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#13
04-04-2007, 12:04 AM
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Re: My home game is finally evolving!
What do you mean by "burning random cards"? Just continually burning off the top while the hand was in play?
You're in a tough situation. One thing to do is talk to him away from the game, tell him that you're trying to get a legitimate game going that uses proper procedures, and the integrity of the deck is part of that. Don't accuse him of cheating, but when he complaikns that he's just having fun and not doing anyting wrong, agree with him, but say that even still, you want to maintain a level of professionalism because you feel it will help your game overall. If he's any sort of friend at all, he'll understand. If he doesn't, well, sometimes you need to stop inviting somebody. I understand you're four handed, but surely you can tap some resource somewhere to get more players? I had a similar feeling at a regular game a couple of weeks ago. One guy tends to go way up, way down, way up, etc. He's a decent player but overaggressive and unable to switch gears. When he busts he tends to buy in for $20 and go all-in with any two. Twice in a row on his deal, he hit trip kings with king-rag in his hand. I tried to watch him after that, and didn't notice anything suspicious, so it could just be coincidence. Regardless, I'm now more cautious when I'm in a hand with him in such a situation. It's not my game and he's not a close friend, so I certainly don't want to cause a problem with something this tenuous. But since this is your game, here's a simple way to handle that: someone else cuts the deck for every dealer, using a card protector. If this person really is cheating, he's putting you in an awful situation, and again you should really consider whether you want someone like that as your friend. 
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#14
04-04-2007, 12:13 AM
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Re: My home game is finally evolving!
[ QUOTE ]
What do you mean by "burning random cards"? Just continually burning off the top while the hand was in play? You're in a tough situation. One thing to do is talk to him away from the game, tell him that you're trying to get a legitimate game going that uses proper procedures, and the integrity of the deck is part of that. Don't accuse him of cheating, but when he complaikns that he's just having fun and not doing anyting wrong, agree with him, but say that even still, you want to maintain a level of professionalism because you feel it will help your game overall. If he's any sort of friend at all, he'll understand. If he doesn't, well, sometimes you need to stop inviting somebody. I understand you're four handed, but surely you can tap some resource somewhere to get more players? I had a similar feeling at a regular game a couple of weeks ago. One guy tends to go way up, way down, way up, etc. He's a decent player but overaggressive and unable to switch gears. When he busts he tends to buy in for $20 and go all-in with any two. Twice in a row on his deal, he hit trip kings with king-rag in his hand. I tried to watch him after that, and didn't notice anything suspicious, so it could just be coincidence. Regardless, I'm now more cautious when I'm in a hand with him in such a situation. It's not my game and he's not a close friend, so I certainly don't want to cause a problem with something this tenuous. But since this is your game, here's a simple way to handle that: someone else cuts the deck for every dealer, using a card protector. If this person really is cheating, he's putting you in an awful situation, and again you should really consider whether you want someone like that as your friend. [/ QUOTE ] Thanks for the advice. It's not my game, we just hang out a lot and many of my friends have chips at their houses. As it happens, this usually leads to us playing. The first time around having suspicions, when it was my turn to deal I would have the person to the left of me cut the deck. I think he got the hint for a while. But in a friendly poker game, it does seem very awkward to have this going on without him taking the hint. After he takes the hint, then what? Do we keep cutting the deck forever? The more I think about it, it dawns on me that I'll have to confront him about it or catch him in the act. I'm thinking maybe: "Hey man, don't make it so obvious," while picking up the deck and dealing his big pocket pair face up for him.
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#15
04-04-2007, 12:40 AM
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Re: My home game is finally evolving!
[ QUOTE ]
"Hey man, don't make it so obvious," while picking up the deck and dealing his big pocket pair face up for him. [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, because that will be much less awkward than getting folks to do what's standard in practically every card game (not just poker), which is someone else cuts the deck. In some circles it's considered "ungentlemanly" to insinuate that someone could be cheating, but by and large it's accepted practice and nobody gives it a second thought. That said, in my game I have enough people who deal and are good at it and that I can trust, that it's just a whole lot faster for one or two people to deal all night, and those people shuffle quickly then cut onto the card protector. If someone else is shuffling for me, I always do a final cut. These sort of proecures are in place everywhere not because anyone is suspected of cheating, but because it removes that from the equation entirely. You don't wear seatbelts because you suspect you'll get into an accident, you wear them so that on the rare occsaion you get in one, you don't have to bother having an argument about who is in the wrong with your face through the windshield. Er, okay, maybe that analogy isn't perfect, but you get the idea. It sounds like you might be in high school, where egos are fraile and people find it difficult not to take things personally. It's also too small of a group to be able to smoothly say "hey, let's do it for the sake of everybody" without it seeming like you're talking about someone specific. Maybe you could just say that you like to read about poker, and you're trying to play by standard practices so that when y'all are out in the big bad world, it'll already be second nature. It's a sticky situation, for sure.
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#16
04-04-2007, 12:45 AM
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Re: My home game is finally evolving!
Another thought... (first off, it's standard practice to have the person to your right cut for your shuffle)... just sit to this guy's right. That way it'll have been your shuffle/deal the hand before, and you'd have had the person to your right cut. When he shuffles, say you want to cut. If he protests, say it's so you feel like you put some juju on the cards or something, that you want a hand in your fate. Play it off casual and make the focus on your own supserstitions (but without going overboard and being obvious). If he's not cheating, he'll have no problem with it. If he is, then you have bigger problems anyway and you may need to consider not playing with him any more.
And again, yeah, you do this forever. Practially everybody does. He's putting you in a no-win situation, which is why one shouldn't be friends with cheaters. If he's cheating here, how ethical or reliable can he be in other aspects of life?
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#17
04-04-2007, 08:03 AM
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Re: My home game is finally evolving!
Make sure that whoever is dealing offers the person to their right a chance to cut the deck. Then there should be no way he can cheat.
My rule is "no matter how dumb they look you always take the cut"
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#18
04-04-2007, 11:55 AM
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Re: My home game is finally evolving!
Hmmm . . . let's examine the evidence:
[ QUOTE ] he folded so that he would have more time to fix the deck. [/ QUOTE ] Ok, but then there's . . . [ QUOTE ] He was acting suspicious and said some joke to make us more relaxed. [/ QUOTE ] And we can't forget . . . [ QUOTE ] he put cards in awkward places of the deck, looking nervous. [/ QUOTE ] On top of all this there's the fact that . . . [ QUOTE ] he gave himself AA. [/ QUOTE ] But who can forget . . . [ QUOTE ] he was burning random cards while we were distracted [/ QUOTE ] However, don't rush to judgement. Unless, of course . . . . [ QUOTE ] subject was observed pouring the contents of a mysterious vial of liquid into our Slurpees after exclaiming, "Holy crap, what's that?!" and getting us all to look out the window [/ QUOTE ]
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