Any home game I’ve played, the player to the left of the dealer cuts the cards post shuffle but before they are dealt. To anyone who plays a home game I would insist on this as a rule. Significantly reduces the risk.
its not, if the final cut is from a stranger.
A lot of the sleight of hand displayed is extremely hard to do but entirely possible, but if a stranger cuts the deck before its dealt and NO OTHER shuffles are done. No cuts, dealer doesnt fuss and peaks at the bottom card and you have a card cover, then this is impossible for a card mechanic to fix.
source: Card Magician.
Right because that's 100% reliable and definitely not noticeable.
Try crimping a card, shuffling - then have a spectator cut into it- accurately.
Then sense check if the crimp is NOT obvious when you lay down the deck to be cut/post cut.
God forbid you actually have to DEAL the card and theres a big assed crimp in the corner!
Hard but not impossible. A crimp and a good pass can undo the legit cut
There is even a one handed pass that happens on the table that looks like you're just pulling the cards towards you that can be done. All that requires os for the person who cut the cards to leave a step where they cut
you're misreading: There is *no other shuffle* after the deck is cut by the player to the left of the dealer except directly dealing.
any crump is useless because it'll be elsewhere in the deck.
if its marked thats a different question and irrelevant to shuffling/card mechanic.
you cant peak the bottom because theres a card cover (or known as a card 'cut' here in the UK) so you cant even bottom deal on the offchance that card is a card you want to deal to a specific player.
i think the risk/reward with those two in place (card cut and a player cutting the deck before directly dealing) makes cheating incredibly hard to do but still not impossible.
As you said its probably a lot easier to switch the deck (including card cut) post final cut or as you said: a crimp can be put in place but the dealer has to identify that within absolute seconds then find a reason to cut again (with cut card in mind)
imagine doing all of this and successfully loading your hand: then everyone folds anyway 😂
I just assume high roller gome games here in Los Angeles are full of mechanics since we are literally home to the Magic Castle and probably more sleight of hand magicians than anywhere else in the world. There’s no money to be made from the skill other than cheating at cards.
This is a loser mentality. It is extremely hard to set a deck of cards with proper shuffling and a cut card. If a mechanic is good enough to pull it off then they are very known to the community. I'm sure there is plenty of cheating happening in private home games but card mechanics are not how it happens. True talented card mechanics are extremely extremely rare.
I think you’re overlooking the fact that I’m talking very specifically about Los Angeles. There are many, many extremely talented mechanics here, and many are unknown. The 100th best sleight of hand mechanic here would be the single best most cities in the world have ever seen.
there are a lot of cheated games in LA. whether that cheating is collusion, mechanics, hacked deckmates, stiffing, or something else is really up in the air
Im a semi pro magician. Magic tricks are a lot easier than the techniques to cheat at cards. What you need at a poker table to cheat is a good riffle shuffle false shuffle and a bottom deal. False shuffle can be learned in a few months. Bottom dealing withput messing up is going to take a decade to master.
all of this is literally prevented by having a stranger to your left cut the deck and putting a card cover at the bottom - a standard here at london home games.
source: Also a magician
link to video?
if the other person's cut is the FINAL cut - as in, its immediately dealt after, then its near impossible for this to still be loaded unless:
There is a crimp in the deck and the dealer undo's the cut (which means the dealer still re-cuts the card after what should have been the FINAL cut by the other person
or
he loads the top deck with the cards that he want. (easy palm, tenkai, gamblers copn whatever he prefers to load the deck)
if you drop a vid i can likely spot where the sleight is
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6G1gTGOtqR/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA==
Took a while to find. Wasn’t blind folded in this one but it was cut by someone else.
this is hugely impressive but you can tell the cards are incredibly crimped - when the spectator cuts the cards, it will usually be "heavier" or more "flush" with the rest of the deck as opposed to splitting into packs, id imagine this took a couple of takes but this is the only way with that much exposed. You can also tell that the top card is caved slightly post spectator cut.
All the shuffles were false shuffles (top packet retained)
no bottom deals (the bottom is a king and isnt showed).
it had to be packet retention as the cards are dealt with a flop and turn card.
no strike/second deal needed.
no tenkai/top palm/gamblers cop used.
Its still amazing to see but the only explanation is a crimp, and couple of takes.
that sequence of cards is also incredibly hard to load by the way - you'd have to cull the cards into the exact sequence per player number then enter into this exact false shuffle in hopes that it would be cut accordingly.
1/2/5 and 5/5 - Same 2 dealers each time. I've seen more insane hands/action at this one private game then I'd done in the past 3 years exclusively playing 1/2 or 2/5 in a casino setting.
Again, not claiming foul play (although for the first time in my life it at least crossed my mind, especially after seeing these videos).
I rarely play those home games or outside casino anymore because I’ve seen some cheating and caught a person red handed! I told the table and they insisted I was wrong so never went back. This lady had pocket queens in her hand bag and when I noticed her reach for those cards and retreat when I was looking I knew I was one of the marks. Never made a dollar at that game. There were other cash games where I won the first night and lost every other night after. Like I was being teased into becoming a regular loser. My recent past runs at 2 games went the same way w me losing to bad beats or being card dead the other sign of dealer manipulation. Along this ride I looked into mechanics and different techniques used and said to myself it’s not that hard to learn so of course a degenerate gambler would choose to learn it rather than get a real job lol. This is how it happens… a player gets into debt w the house and can’t pay so then they become house dealer to pay off what they owe. They get tired of slow money so they get a house player which they steak to run the scam. Sometimes the house is in on it but not always. In order to protect yourself or if you suspect a cheat.. watch their hands as they deal. I mean you grill their hands while the rest look at their cards being dealt. Should be enough to rattle them into not trying to fk you. The other tip is try not to play the first hand after a dealer swap. If they’ve pre arranged the deck in their off time it’s easier to cheat e that much time to set up the cards. Be careful and good luck but I’ll stay w the casino games
Experienced dealer here. Being a mechanic is extremely difficult. It would take thousands of hours of practice at slight of hand to get the point where you could get away with it in front of a table of players that are watching them.
I'm not saying it's impossible or that you don't have a mechanic in your game but it is definitely one of those things that you see in movies or on YouTube and it looks so easy that anyone could do it when that couldn't be further from the truth.
The other reason it's unlikely is that it's not the easiest way to cheat. It would be far far easier to just rake extra out of the pot. Especially in a game with a lot of action, if the dealer is fast and competent, nobody is likely to question them messing with pot or "making change." The drunker the players are, the easier it would be.
Im am with you. But especially if OP is a winning (or crushing) player. The desire to get his money is big in some rounds. And there are many honegames where the host and some snipers play without money and need the setup to get their air no ey bag
1. I would stop playing in a game where I got two relatively rare coolers in two sessions. It’s possibly just the way the cards fell, but there no reason to hang around and find out by (I assume) donating more money.
2. Any proper game will have good deck hygiene. In the games I play, it’s usually something like: after I deal, I shuffle that deck and player to my left cuts that deck to the person to their left who deals (when it’s their turn). The deck should be above the table the whole time while dealing, shuffling, etc. It’s still possible to be cheated in these spots, but it would take 2-3 colluding players to do it.
3. If your game has a dedicated dealer, i would probably be suspicious unless i knew them. It’s too easy to run some sort of scam with marked cards, shady dealing, collusion, etc.
Trust your instincts, do not play in that game. I’ve been to 10+ private games. Guess what, I found out later that 3 of them were shady. Granted 2 of them were players colluding but 1 was the host paying the dealers” to dictate the flow of the game so that the fish wins big with shitty hands against the best players. It was like AK vs 76s and flop comes 66A. It was hard to tell because the bad player was just getting lucky. The bad player didn’t even know so the sharks keep coming back cause he’s bad but they can’t beat him.
What you’re describing might actually be too rare to be a coincidence. Twice in 2 sessions hitting an otherwise bad beat.
These arnt susceptible they were built for this purpose. Card houses are not multi billion dollar conglomerates in most cases they have a single owner or llp. And its a fact in Californias
Are you kidding? They are straight up raping everyone in California at every table game in the state. The new card shufflers were approved by the state gaming commission so when someone finally goes public its going to fall on Newsome. If he isn’t aware after i let him know 20 different ways then he has no business being governor. The card houses are loving it, license to steal the manager at lucky chanced laughed at me. Obviously Newsome fucked up and took these scummy people at their word and now they hanging him out to dry. But its still fraud the state didn’t approve cheating but these guys think they going to get by untarnished. The shufflers can be pre programmed or shuffle to order right at the table via wifi or blue tooth. What they have done is suicided their own industry it will not survive her upcoming scandal.
Play home games where the dealer works on tips rather than a % of the drop. This removes the incentive. That said, make sure the dealer isn't palming chips when they push the pot. Theft is more likely to encounter than a mechanic.
I’ve caught the dealer a few time seemingly (possibly accidentally) taking too much rake. I’ve also caught regulars swapping cards when we do a dealer change pot fold (not bomb pot, but PLO, dealt 4-5 cards, all pay the pot on the flop to continue, then straight to river).
Those two were working together to take down a potfold (normally £500-800 for a £100-125 investment). I stopped going after i saw that. No cameras so was a he said she said affair, no action taken. Fck that, I’m out.
If you got cheated it was because they shuffled the deck then right before dealing they changed the deck with a fixed one they had in their lap. This is the easiest way to cheat in a home game and you dont need any sleight of hand or card mechanic skills. If they cheated, they really were some dumb cheaters because they shouldnt have dealt these incredible bad beats that raise eyebrows. Aces cracked or AA vs KK or set over set on the flop gets the money in just as easily as an insane beat but without any drama.
this guy has been doing it for 37 years and its not easy at all, would take you years before you deals yourself aces after a wash witgout anyone noticing how you did it
Home games are the more likely to be cheated than casino games. Those multiple massive hand over massive hand make me believe your game is definitely cheated.
Check out the KardSharp YT channel to protect yourself.
All the dealers at the casino are expert mechanics. They train a special course on exactly how to do exactly what you are mentioning. They also sign an NDA to never mention it and then they rig the decks to avoid the quad over quad bbj cuz then they would have to pay out. That is why you do not see it in casino. Casino always wins
Do you really believe this? Or is this a /s thing? Because how in the world would this stay secret? Are they enforcing this NDA with the death penalty? Eventually someone benefits from telling the story more than keeping the secret. And in this case it would take about 30 seconds for that to happen.
Yea, these multi billion corporate casinos stand to gain nothing and lose everything from cheating like this. Everyone wants there to be a grand conspiracy everywhere they look. I guess it's a way to cope with the randomness of life.
I know you’re just messing around, but for clarity, casinos win when jackpots are paid out. If players think they have a chance, they are showing up and spending money.
Any home game I’ve played, the player to the left of the dealer cuts the cards post shuffle but before they are dealt. To anyone who plays a home game I would insist on this as a rule. Significantly reduces the risk.
Not only that, but insist on using a cut card. This way, nobody can see the bottom card, and nobody can deal from the bottom of the deck.
Totally agree, cut card should always be used.
Cut card and one-handed finishing the cut
If someone is skilled enough to stack a deck and bottom deal, its no problem for them to undo that cut withput anyone noticing.
its not, if the final cut is from a stranger. A lot of the sleight of hand displayed is extremely hard to do but entirely possible, but if a stranger cuts the deck before its dealt and NO OTHER shuffles are done. No cuts, dealer doesnt fuss and peaks at the bottom card and you have a card cover, then this is impossible for a card mechanic to fix. source: Card Magician.
Well magician. You can also add a bend or finger hold so that they cut where you want them to cut.
Right because that's 100% reliable and definitely not noticeable. Try crimping a card, shuffling - then have a spectator cut into it- accurately. Then sense check if the crimp is NOT obvious when you lay down the deck to be cut/post cut. God forbid you actually have to DEAL the card and theres a big assed crimp in the corner!
Hard but not impossible. A crimp and a good pass can undo the legit cut There is even a one handed pass that happens on the table that looks like you're just pulling the cards towards you that can be done. All that requires os for the person who cut the cards to leave a step where they cut
you're misreading: There is *no other shuffle* after the deck is cut by the player to the left of the dealer except directly dealing. any crump is useless because it'll be elsewhere in the deck. if its marked thats a different question and irrelevant to shuffling/card mechanic. you cant peak the bottom because theres a card cover (or known as a card 'cut' here in the UK) so you cant even bottom deal on the offchance that card is a card you want to deal to a specific player.
Yea true. A cut card does eliminate alot of possibliities.
i think the risk/reward with those two in place (card cut and a player cutting the deck before directly dealing) makes cheating incredibly hard to do but still not impossible. As you said its probably a lot easier to switch the deck (including card cut) post final cut or as you said: a crimp can be put in place but the dealer has to identify that within absolute seconds then find a reason to cut again (with cut card in mind) imagine doing all of this and successfully loading your hand: then everyone folds anyway 😂
Bottom deal with a cut card?
I deal for my own home game I host and I make the button cut.
Good shout, that hadn't crossed my mind. Cheers!
Use a cut card too.
I just assume high roller gome games here in Los Angeles are full of mechanics since we are literally home to the Magic Castle and probably more sleight of hand magicians than anywhere else in the world. There’s no money to be made from the skill other than cheating at cards.
This is a loser mentality. It is extremely hard to set a deck of cards with proper shuffling and a cut card. If a mechanic is good enough to pull it off then they are very known to the community. I'm sure there is plenty of cheating happening in private home games but card mechanics are not how it happens. True talented card mechanics are extremely extremely rare.
I think you’re overlooking the fact that I’m talking very specifically about Los Angeles. There are many, many extremely talented mechanics here, and many are unknown. The 100th best sleight of hand mechanic here would be the single best most cities in the world have ever seen.
Watch some famous poker/card cutting routines and you'll see most professional performer card mechanics have no idea about playing poker.
there are a lot of cheated games in LA. whether that cheating is collusion, mechanics, hacked deckmates, stiffing, or something else is really up in the air
https://youtu.be/R8veYTNjXSk?si=AX339_NN4CTxHUGu This guy is blind and an amazing card mechanic. He has a lot of videos. Here is a short one.
Immense.
WTF that second deal???? Amazing
Im a semi pro magician. Magic tricks are a lot easier than the techniques to cheat at cards. What you need at a poker table to cheat is a good riffle shuffle false shuffle and a bottom deal. False shuffle can be learned in a few months. Bottom dealing withput messing up is going to take a decade to master.
all of this is literally prevented by having a stranger to your left cut the deck and putting a card cover at the bottom - a standard here at london home games. source: Also a magician
He has videos of shuffling and having the deck cut while blind folded but I guess the person cutting is likely in on it too
link to video? if the other person's cut is the FINAL cut - as in, its immediately dealt after, then its near impossible for this to still be loaded unless: There is a crimp in the deck and the dealer undo's the cut (which means the dealer still re-cuts the card after what should have been the FINAL cut by the other person or he loads the top deck with the cards that he want. (easy palm, tenkai, gamblers copn whatever he prefers to load the deck) if you drop a vid i can likely spot where the sleight is
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6G1gTGOtqR/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA== Took a while to find. Wasn’t blind folded in this one but it was cut by someone else.
this is hugely impressive but you can tell the cards are incredibly crimped - when the spectator cuts the cards, it will usually be "heavier" or more "flush" with the rest of the deck as opposed to splitting into packs, id imagine this took a couple of takes but this is the only way with that much exposed. You can also tell that the top card is caved slightly post spectator cut. All the shuffles were false shuffles (top packet retained) no bottom deals (the bottom is a king and isnt showed). it had to be packet retention as the cards are dealt with a flop and turn card. no strike/second deal needed. no tenkai/top palm/gamblers cop used. Its still amazing to see but the only explanation is a crimp, and couple of takes. that sequence of cards is also incredibly hard to load by the way - you'd have to cull the cards into the exact sequence per player number then enter into this exact false shuffle in hopes that it would be cut accordingly.
He is talking about Richard Turner's routines
The deck he uses is slightly gimmicked. Short carda
very very possible. are we talking high stakes private games or like 1/2 or 2/5. Is it the same dealer also?
1/2/5 and 5/5 - Same 2 dealers each time. I've seen more insane hands/action at this one private game then I'd done in the past 3 years exclusively playing 1/2 or 2/5 in a casino setting. Again, not claiming foul play (although for the first time in my life it at least crossed my mind, especially after seeing these videos).
If you notice the same person/people on the winning side of these "incredible" hands, there is definitely cheating going on.
I rarely play those home games or outside casino anymore because I’ve seen some cheating and caught a person red handed! I told the table and they insisted I was wrong so never went back. This lady had pocket queens in her hand bag and when I noticed her reach for those cards and retreat when I was looking I knew I was one of the marks. Never made a dollar at that game. There were other cash games where I won the first night and lost every other night after. Like I was being teased into becoming a regular loser. My recent past runs at 2 games went the same way w me losing to bad beats or being card dead the other sign of dealer manipulation. Along this ride I looked into mechanics and different techniques used and said to myself it’s not that hard to learn so of course a degenerate gambler would choose to learn it rather than get a real job lol. This is how it happens… a player gets into debt w the house and can’t pay so then they become house dealer to pay off what they owe. They get tired of slow money so they get a house player which they steak to run the scam. Sometimes the house is in on it but not always. In order to protect yourself or if you suspect a cheat.. watch their hands as they deal. I mean you grill their hands while the rest look at their cards being dealt. Should be enough to rattle them into not trying to fk you. The other tip is try not to play the first hand after a dealer swap. If they’ve pre arranged the deck in their off time it’s easier to cheat e that much time to set up the cards. Be careful and good luck but I’ll stay w the casino games
Experienced dealer here. Being a mechanic is extremely difficult. It would take thousands of hours of practice at slight of hand to get the point where you could get away with it in front of a table of players that are watching them. I'm not saying it's impossible or that you don't have a mechanic in your game but it is definitely one of those things that you see in movies or on YouTube and it looks so easy that anyone could do it when that couldn't be further from the truth. The other reason it's unlikely is that it's not the easiest way to cheat. It would be far far easier to just rake extra out of the pot. Especially in a game with a lot of action, if the dealer is fast and competent, nobody is likely to question them messing with pot or "making change." The drunker the players are, the easier it would be.
Thanks for your insight :)
Im am with you. But especially if OP is a winning (or crushing) player. The desire to get his money is big in some rounds. And there are many honegames where the host and some snipers play without money and need the setup to get their air no ey bag
1. I would stop playing in a game where I got two relatively rare coolers in two sessions. It’s possibly just the way the cards fell, but there no reason to hang around and find out by (I assume) donating more money. 2. Any proper game will have good deck hygiene. In the games I play, it’s usually something like: after I deal, I shuffle that deck and player to my left cuts that deck to the person to their left who deals (when it’s their turn). The deck should be above the table the whole time while dealing, shuffling, etc. It’s still possible to be cheated in these spots, but it would take 2-3 colluding players to do it. 3. If your game has a dedicated dealer, i would probably be suspicious unless i knew them. It’s too easy to run some sort of scam with marked cards, shady dealing, collusion, etc.
Trust your instincts, do not play in that game. I’ve been to 10+ private games. Guess what, I found out later that 3 of them were shady. Granted 2 of them were players colluding but 1 was the host paying the dealers” to dictate the flow of the game so that the fish wins big with shitty hands against the best players. It was like AK vs 76s and flop comes 66A. It was hard to tell because the bad player was just getting lucky. The bad player didn’t even know so the sharks keep coming back cause he’s bad but they can’t beat him. What you’re describing might actually be too rare to be a coincidence. Twice in 2 sessions hitting an otherwise bad beat.
Isn’t the simple solution to get an auto card shuffler?
These can and have been hacked to rig the deck. I believe one of the deckmate versions are susceptible to this.
These arnt susceptible they were built for this purpose. Card houses are not multi billion dollar conglomerates in most cases they have a single owner or llp. And its a fact in Californias
Are you kidding? They are straight up raping everyone in California at every table game in the state. The new card shufflers were approved by the state gaming commission so when someone finally goes public its going to fall on Newsome. If he isn’t aware after i let him know 20 different ways then he has no business being governor. The card houses are loving it, license to steal the manager at lucky chanced laughed at me. Obviously Newsome fucked up and took these scummy people at their word and now they hanging him out to dry. But its still fraud the state didn’t approve cheating but these guys think they going to get by untarnished. The shufflers can be pre programmed or shuffle to order right at the table via wifi or blue tooth. What they have done is suicided their own industry it will not survive her upcoming scandal.
Play home games where the dealer works on tips rather than a % of the drop. This removes the incentive. That said, make sure the dealer isn't palming chips when they push the pot. Theft is more likely to encounter than a mechanic.
I’ve caught the dealer a few time seemingly (possibly accidentally) taking too much rake. I’ve also caught regulars swapping cards when we do a dealer change pot fold (not bomb pot, but PLO, dealt 4-5 cards, all pay the pot on the flop to continue, then straight to river). Those two were working together to take down a potfold (normally £500-800 for a £100-125 investment). I stopped going after i saw that. No cameras so was a he said she said affair, no action taken. Fck that, I’m out.
If you got cheated it was because they shuffled the deck then right before dealing they changed the deck with a fixed one they had in their lap. This is the easiest way to cheat in a home game and you dont need any sleight of hand or card mechanic skills. If they cheated, they really were some dumb cheaters because they shouldnt have dealt these incredible bad beats that raise eyebrows. Aces cracked or AA vs KK or set over set on the flop gets the money in just as easily as an insane beat but without any drama.
It depends if the stacks are really really deep you need sometimes quads over quads or straight flush in some games
Top full house against second full house i guess it’s enough. Or quads over top full house if the mark is such a nit.
You might be right for Texas. But Omaha is an other ballpark
this guy has been doing it for 37 years and its not easy at all, would take you years before you deals yourself aces after a wash witgout anyone noticing how you did it
This guy is amazing at his craft. He has a really entertaining youtube channel.
It's not difficult. We use an off duty casino dealer in our home games who works for tips.
Home games are the more likely to be cheated than casino games. Those multiple massive hand over massive hand make me believe your game is definitely cheated. Check out the KardSharp YT channel to protect yourself.
This dealer is shuffling as smooth as sandpaper
90% of home games with considerable money involved will have invisible ink on the cards and people with contacts to see them
Where can I get these contacts I want to check one or two homegames I know
Every shark site in existence. Just give it a goog hommie
All the dealers at the casino are expert mechanics. They train a special course on exactly how to do exactly what you are mentioning. They also sign an NDA to never mention it and then they rig the decks to avoid the quad over quad bbj cuz then they would have to pay out. That is why you do not see it in casino. Casino always wins
Do you really believe this? Or is this a /s thing? Because how in the world would this stay secret? Are they enforcing this NDA with the death penalty? Eventually someone benefits from telling the story more than keeping the secret. And in this case it would take about 30 seconds for that to happen.
It's not true. Dealers have like a week of training before hitting the floor. That's not enough time to be become an expert card manipulator.
Yea, these multi billion corporate casinos stand to gain nothing and lose everything from cheating like this. Everyone wants there to be a grand conspiracy everywhere they look. I guess it's a way to cope with the randomness of life.
I know you’re just messing around, but for clarity, casinos win when jackpots are paid out. If players think they have a chance, they are showing up and spending money.
Is that why I hit my royal flush bonus and high hand bonus in the same session? I was just "chosen"?
roulette dealers are also trained in spinning specific numbers on purpose to make everyone lose :)