The WSOP cards are marked.

[Phntm]

DO NOT PLAY any lowball games with SKILLED cheats
You WILL lose your ass

Is this a legit concern?

[benfranklin]

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Is this a legit concern?

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It is, but the same thing applies to playing lowball with SKILLED non-cheats. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[duma]

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This is a problem not just with the Copag WSOP cards, but with all Copag cards

(Damn straight I bolded that.)

I have a couple of set-ups of Copag and the material composition is different than that of a Kem or Gemaco or A-Plus card - Copag cards are rather flimsy and are VERY easy to mark just by accident, particularly if you squeeze hard when looking at your hole cards. You'll notice on a lot of marked Copag cards (actually, the 4s through 10s) that on the face side there's usually a white line going through one of the pips.

Here's an example:



The cards sold for home use have predominantly solid colored backs w/design, making it hard to locate the marking from that perspective.

However, the WSOP Copag cards have predominantly white backs (similar to how last year's cards looked), which would and should make the markings much easier to spot.

Really, there's a reason the Copags sell for cheap in retail - they're [censored].

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exactly true. i have had the same problems with Copags. you get what you pay for. add this to the many other reasons why Harrahs is considered a second rate casino company.

[mrmr]

Do they use shuffling machines at the Rio?

At another casino, I noticed some marked cards and asked for a new deck. In the new deck, I saw more marked cards and asked for another new deck. The dealer spread the whole deck and showed me (and the whole table) that almost every card had at least one corner "marked" and many had all four corners marked. He said the shuffling machine does it, they all have it, all decks, and it really is nothing to worry about.

A new setup arrived at that time, and sure enough, this third deck also had tons and tons of marked cards.

I let it go, covered my own cards well, and had no reason to believe anyone at my table was playing with an unfair advantage, based on results.

[MicroBob]

the tables at the WSOP do not have automatic shufflers I'm pretty sure (at least they didn't last year)

[3173]

The WSOP sucks and should be boycotted.

[52s]

Picture of the 2006 WSOP card on front page

Just for those wondering, who haven't seen, what the back looks like.

As you can see, lots of white, so every little nic will be noticeable. The Copag cards are trash to begin with, going predominantly white was a horrible move and have given the company one hell of a bad name this Series.

[nation]

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the tables at the WSOP do not have automatic shufflers I'm pretty sure (at least they didn't last year)

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No auto shuffler at WSOP, all hand shuffled.

[Snoh84]

Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for everyone who posted on this topic. You guys gave some very insightful discussion into the situation and helped me write a column about it to pick up some extra cash(not sure if I'm allowed to link to it, so I'll just let you all find it) [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

By the way, just for an update, Jeffrey Pollack has ordered a ton of new cards so there will be much more fresh setups in the future and card marking should (hopefully) no longer be a problem.

Keep up the interesting discussion, 2+2ers!