A father and son poker-cheating pair are back on the loose and may be coming to a game near you if you live on the east coast of the USA according to Twitter reports.
Stay frosty my Tampa peeps.
Looks like a cheating duo is on the loose. Marking cards.
Caught at One Eyed Jacks in Sarasota. pic.twitter.com/NGBxz1uMx7
— Ondrei (@lowstakesdre) October 21, 2024
Though cheating is quite unusual in live poker, this family affair have apparently been at it for at least a decade on and off, from North Jersey down to their latest haunts in Florida.
Invisible Ink and special glasses
Their modus operandi was a common one among modern-day card cheats involving “rubbing invisible ink on the cards and using special glasses to see the marks”, according to the OP on Twitter/X.
That’s the stunt they were pulling the previous year when they were arrested at the Springfield MGM for cheating the 10/25 game. It’s not clear if charges were pressed against the pair.
The case made it to the pages of Poker Fraud Alert, a website run by poker pro Todd Witteles (aka “Dan Druff”) devoted to all manner of cheats and scams in poker, often outing the culprits.
The pair, still unidentified though the father is widely known as “Benny”, have also been accused of cheating as far afield as upstate New York and the Bronx, as well as in Florida.
High-profile Card-Marking Cases
Card marking scams have been around for years and cheating claims appear even at the highest levels of the game, such as last year when Andrew Robl took aim at Czech number one, Martin Kabrhel.
“How is Martin Kabrhel not banned from the WSOP? He makes any tournament no fun for anyone and on top of it I’ve seen him mark cards in every tournament I’ve ever played with him,” tweeted Robl.
His lengthy tirade against the much-disliked Kabrhel was backed up by Brian Rast and others and went viral on poker Twitter, though Kabrhel refuted the allegations.
The high roller community says Martin Kabrhel cheats by marking cards. Interesting stuff, stay tuned for developments. pic.twitter.com/YzTHzHM4YS
— Barstool Poker: Cracking Aces (@CrackingAAces) June 18, 2023
A few months later, Kabrhel’s home casino – the famous King’s Casino in Rozvadov – came under scrutiny for another type of card-marking issue, akin to the infamous Phil Ivey edge-sorting drama. This time it was RFID cards with sloppy printing at the WSOP Europe that caused the issue…
Ivey, as many will recall, used a ‘spotter’ to read such card flaws while playing nosebleed Punto Banco, later losing multiple legal battles over his combined $20million winnings.
It should be pointed out again that such problems within the game are relatively rare and the majority of games and players are very clean and safe to play.
VIP Grinders highlights these cases to ensure the community has the best information to hand to make informed choices. We will always give right of reply to those accused or alleged to have breached rules.
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