The Crippled Hustler.....

When I am playing a poker tournament I generally let everyone do their own thing and don't nit pick on players errors often. Occasionally if I view something as blatant cheating I will make a complaint. Here is one such instance....

I was playing a forty runner tournament at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. On my table were a husband and wife, the wife had to be assisted into her chair from a wheelchair. She was a bit dribbly and all but seemed to know what she was doing, before long she had almost trebled her stack. Just before the break her husband busted out and within seconds she said she felt ill. She spoke to the cardroom manager and he asked us if we minded if she left? Basically we assumed he meant refund her money from the prizepool and we all said ok. Then her husband went to sit down and take her place, i said what the hell is going on here? Cardroom manager says do you object to her husband taking her place? This is Las Vegas the cardroom manager should never even have considered this option. I said of course I object he has been busted from a freezeout and can't come back in. I realised there was an outside chance she was genuinely ill and said seeing as you cant refund her entrance fee I will do so from my own pocket and she can just be anted off.

The lady after a bit of what I believed to be a bit of exaggerated dribbles and spasms decides to play on. Now several minutes after its the break, the lady had previously said she hadn't played before and was a beginner. I gave her a basic poker guide which I had picked up from the expo at the WSOP. As soon as the break was announced, she blew her cover! Her hand reached straight into her purse and she pulled out some money and asked for the add on. What novice player would be aware of an add on at the break before it was announced? Who feeling ill several minutes before would then try and purchase more chips? When she requested the add on a few of us smiled at eachother, clearly a hustle gone wrong for 'Team Cripple'.

The one other time in Las Vegas when I complained was during a small tournament at Planet Hollywood. Approximately 70 runners so it still paid a fair bit. The usual suspects animal, unstable, pirus, azimut had busted out early. Whenever my friends bust out early I will happily just throw my chips away and go to the next tournament. After all I am not in Las Vegas to play $100 tournaments, I am entering them for the social side of things. I announced to the table the group of donkeys in the corner were my friends who had already busted and I was going to either bust out or get a big stack and win. Around forty players were left when I made my first all in with a hand like T2o and everyone folded and I showed. Next I had J8s and went all in and beat AQ, then virtually every hand after I had a huge hand like AK KK AA AQ TT JJ and kept getting callers, I was now one of the chip leaders.....

Then this hand happened, utg raises and utg+1 smooth calls and I look down at QQ and move all in. It is folded to the initial raiser who asks the guy next to him if he is going to call me. I immediately objected and requested his hand to be dead, with the blinds and raiser and callers chips I was happy enough just to take the pot down there. When I complain the guy gets aggitated and starts saying I have not done anything wrong. The cardroom manager comes over and asks what was said, he immediately declares the raisers hand dead but the person after who said he was going to call did not have his hand killed. He called me with AQ and he was also on the rail. I now had plenty of chips and went on to make the final table.

Every single all in the short stack survived and before long the blinds were ridiculously high. I cannot remember my exact finish but it was around 5th after several outdraws. The one highlight of the tournament though was the lovely Kristy Arnett from cardplayer sitting next to me on the final table. Good looking and she can sure play a good game also!

So all players if ever you feel something shady has gone down on a table don't hesistate to ask for the tournament director to make a ruling. It can create a bit of a bad vibe on the table but at least you are still in the tournament and have not been cheated out of it.