Nautica: Bad For My Bankroll

So, last entry I promised my observations on Nautica Charity Poker. I have played probably a dozen sessions there and haven't had nearly the success that others have claimed. There are several reasons for this: the loose play there requires a larger bankroll than I have available, I have had several plain AWFUL runs of cards there (flopping nut flushes and losing to runner runner FH, etc). One of the other reasons, and the reason I won't be playing there anymore, is the rampant cheating.

Yes, cheating. Everyone I've talked to from the CPMG that plays there says they've seen stuff here or there, but in the past few weeks I've noticed blantant cheating teams that weren't even trying to hide what they were doing. Some examples: I moved to a $5/10 limit table and sat down in between two players who were obviously together. At different points during hands, he would pick his cards up in a way so she could see them, and she was doing the same. They started blantantly whipsawing the table (raising each other to trap suckers in between). They would raise each other until everyone else folded, then they would check it down. At one point she ran low on money and he handed her some away from the table. They got into a huge hand where he flopped a set and they started raising each other, trapping a poor guy in the middle who didn't realize what was going on. When he said "What the fuck?" I said loudly "It's a whipsaw!". They both shot me a dirty look, and shortly after that they left. They're there all the time, everyone knows them but no one ever calls them out for their blantant collusion. The floor are a bunch of useless volunteers, they can't figure shit out and if you can't prove beyond a doubt what's happening there's little you can do. At a different session, I sat with them again and watched as he slyly got up every time his blind was coming around, and then sat back in without posting after it passed him. The third time he did it, I made the dealer stop and made him post. He got mad and took his money off the table and left.

The final straw came a few days ago at the $1/2 NL. I got seated at a table with some regulars (who play there all the time and all know each other). In a limped pot, the board came 8-8-K. One player who I suspect of colluding picks up his chips and throws out a bet way to the side toward his buddy. It looked so unnatural and forced that it caught my attention. I had a K (KQc), and was immediately suspcious when the friend just called. I folded my K and everyone else folded to them. The guy who opened the betting just mucked his hand on the turn and shoved his friend the pot with no showdown or betting. Later on, as I was watching them, I noticed they were using chip signals (putting chips in certain places on their cards to indicate hand strength) and were also whipsawing pots (bet, someone in between calls, raise, etc). I decided to stop playing there when my final $50 went in with 8-8 against 6-6 and K-2 (no kidding, K-2). K2 flopped trips and I was out.

Nautica seems to be a breeding ground for collusion and cheating. There's little oversight, the cameras don't see everything and no one monitors them anyway, and there are way too many people with their hands in pots, on the cards, etc. At the $5-$10 I watched a guy chop up a pot so the dealer could get the next hand out, and he managed to drop a $5 on his own stack even though he wasn't in the hand. I called him out on it, and he quickly returned it to the pile saying "Oh, whoops". Yes, whoops indeed. I finally quit the $5/10 when the shuffler popped up red and said it was short a card. I opened the shuffler and was going to count the deck down when one of the players said "it does that all the time, leave it alone". I insisted, saying that if it was missing a card we should know. When the same person kept arguing with me I was certain he had slid a card off the table. They made the dealer hand shuffle to keep the action going, and I left. I can't prove what happened and I don't need to. The fact that I suspect it all is reason enough to avoid the place.