I had a couple players who outright accused a player of cheating after a session now referred to as Bloody Sunday at my game. I did what I thought best for the integrity of the game and watched the guy like a hawk the next session, then took it way too far (not proud) and took his phone from him to see if he was running a GTO app or something while playing, basically interrogated the guy for damn near an hour (I’m really not proud of this) and did everything possible to put the fear of God in him. He never cracked and didn’t have anything damning against him.
Long story short, he wasn’t cheating. He was running exceptionally well for a few sessions and he’s a LAG.
It took some time and serious effort to smooth things with the player in question. He obviously didn’t come back around for about 2 months. He is now a regular, again. He wins some and losses some. Last weekend he was stuck around $1,400. The weekend before that, think he cashed for $80. Had a nice win the week before that. In other words, variance and normalcy returned.
The players that accused him of cheating…. They’re gone for good. The reason, they told me if he was allowed back, they wouldn’t play. I’m not big on ultimatums or people telling me who is and who isn’t allowed to play in my game. When it was proven player in question was never cheating, I suppose I could have still let him stay gone and retained the crybabies. I asked myself the simple question of what was 1) fair 2) most enjoyable 3) best for the long term health of my game. I’ll take the LAG who reaches for rebuys over and over with a great attitude all day every day. My advice to the other players…play better.
To me, he is possibly the easiest player at the table to exploit. Just let him use his aggression right into a corner and take himself to value town. A couple well placed check raises don’t hurt, either.
It may have been different if the players I lost were dear friends, I suppose. But, tbh, not much. I’d still tell them to play better and quit whining. Replacing players requires effort, but it doesn’t have to be a game killer. Just a minor blip in the grand scheme of things. If your game is safe, fun, fair, etc you’ll have no trouble filling seats with new players.
If the guy is legit cheating…that’s different. You definitely need to know and if he is, get him out of there ASAP. And it’s not the movies. In spite of placing the fear of God in my accused cheater, I never laid a hand on him and planned carefully how to make sure it didn’t come to that. I’m not sending anyone to the hospital and I’m not going to jail. Not for a few bucks anyway.
So, you need to determine if he’s a cheat or if it’s a skill issue first and then decide how your game is best served/protected afterwards. It takes serious brass to come in to someone else’s house and cheat their game. Doing it week after week…that’s balls 99.9% of the population doesn’t have. For me, that eliminates the likelihood of cheating to almost zero without going further. If this is the type of guy that fits that description, watch him carefully. Don’t allow cellphones on the table while playing a hand. I could go on, but I’m sure my point is made. It’s pretty easy to spot cheating when that’s your only concern.
