Thanks for all the feedback, at least for most of it… Some general reflections:
Poker attracts all sorts of people, and that’s part of the greatness and allure of the game.
In my community, there is a lot of segregation by background and professions. Poker is the one place I’ve found where none of that matters.
I’ve played at the same table with a convicted arsonist and a Republican judge. With a billionaire philanthropist and a guy who stocks shelves at the supermarket. With a retired national ad exec and a dive bar bartender. With a State trooper and a drug dealer.
I’ve played (and had a great conversation) with a guy who I later learned was under indictment and awaiting trial for embezzlement of government funds. Played with carpenters and dairy farmers and Vietnam vets and photographers and journalists. Trumpers and Socialists.
I even played—several times—with two young guys and a trans woman who didn’t return for the next session because soon thereafter ***they were all charged with murder.*** And convicted. (They were loose, careless, fun poker players, and seemed really quite nice. So much for player profiling.)
And yes, I’ve played for many years with a tableful of people I’d have trusted to hold $100K in cash for me, one of whom turned out to be unworthy of such trust. Live and learn. And hope others are learning, too.
This to me is the most remarkable thing about poker—that it leads lots of people of different backgrounds to sit around the same table.
None of the above excuses the cheat in question. It does, however, highlight the fact that just by playing poker you are sitting down with and taking risks with all kinds of people. We try to be good judges of character, but people are endlessly surprising.
I think many delude themselves that *their* game and *their* friends are different. I’d wager that everyone here has been cheated at cards at least once. Not that I like it, nor wish to invite it, contrary to a few of the more manichaean suggestions above.
As a host, it’s always about managing risk; it can’t be 100% eliminated. Our private games have never been held up, or raided. But that kind of thing could still happen any time, despite all my precautions.
Reintroducing this particular person after a 3.5 year ban—someone who grew up in my hometown, whose family knew mine, who has deep relationships with the rest of my regs, and whose issues are well known to the group—is yet another managed risk among many raised by hosting. I think things are well under control, and possibly even less perilous than some of the other sticky situations I just mentioned. My take—which may turn out disastrously wrong, or not—is that he’s currently *less* likely to cheat than anyone else, given the trajectory of his story. It’s my job to keep a close eye on that, and I have help.
Good news for those who disagree: You don’t have to play in my game.
Host the way you want to and make your own character assessments. I am comfortable that my game is as secure as any. That is: Only as secure as one can reasonably expect given the nature of poker.
