I was playing 2/4 at the Palms about 2 months ago. The guy sitting next to me was the worst player I'd ever seen. He would raise with mediocre hands, bluff with nothing, and would never raise anything with a good hand. One time he had AJ before the flop, didn't raise, and the flop came J high. He bet, I smooth-called with a set of 5's. Turn, no bet for him, then I bet, and he called. River same. When he called, he said, "I guess I'll call, whatever." I turned over my set and said, "You had to think you had the best hand, no?" He said nothing. He played terrible poker for a long time. Then he mentioned that he was going to play 30/60 at the Bellagio with a friend. I thought, "what a sucker." He said, "it's all about the warm-up." I asked him what he meant by that. He said that after many years, it's hard to play bad. I asked him to expand on that. He said that he had to practice being a terrible player, so that he and his buddy could go take $10,000 later that night at the Bellagio. I couldn't believe it. I had bought his act and figured him for a complete loser. He smiled, and after calling his friend, off he went. Now I don't know exactly what he and his friend do, but they play together, and he said that they win all the time. Huge amounts. I congratulated him on his acting abilities, but deep down, I was pissed. There are some pro cheats out there, and it's not just online.
I also worked with a guy at the casino that told me that he and his brother used to play all the time together and would use signals to tell each other what they had. He said that he knew a lot of people that did that. I guess you don't always get a fair shake, even at the tables. Assholes.
