What do I do about a card marker?

[pfapfap]

What I feared has resurfaced. Somebody is marking cards. I had two fresh setups today, and many aces are clearly marked now. It was a tournament, so I've been able to narrow down to five potential people who were on both tables. I've been running cash games with these new setups for a couple of weeks without problems. I think this is the first tournament with them, and we get a larger crowd for those.

What the hell do I do?

Of the five most likely candidates, here's what I have...

* One is an old friend whom I've been playing with for years. I told him about the problem when I noticed before so he could help keep an eye out, so it would be ridiculously stupid of him to keep doing it. Also, he was at the second table for hardly any time at all, and those decks are also marked.

* One is someone who seems a rather nice and trustworthy fellow, my own age, similar interests, etc. He seems an earnest student of the game.

* One is someone I know through my music scene, aslo a trustworthy guy, but I don't really know him that well. He only made it to the second table when we combined for the final, and I took over dealing shortly after that point. Action moved a lot faster then, so I don't think he'd have had the time to mark them up.

* One is someone I know from a game among chemistry grad students. He plays a straightforward game, but I don't want to trust him just because he's more educated. Someone who would do this has a sickness beyond class distinction. But he seems a nice trustworthy guy, and I've sent an email to someone who used to run another game he played in, but that was a while ago and with paper cards, so doubt I'll get much info there.

* The most likely candidate is a mildly shady character, is more of a "player", and has been involved in some of the more heated discussions from time to time. He's not the most well liked of the players, and he plays an emotional game. He's our current league leader and plays a very good game, but has a lot of ego tied up in it. I'd hate to accuse him based on just a character description, but he's been at more of the games than anybody, with access to all the decks previously marked. However, he also comes to a lot of cash games, and I haven't noticed any markes after cash games.

Any guidance here from anybody? This really sucks. Should I keep using the setups? I noticed one because I felt it while dealing, but you can't really tell by looking at them. Buying these is getting expensive, and it would be a long process to eliminate candidates, considering the tournaments are only monthly and most of these guys only play in the tournaments. That's a long time to be suspicious and uneasy.

What would you do? What should I do?

[mr.spam]

How about telling the truth? Just say right before the tournament begins what you have noticed and that you have no idea who did this (which is more or less true, you only have a hunch). I highly doubt anyone will try to mark cards when you just said this to the entire group.

[HeyNow729]

This is like CLUE.

This is the guy who did it, in the Parlor, with the Dagger.

* One is someone who seems a rather nice and trustworthy fellow, my own age, similar interests, etc. He seems an earnest student of the game.

How is he marking the cards?

[GobiLux]

I would definitively inform everybody about it before playing any other game!

Some people might not trust you anymore, because there was a scam going on in your game, but most should realise that you are trying to have a clean by telling everybody about it.

If for instance you would tell, and somehow people would find out about it, and find out that you knew about it, I would never ever play at one of your games!


How exactly are your cards marked? This could be interesting in regard of who did it!

If you really think to know who it was, I would let him fall into a trap by leaving the cards where he feels sure to mark them, and then confront him!

[Veop]

It may seem like a tough call at first between catching the guy and informing everyone, but I gotta agree with everyone else. If you don't inform people now then you're partially complicit since you're hosting what you know to be an unfair game.

[Triantafylidis]

"Lately I've been noticing someone marking the cards. I have a very good idea who it is so please stop it or we will have to uninvite you. This is a time for us to get together and have fun and work on our game, cheaters aren't welcome and aren't appreciated here. You know who you are so stop while you can. Thanks"

That should work fine. If not, then have five trustworthy people monitor everyone at the table (the five), one person each, for the whole night. This can be done discreetly. If they notice anything, call them out on it in front of everyone then beat their asses like norton and damon in the cops' game in rounders. lol

[Lottery Larry]

Control the seating and try to narrow down the culprits. Use different types of decks if possible, so there is no doubt.
If you can, seat yourself at the table with the most likely suspect(s) and start watching for the marked cards to start showing up. watch their hands as they grab and hold their cards.

Are these plastic cards or paper? If the more expensive ones, I go with the announcement possibly and say that it's too expensive to keep replacing the cards.


Another option- don't invite potential culprits to a tourney, see if the marking stops. that will REALLY narrow it down.
"Oh, did I forget to include you in the email? Sorry"

[L0QTiS]

There's a certain kind of damage which I feel is unintentional. Below is a picture from MY setup (not pfapfap). The marks are very hard to see, and is most visible from the card face as opposed to the back.

This happens when you place the cards perpendicular to you so the cards we a wide rectangle left-to-right, and squeeze the top corner to see your cards, a method I've been guilty of on the past, but try to avoid this as much as I can. I've seen this on both my Modiano and Copag setups.

[pfapfap]

Hmm.

The marking is a fingernail mark. A crescent shaped indentation along the long side of the card. It's possible it's from someone being too excited when checking aces, but this is too much of a coincidence. Looking through it now, a few others are marked, too, most of them suited to the aces that are marked in each setup (about half of them total), but there is the occasional stray marked card. The decks were clean before the game, I know that for certain.

The problem I have with announcing is that then the person may stop or, worse, find some better way to cheat. I'd really like to find out who it is. I'd hate to have to charge an even higher vig, as we're already at the max people seem to want to pay. ($15 on a usually $60-$100 buyin, depending on rebuys; this just barely covers the food and drink.)

Considering I've changed out setups when I've noticed, and I've never played on a table with a marked setup after I've noticed, I don't think people will think I've been cheating. I have a very good reputation here, and people would respect that I took time to try to figure out who it was. Really, it's not easily noticed unless you're touching the cards. Only one one of the suspects (the chem grad student) was dealing last night, and I don't think he dealt much the last time this happened.

I'm having a smaller game next week and two of the suspects are likely to show up. I'll buy some new setups of the easily marked brands, see what happens. The biggest suspect will be here, as will one other from last night and one person I'm not sure of regardless. There will be at least two trusted people I can get help me watch.

I'm very much a non-violent person, but I play one game with a biker gang. If I get definitive proof on this, I think the only think preventing me from ordering a beat-down is I think the person would then try to get my game busted.

This really sucks I have to do this. It really f'ed up my game last night. I had been doing fairly well, but just the knowledge that this was going on threw me for a loop and I had to suddenly be suspicious of people I thought were my friends. I really do want to make it public, just so I can relax a bit, but I think I should hold off on confronting anybody until after this week.

Blah.

[PantsOnFire]

Next tournament, I would make a statement before it starts. This statement wouldn't accuse any person nor would it even mention cheating.

Simply state that last tournament some cards were marked up. You would like all players to be very careful and respect these fairly expensive cards. Also, you would want all players to watch for any cards that have marks and bring it up right away.

I am willing to bet with 99% certainty that there will be no marked cards at the end of that tourney.

I honestly believe that just mentioning it to the group and asking everybody to be more careful and watch out for any damaged cards will be enough to stop this guy in his tracks. And really, it may just be a case of a guy trying out something. I mean did he really get into a hand where a marked card affected his decision? I'm betting it just a guy testing the waters and now you've basically told him we notice so it ain't gonna work.

Realistically, is this a professional cheat who is out to win your tourney or a guy who got a bad beat and is farting around with getting even somehow?

Of course it's always great to weed out a bad apple but it's also good to nip a guy in the bud and set him back down a path of integrity.

And for Godssakes, let us know how this turned out.