In one of the stranger news items of the day BLUFF Magazine reported that there was an issue with marked cards at the final table of the $1k No limit Holdem taking place at the 2011 WSOP on Tuesday.
The issue came to light only when the players were moved to the final table –which is heavily lighted due to the television cameras rolling—and it was longtime poker pro Jon “PearlJammer” Turner who first noticed something amiss. Turner informed WSOP Officials that the 4 of Spades had a mark on it, and after looking through the other cards in the deck it seems all of the Spades form the 2 through the 5 had an identical mark!
The cards were then replaced with a new, fresh out of the box deck, but were found to have the same identical marks! This was either some type of premeditated elaborate scam, an inside job, or the cards were just faulty from the printing process –my money would be on the last one, but you never really can be sure when millions of dollars are on the line.
Play was then halted for some time while tournament officials determined how best to proceed. The end result was that the table was moved to an outer table –away from the glaring lights—where it was determined the marks were unable to be seen; apparently only visible under the lights of the feature table.
While it seems to be a very minor incident it will be interesting to see if anything more comes of this, and hopefully it shows players that they must still protect themselves at the poker tables.
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