what do you do when you find a cheater in your game?

[efridge 0]

I was playing in a weekly low buyin mixed game at a friend's house Friday night having a good time and talking to friends about current events, movies, the oscars, etc... To my right was a kid that never wins and is constantly rebuying in and losing it. Well tonight he had more chips than anyone at the table. I didn't think anything of it because anyone can have a lucky streak, no matter how bad you are. However, later in the evening i was looking down scratching the back of my head and I notice that he deals himself a card from the bottom of the deck (like in the movie 'Rounders'). I had just assumed that I had just made a mistake, but I decided to keep watching...and sure enough, the last card he dealt himself came off the bottom of the deck. The hand/game in question was pot limit omaha hi/lo split. I take a look at my garbage hand and muck and watch the rest of the hand. There is a little betting before the flop and it comes AAQo. Two people check and someone from middle position bets and the kid to my right re-raised the pot. The other guy folded and I asked to see his hand. Sure enough it read A2Q3 and the 2 cards he dealt himself from the bottom was the a2. He then got real nervous and cashed out his chips and left. What do you do in that situation? Where you think you found someone cheat, but you have no way to prove it? I told the guy that ran the game what I had seen in private, but I didn't want to make the information public because a) if I was wrong, I wouldn't want it to come back on me and B) it was already public knowlege that I didn't like the kid and I didn't want people to think I'm just trying to start drama.What would you do?-Efridge

[Petoria 0]

It's a good idea to let the guy who runs the game know in private. I also have a story like this. First night as a freshman in college, I find a bunch of guys who want to play some poker, so we set up a game. About 2 hours in, one of the guys says to stop the pot at the end of the hand and not to give the chips to this one player. Most of us were pretty confused, but he then told everyone that the kid gave himself the best hand. Originally the accusation was denied, but eventually after he broke into a sweat and couldnt even speak without studdering, and admitted it. What we did was give the pot to the other player in the pot at the end. Then told the cheat, "If we catch you doing that again, we're going to take your money, we'll beat the s**t out of you, and you'll never get another poker on campus. Is that clear?" Well we played the rest of the night, and he's never come to play poker with us again.I think it solved the problem, the kid lost all the money he had in front of him by the end of the night.

[Randy Reed 0]

Bullet to the forehead

[KDawgCometh 2]

honestly, let him do it again and beat his ass up. Tell everyone to notice and catch him

[Chez52 0]

In most of the games I play I just play with friends. Ive known these kid for a long time so the games are always cheat free. But sometimes we let freinds of freinds play when we want a bigger or new people. Cheating has never come up, but what i would have done in your situation is point it out the table. You saw him deal out of the bottom of the deck and hes usually a losing player. But he has a stack of chips in front of him. So if you would have bused him right there (like in Rouders) people prob would have believed you. As for what i would have done. I would give the pot to the other player that was in hand.....if there was more people i would split it. I would take whatever money he had and divide it among the table. IF he wouldnt cooperate then I would beat his ass. Cheaters are idiots if they think they will always get away with it. They are disrespecting the game and will get thiers in the end

[Smasharoo 0]

Let him cheat and kill him when you have good hands.It's unlikely he's controlling any cards but those he deals to himself.

[scrummie2 0]

Had something like this out here -- one of the undergrads at the university in town was hosting a NL tourney with a $20 buy in every weekend. Turns out he was giving himself, over the course of the tourney, double the starting chips. He actually ended up getting hauled before the school's honor board IIRC

[deviper 0]

If i were you i would of said something right when i saw him deal off the bottom. I cant beleave you let him get away with out saying anything to him. I know if i found someone cheating i would make sure that they would never do it again.

[Petoria 0]

Ok smash thats easier said than done. In Omaha H/L, he has 2 chances for the nuts. It's most likely that he'll give himself something like A23. If that is the normal game his cheating will cost people alot of money. The worst thing you could do is let him keep doing that.

[RonBurgundy 0]

2 words: swift kick to the nuts :x

[akishore 0]

just my two cents...what you did was fine. don't make it public because you could be wrong. i would also discuss it privately with the cheater, and tell him to just not do it again, because you know, but that you haven't told the rest of the game because you don't want a friendly game to get ruined. just knowing that someone can see you're cheating is usually enough to stop a cheater.don't tell the rest of the people or beat the shit out of him or plan to break him with better hands, etc., because i'm assuming he's a friend. and everyone f*cks up sometime in life, at least forgive him as a friend and give him a second chance.aseem

[theresa113 0]

It sounds like you did the right thing.

[jonnyz 0]

I agree with smash let him keep cheating because he is obviously a ****ing moron if he is cheating at O8. That is probably the worst game to do this kind of cheating because even if he could deal himself 4 great cards (which I doubt) The best hand in O8 is never better than a 60-40 fav over any other hand. If he wants to cheat he should cheat at holdem he can give himself a way bigger edge. Option 2 is to kick him in the bag.

[Nate Dogg OC 0]

I was involved in a somewhat similar situation a year or so ago, when it was down to two other guys and I in a tournament style hold em game at my friends house. It was 3 a.m. and one guy caught the other guy dealing of the bottom to himself, and immediately confronted the guy. We all knew each other pretty well, and we just told the cheater to leave and that we were going to split the pot between ourselves. It was only for $50 so it was not really that big of a deal, but cheating at cards is pretty low. The cheater called me the next morning and apologized and I told him that everyone makes mistakes and not to worry about it. I bet if you confronted your cheater in private and told him firmly that he had better never get caught at it again, he would either quit coming out of embarassment (which is kind of what happened to my cheater), or quit cheating, both of which would stop the problem.

[Socrates 0]

Cut card, not only prevents seeing the bottom card, it eliminates base dealing. If he's good enough to get around that, kick his ass when you catch him.

[SopotBoy 0]

just beat his ass bro

[NormanHaupt 0]

Yeah I gotta say beat his ass too.If he did it anywhere but a friends house, his ass would've been taken out back and beat hard. I'd probably mention it to someone else so they're watching for it too. When it happens again and you jump the kid, you've got some backup that you know someone saw it.You don't cheat or lie if you don't ahve the muscle to back it up, sorry but its an honor game. A breach of this honor can lead to some broken bones.

[Guest Anonymous]

I aint as liberal as the others I would have called him out and said what the fck or at least todl one other perosn to watch him and then fck him up unless he is really a good friend. :evil:

[HtotheNootch 0]

Of course calling him out and possibly other things is fine. However, I think a possibly better move would be to tell everyone else in your game, but don't call him out. Just let him do it, and give him no action when he cheats. He's probably not that good a player, and if his "secret weapon" stops paying off he might get reckless and you can just keep taking his money.

[NormanHaupt 0]

another option, if you're devious, ,is to keep it to yourself. Don't play in his hands, let him take everyone else's money, then just beat on him since he's a poor player.You know you won't break him

[JohnnyCache 0]

I'd point a couple of digicams at him, film it for a week, bust out my copy of Premiere, and when people started to go out of the game the next week, I'd be like, "Hey guys, pop in the DVD on top of the bigscreen. It's a little student film I made." Then I'd get a beer, and, much in the manner of Hannibal Smith, say to myself, "I love it when a plan comes together."

[efridge 0]

Heh, the dvd idea was good. In response to about half of you...I can't beat his ass because he's only 16 years old and would do serious time or have to pay some big fines. He's not a friend of mine, but he's "friends" with alot of people at the game. If it happened at my house he woulda been kicked to the gutter, but since it was at someone else's game...I just told him what i know and let him take it from there.-Efridge

[Jtmaroon84 0]

Burn him! He's a witch!

[DeNuts1 0]

Step 1: Make sure he is bound and gagged.Step 2: Sew a wicker basket to his head and put 2 big rats in there. Step 3: Leave.The rats will eventually get hungry and eat his face. Don't worry about the rats; when there is no more food they will chew their way out of the basket.P.S. Don't cheat at my game.

[wrto4556 0]

honestly, let him do it again and beat his ass up. Tell everyone to notice and catch him

I like this. And then you can add a cut card...but not before.