Poker tournament cheater banned from Hollywood Park

[Alan Mendelson]

It is good to see that a casino protects its tournament players -- even to the point where it kicks a cheater out of a tournament and bans the player from returning to the casino.

This happened at Hollywood Park Casino during its low cost "Facebook Friends Tournament" about two weeks ago. I was at the table where the cheat took place and watched the whole thing unfold.

This was a rebuy tournament, meaning that if you busted out you could buy back into the tournament during the rebuy period which lasted until the first break.

At the end of the rebuy period at the first break, the tournament director made the announcement that short stacks could sacrifice their remaining chips and buy back into the tournament with a full stack. One of the players at my table elected to do that. He sacrificed the remaining three hundred chips he had and bought back into the tournament for $60 and got a full stack of 12,000 chips.

By coincidence his "new seat" was his "old seat." And when he sat down during the break, the 300 chips that he had "sacrificed" had not yet been "picked up." So, the player took the three black chips (100 each) and put them at the bottom of his stack of twelve 1000-chips.

When the other players got back to the table they noticed the three black chips, and one of the players went over to the tournament director and informed him.

The TD came over to the table and made an announcement: if anyone had bought back in, they could not use the chips they had sacrificed to buy back into the tournament. It was an announcement made to the table to give the player a chance to say he had made a mistake.

After a few hands were played, the TD came back to the table and asked the player to step aside. That's when he was confronted. The TD said the player did not apologize or say he made a mistake, and so he was disqualified from the tourney, taken to security, photographed, and banned from returning to the casion.

That was a pretty dramatic consequence for cheating in a $60 Facebook Friends tournament, but the player brought it on himself.

edited to add: I think this type of tournament re-entry is correctly called a "re-entry event" and not a rebuy event. Because there are "rebuy tournaments" where you can buy additional chips and you don't have to sacrifice chips you already have.

[Vegas Vic]

There are cheaters and then there are stupid cheaters.

[redietz]

That was just moronic. Three hundred additional chips is almost worthless there.

[Alan Mendelson]

I forgot the funny part of the story:

When the player left the table the first time, at the break to buy his re-entry, he wasn't wearing anything but a shirt. When he came back to the table he was wearing a hoodie and the hood was pulled over his head and he was wearing sunglasses too.

I don't know if that was supposed to be his "power poker outfit" or if he was trying to disguise himself. LOL

[redietz]

That's really funny. You know, I've always wanted to stockpile some stuff like whathisname wore in the WSOP -- the 3-D lizard eye glasses and similar items, and just come back from each break with a new "look." Maybe get those glasses with the eyes on slinky springs that fall out, or some plastic snot to put on my nose. That hoodie/sunglasses thing is pretty funny.