These cards are marked.
They're a mess - yeah, a chocolate mess.
Posted on 10/26/2025 3:18:55 PM PDT by Libloather
A Basketball Hall of Famer. X-ray poker tables. The Mafia. They were all purportedly crucial to an alleged yearslong illegal poker rigging scheme that resulted in 31 federal indictments this week. The case focused on rigged poker games is one of two announced that allegedly involve prominent NBA figures.
Investigators state that the scheme to defraud players at a poker table began in April 2019 when defendant Robert "Black Rob" Stroud and other co-conspirators began devising a ruse to use technology to rig illegal poker games, usually Texas Hold 'em, against unwitting, wealthy players whom they called "fish" or "whales," and who were aware that they were playing in illegal, high-stakes games, but believed these were "straight" games against other wealthy players. In reality, in many cases, every other person at the table besides them was in on the scheme.
The fish were also enticed to play by the presence of high-profile former professional athletes, known as "face cards," with the biggest names revealed thus far to be Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones.
How did it all work?
The scheme started with the technology, which was primarily inside the card-shuffling machines, which read the order in which the cards were dealt and relayed the information to an off-site operator. Sometimes the games employed X-ray tables and/or hidden cameras in the poker chip tray to assist in reading the cards. Players would also occasionally wear special contact lenses or glasses that would allow them to see marked cards.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
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lol Does anyone not know the old adage? “If you enter a poker game and you don’t see a sucker, get up and leave. You’re it.”
Prickster tried to tell us he just got lucky and a cool 1.5 million…right.
These cards are marked.
They're a mess - yeah, a chocolate mess.
> In reality, in many cases, every other person at the table besides them was in on the scheme. <
I’ve read that many of these outfits employ a “cooler”. The cooler’s job is to lose more than the victim does. The cooler then consoles the victim. Cools him off, so to speak.
“Bad night for the both of us, pal. But I really took a hit.”
Pretty clever, eh?
Straight outta JAMES BOND
At least the slot machines can be trusted.....🤔😳
A fish is a mark, but a whale is not an insult, it just means a rich player.
I recently watched something like this on Mission Impossible (the TV show).
“Yeah, I know it’s crooked, but it’s the only game in town.”
Frankly, they all look alike to me.
Note to self: never gamble in illegal games organized by a guy nicknamed “Black Rob.”
I wrote code for slots, I can tell you that the ones in Vegas don’t cheat. They don’t NEED to. They have a mathematical advantage, so the casinos know that people may win, but the payout percentage will always “come back”. The gaming labs that test the games test them over a million spins to verify the payout %.
I can explain more if you care. If not, just know that they don’t cheat. The house can’t tell them to hit, or to NOT hit. It’s all random.
I know they don’t “need” to cheat. But dang, every once in a while. 😂👍
Which would Americans get more upset about being rigged:
1) a vaccine approval
2) the JFK assassination report
3) the CO2 is a pollutant finding allowing the mandating of EV cars.
4) president and senator elections
5) NFL games
What part of the word “illicit” means “honest?”
They can’t be hacked? I don’t care, I would never use a computerized gambling system anyway.
What is the playoff percentage? Is it based on all amounts of money wagered? Or is it based on number of bets?
E.g. “we payed out 95% of the total amount of cash value wagered?” That is if 1 million dollars are wagered, we paid back 950,000 bucks.
...or “ we paid out 95% on the number of bets? So if 100 bets are made we paid off on 9t% of the best”
Could someone modify the code to benefit the house and then change it back? Would anyone know if this happened?
If someone modified the code, is there any way they could benefit from the excess house winnings?
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