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What Is The Best Way To Deal With Alleged Poker Cheaters?
During Partouche Poker Tour in November 2010 Ali Tekintamgac was disqualified by the tournament director. It was alleged that Tekintamgac received collaboration from a member of press revealing him the hole cards of his opponents while playing at the final table, chip leading and standing to win €1,300,000. The tournament director obviously had enough conclusive evidence to intervene and prohibit Tekintamgac’s further participation in PPT. It was also alleged that he was cheating in a similar manner in EPT Tallinn as well. In May 2010 Tekintamgac was banned from a tournament in Czech Republic for allegedly gathering casino chips prior the tournament. Unfortunately Tekintamgac’s situation is not an isolated incident. Kadir Karabulut, a Turkish player, allegedly used the same tactic to gather the information of other players’ cards at Holland Casino Dom Classic in January this year. A few years ago Men Nguyen was found with a suitcase of tournament poker chips in his hotel room, on top of numerous allegations of various poker players that members of his team, players staked by Nguyen, slow playing and chip dumping to him. Should players, who have been suspected of cheating before, be allowed to enter future tournaments? Should there be any consequences to bear if you are cheating? How should poker, as an industry, deal with known and possible cheaters? Why do people cheat? The answer to the last question is fairly obvious. Players try to cheat because there is a lot money involved and they think they can get away with it. As there is no governing body in the world of live poker, there is no one to impose a set of strict rules and policies that would make players caught in disgrace pay for it. If you try to cheat and get caught in other walks of life you usually have to pay a fair price for that. People are punished for breaking rules and governing bodies are there to keep an eye for possible offences. Try you cheat with your taxes and should it come to light, you get a fine and a possibility of a jail sentence. If an athlete is failed his steroid test he is disqualified from the sport for a long time. In our view similar disqualification rules should apply to poker tournaments. Casinos around the world have internal black lists of people who are not welcome and names of known cheaters should be added to those lists. Tournament organises have a duty to protect other players who pay their money to join the tournament hoping to enjoy the playing poker and not to be on a look out and wonder what that person next to you, who is known to cheat before, is up to and how many aces he is holding in the sleeve. Would you like to pay any money let alone $25,000 buy-in for a “privilege” to sit next one of a known cheater? Poker players should possibly also take a stand and maybe refuse to play on those terms, to make tournament organizers listen and take actions. Removal of one player out the tournament and a full refund of his money will not make a big dent to the prize pool but will make a world of difference to poker’s integrity and reputation. One can surely appreciate the frustration of Daniel Negreanu when he confronted Tekintamgak in front of Bellagio. Unfortunately when security intervened, they asked a wrong man to leave. Tournament organizers cannot expect honest players to willingly share a table with known offenders. It is time for live poker tournaments directors to take a similar policy as online poker rooms have in place. Online all poker tables monitored very closely and anyone found to be breaking rules faces severe consequences for such actions in many cases a permanent ban from the online poker room. Any types of possible collusion, chip dumping or team playing are not tolerated online and lead to player’s accounts being closed. Most of online poker promotions specify the maxim amount of hours players are allowed to play to ensure that the accounts are used by the account holders and no one has an advantage through cheating through multi accounting. Online poker tournaments are constantly observed. Recently Jose “Girah” Macedo, a young poker prodigy, winner of Bluff Pro Challenge has been disqualified when it came to light that his account was used by more than person. Although it later he issued a statement, apologized and explained that the account was used without his permission, the decision to award the winner’s prize to the player in second place shows that violation of the rules and fairness of the competition is taken very seriously. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Unleashed Poker is an online poker room licensed and regulated in Curacao. In this artice we are thinking of how should poker, as an industry, deal with alleged cheaters? It is time for live poker tournaments directors to take a similar policy as online poker rooms have in place. |
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