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Are dealers rigging the decks at a Houston-area card room? High-stakes prop bettor and six-time WSOP bracelet winner Shaun Deeb made that allegation Wednesday after being sent a video of what many see as some suspicious card mechanics.
“Got a pretty disgusting video from a player down here about the Legends Poker Room down in Houston,” he noted on Twitter. “Seems there were a few mechanic dealers down there. It’s not the best quality but when you see it, you won’t unsee it. Dealer isn’t actually shuffling the cards. He’s separating them back to how they want them.”
Deeb later released a higher-quality video and went on to say that a floor person at the property told him that several dealers at the property had recently been fired for deck manipulation. In the video it appears a large chuck of the deck isn’t actually mixed with the other cards.
Having watched this video more it looks like he was trying to keep an ace on top of the deck to pass to someone at the table anyone else notice that? https://t.co/64LMoDQpv2
— shaun deeb (@shaundeeb) May 1, 2024
While Deeb and many others alleged cheating, others weren’t so sure. Some felt this may have just been a poor or inexperienced dealer. Deeb wasn’t buying that the dealer was simply inexperienced.
“It’s amazing how some are taking the stance that this was legitimate shuffles or even crazier, just a bad dealer,” he said on Twitter.
Deeb posted another video from another Texas poker club as well. This also appeared to show a false shuffle with sections of the deck staying together without being randomized with other cards as one might expect from a normal shuffle.
Another video def a diff dealer from another Houston club this mechanic seems a lot better and trickier I wouldn’t of noticed this at the table at all https://t.co/BQNBPc8Gvx
— shaun deeb (@shaundeeb) May 1, 2024
As to the dealer’s potential accomplices, no players have been singled out. While some allege the dealer was trying to help a particular player by controlling the card distribution, others speculate that the dealer was instead trying to trigger a promotional bad beat jackpot in the hopes of receiving a big tip.
Poker rooms in Texas have proliferated across the state over the last decade. The rooms generally follow a social club model, with players paying dues to join each club or hourly rates. The clubs are mostly unregulated as gambling establishments would be in other states and some experts in the field still believe the clubs are illegal.
In 2018, a Louisiana dealer was accused of stacking the deck for an accomplice when a $160,000 bad beat jackpot was hit. The dealer and the player were arrested in that case.