Damaged Cards

[K-Lo]

I'm curious to know whether anyone has actually warned or penalized a player for marking cards (presumably) unintentionally - e.g. as with some players who peel one end of the card up and leave a fingernail 'gash' on the upside of the card.  Or do you just accept the fact that players will handle the cards in this way and continuously replace the damaged cards or the decks.

[Nick C]

K-Lo,
 That is totally unacceptable. It sounds like you are not using plastic cards. Kem or Copag or any number of the plastic bridge sized cards that are the norm around here. I would never allow any player to curl the edge, or any other method of card handling that would "mark" or damage a card. It would have to stop, or the player must go. That's it, as far as I'm concerned.

[chet]

Nick:  I use Copaq and KEM and both are susceptible to the fingernail problem described by K-Lo.  I agree (see I am not always contrary  ) it is a problem but I have never been able to ascertain with certainty who the culprit is.  That said, a general house announcement at the start of events seems to have pretty much eliminated the problem.  Based on that, I am 99% certain there was nothing intentional going on, just amateurs who didn't know better (now they do).

Chet 

[Stuart Murray]

I experience the fingernail mark from time to time, even using the best cards (Fournier, Copag etc etc), on one occasion the deck was marked on 5 separate occasions at the same table before I finally halted play on the table and broke it, sending each player to a different table and recording where they went, I warned the players that the tables they were headed to had not had any problems with finger nail marks all day and that if a card 'suddenly' was found marked the same way after they moved that player would be disqualified from the tournament, low and behold now further marks were discovered or made to the decks in use.  I usually have a spare of each colour in stock for replacing marked cards, it's very hard to prove who it is unless you can put a trusted ringer onto the table to analyse the way players are viewing their hole cards.  I eventually found out who it was that was marking the cards and he has not returned to any events after the table breaking incident.

Regards
Stuart

[JasperToo]

Stuart, wow, that was a hardcore creative solution!  One that took some close administration I am sure.  Did you come up with that one on the fly or did you give it some thought from a previous occurrence?

[Stuart Murray]

Hi Jasper, After the 3rd card was marked, I needless to say became pissed, then after the fourth I took time to think about what I was going to do about it, and that was my decision when I was called for the 5th marked card, it was a moment of sheer inspiration if you like!

Stuart