of poker needs Joey, really glad to see him making content again

on another note....stuff like this is absolute gold for the anti gambling lobby in Texas. I'm sure they'll point to stuff like this and say "See, poker is just evil gambling and people scamming others" and push to get these rooms shut down.

Even if you were able to get the order of the cards sent to an outside program you’d have to input a card as a reference (first card dealt to Utg is 7s etc) to have any useful information so someone in the game would have to be imputing that during the deal and have a program set up that processes it before informing players of results. Seems pretty complicated. People next to you might notice you inputting something as well.

Seems a lot easier to team with a dealer and get him not to cut the deck at least some of the time. Pretty easy to pretend to cut and put the top side of the cut on top again especially if you don’t do it every hand and say it was an accident I wasn’t thinking if anyone calls you out. Someone in management has to be in on it to give players access to the shufflers anyways. You can also set up bigger coolers this way then with a cut deck.

RFID in cards = automated input.

Not incredibly knowledgeable in that field but doesn’t that require a reader that’s kinda bulky and has to be set up to point at the specific card. Also need to keep track of positions as missed blinds/buying the button etc will mess it up.

I’m sure there’s a way they found that’s more simplistic than what I said if they were cheating but honestly most of the easiest ways I could think of involve dealer help and they need an inside man anyways.

Certainly that was the case a decade ago when a player in Austin was cheating like this. He sat in seat 5 with his cell phone out and the dealer would place the deck in front of him prior to dealing (if memory serves me correctly). Surely this technology has improved in 10 years though. Anyways, wouldn't it be the shuffler itself that reads the cards? Then it would just be a matter of relaying that data to the cheating player, although then cutting the deck would screw it up.

It would just need to know the number of players. So if a player left to use the restroom then the program would need to know there are 8 players instead of 9. Positions are irrelevant as you can just call them Player 1, Player 2, Player 3 etc starting with the first player dealt cards.

The one thing that's really puzzling to me is why the club would want shufflers at all. Unless they were getting them for free, it doesn't make much sense. They need to explain that.

Some of you are making the communication with the player at the table more complicated than it has to be. A plan ahead of time is all that is needed. For example, the signal could be be that anytime the poker player at the table is dealt a club as their first card they know that they are going to win that hand. And every other hand that isn't setup to win has the shuffle machine deal them a non-club as their first card.

My local casino in southern California stopped cutting the deck out of the shuffle machine. They said the shuffle machine was meant to speed up the game and randomize the cards therefore no cut was needed.

1) RFID cards are more rigid, I would think that high end Regs (who may have been on streams) would know the difference.
2) How does the Dealer know where to cut the cards in a 'set' deck? This is not UTH where the house gets to put out the Board and their holding first.
3) Not impossible, but that would have to be some pretty good and fast technology to adjust a Player's play based on where the Dealer cut the deck.

4) Didn't we all learn from Phil Ivey that when a Player makes a 'request' (turn the shufflers on) that there might be something going on?
5) I just don't understand the 'cash-n-dash' thinking if all this was true. Bring in Players no one knows and 'only' walk away with one day's profit? Seems short sighted.
6) What room brings in 'only' 3 shufflers? Was it a trial? They are expensive and a PIB to maintain, which is why most rooms lease them.
7) How often did the Dealers rotate at each of the 'shuffler' tables? Like normal or a tight push rotation?

While I agree that 'it all adds up' I just think there are still a lot of moving parts that need to be coordinated with everyone keeping quiet the whole way. GL

If there was one 'last hurrah' in a poker game I thought that this would be it. The cutting of the deck is a courtesy that has been afforded to imply game integrity for a very long time.

I stopped playing as much UTH once the casino put cut cards in the shuffler and started to put the Board and House holding out first. They said that the Dealer was/could flash their holding to the 1 and 2 seat when they were putting it out last. That is not totally 'cut' related, but it does lend itself to a deck being set. It's not an 'amazing' feat for a shuffler machine to insert cut cards in the deck, but it certainly adds pause to some Player's mindset. GL

The dealer does not have to be in on it. Like I said my local casino stopped cutting the cards after they are taken out of the shuffle machine. And management went so far as to threaten dealers with losing their jobs if they accidentally cut the cards.

All that is needed is an inside person away from the table, no dealer involvement needed. If this place in Texas didn't cut the cards, then that is one more bad sign the fix was in.

I did a whole investigation into the postle stuff, combined with other cheating rumors . I found this Youtube link ad by searching " GG poker cheat" using filters -- " this week" and "relevance" ----- when i first found this link, it worked fine. there were so many highend poker products to cheat with. copag decks , shufflers, sunglasses, phone apps.
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...IIAw%253D%253D
when clicking this link u have to reset the search to see the ad
now the link doesnt work for me but the ad is still there.

https://www.markedcards8.com/cheating_device

this was noticed by their symbolism in the ad.

in the old days before shufflers, their dealers were trained killers. he could stack it right in front of you and you wouldn't know. I have seen it performed in front of my face and I know it can be done. These guys that sit at STT at the WSOP , never moving from their table- these guys are killing it with a co conspirator , winning all the STT and the side bets.

no one ever catches on