A fly in the ointment

Recently, some poker friends of mine and I started a new private poker club. We really had no intention of doing so, but a situation arose that forced me to make a decision.

Like I have said a few times in this blog already, I am a Christian. Unashamedly so! So with being a Christian, I have to maintain a testimony. This testimony if tarnished becomes reduced and ineffective. I try very hard not to let this happen.

I walk a fine line by playing poker. Someone once said that playing poker will show your true self. I find this to be true. If you are quick to make rash decisions, you will do so in poker. If you are patient and smart, it will show through as well. And if you are poor loser and tend to bend the rules to win, unfortunately that will show through as well.

So I mentioned that we started this club. I am going to explain the reason why:

Back in early June, we had a meeting with the old poker club. These meetings were utilized as a way to plan the next event as well as brainstorm ideas. As the meeting dispersed, one of the guys that I trust implicitly pulled me aside and mentioned to me some pretty bad information.

This person told me that he had witnessed someone importing additional chips into play when he colored up his chips. I was crushed. I had no idea that this was happening, but after playing with this accused person for just a few months I believed it. He was told by someone else in the club that it was first noticed in April. I felt terrible. I didn't want to know this!

So I told this person to keep a lid on this information. Maybe this was a one time thing. Maybe he had too much to drink and made a "forgivable mistake". I wasn't going to accuse him based on this information but it was definitely enough for me to investigate.

The last thing you want in a social poker club is a cheater.

The plan was to watch this person at the June event and see what happens...

Let's forward to the next event. Halfway through the event, the guy that told me about the cheating was at the same table as the accused. He watched him import chips during his own color up not just once but TWICE!

He was fuming. I was out early in the event, so at the break he grabbed me and we went outside. He told me about it happening twice right in front of him and he could barely control himself.

I took the information better than I should have. There were two main problems here: One - we had confirmed that there was a cheater in the club and Two - we could not kick the guy out because he was the guy who ran the club!

So we had a multiple confirmation that this guy was cheating. What do we do now?

I discussed the whole situation with another guy in the group that I trusted and felt he had a high degree of integrity. He and I both agreed that since we didn't confront this guy when he was cheating, that the best thing to do would be to try to prevent him from doing it again.

The plan was to not mention anything to anyone in the club and to arrange to elect officers to handle the particulars in the club. We would elect a treasurer to handle the money, and different people to handle chip security et al.

Then we had a meeting to confirm everything. The cheater was there, and we all sat at a table and discussed the use of club officers and EVERYONE AGREED.

Tom was elected as the treasurer, and he got what was considered the books at the time. There were holes all over the place. Huge holes. There were hundreds of dollars that were missing. As he started to push Chris (the cheater) for answers, Chris decided to change HIS MIND and not have a treasurer anymore let alone have anymore officers. He became extremely irate and confrontational about the whole thing.

Sounds like he's guilty to me!

So anyway, after all is said and done - Chris is a CHEATER, A THIEF, and a LIAR!

An of course Chris denies it all. Why not...He is a liar after all.

Back to my testimony. I realized that I made a poor decision in trying to keep this information hidden from the others in the club. This information was relevant to anyone that played there. The only thing to do was contact them and tell them and once each player knew the facts, they could make their own decision.

I could not in good conscience go back and play with that guy ever again. If I did, then I would be just as guilty as him.

I made some phone calls to players that I knew and told them what happened. Some left the club, some didn't. Their choice. We told some people that there was a cheater in the group and they KNEW it was Chris IMMEDIATELY. Some players even admitted to seeing Chris cheat, but had no idea who to talk to or what to say. Other players just stopped coming altogether.

Thanks Chris. Thanks for being a cheater. (Sarcasm!)

With no where to play poker now, a group of us started a new poker club. It is an ethical club with some pretty grand designs. We maintain open financials for any club member to review at any time. We have purchased our own custom chips to prevent anyone from bringing their own. We invoke chip security and other rules to prevent cheating.

We are called the NWA Rounders. You can check us out at www.nwarounders.com

P.S. In the last two events at the NWA Poker club (home of the cheater), Chris has not been able to make a final table, but some very novice players have. I guess he has to cheat to make a final table!