Faux Chip Card Protectors = Angleshooting

[Felix_Nietzsche]

I sat down at a 1/2 NLHE table and sitting two places to my left was a player with APPARANTLY $540 (min buyin is $50 and max is $200). He raised a few times and I called with suited connectors thinking if I hit, I could make a big score. I did not hit.

Now the punchline.
He did not have $540, he had $40. The five blackchips he kept on his stack was a cigarette lighter. I was ticked off. I complained to the dealer and the dealer said he would not make him remove his 'card protector' but I could call the floor if I wanted to. I should have called the floor but I elected to not elevate the situation. What irritated me even more was he often kept his lighter with the rest of his chips instead of on his cards that it was theoretically protecting.

I found the cardroom manager and complained during a break saying this faux chips should be banned. He said 'no' but in the future I should get up from the table and get a floor person and they will ask the person to remove their card protector. WTF? Is this bizzaro world?

Oh.....and three other players at the table said they were fooled by his cigarette lighter as well. Perhaps the other players were as well but they did not say anything. The other players struck me as players who are clueless about adjusting tactics based on stack size...
Choctaw Casino, Durant, OK

PS
There is a part of me that wants to buy two of these cigaretter lighters, buy in at $50, and then go on an ALL-IN re-raise spree until these fools change the rules to my liking....