General Poker Discussion Poker Forums

My mind is all fucked up right now.

Fathers Day I get to the weekly home game an hour early. House is open as usual, no other players there, host is upstairs. It's just me and the cook. Killing time and helping out, I take the 2 decks out of the dealer box and put the cards in order. They both were in play in Friday nights game. I left then at 10pm, the game lasted til 2am. The first deck I assemble there are 2 Ace of Spades. My mind immediately begins to spin. What do I do? Who do I address? Should I say anything at all? I've been playing at this game for a year twice a week. It's 2/5 NLH. I'm a $20 an hour winner. I decide to text the host: "I'm downstairs, I need to speak to you" he says "I'll be down soon."

By the time he comes down, 4 other players are there, all regulars that have been playing at this game for years. I decide there should be no secrets and everyone in the room should know. I asked the host if these decks were in play Friday night, yes they were. I show him the card. He gasp and says no that can't be. I say yes. The other players are silent, looking at each other with awkward, almost blank steers. Host says there was an ace missing. I put another 6 decks together, he did 4... The card didn't have a home. nothing more was said. Just so happen the game didn't take off because most players had other plans. This is rare. I of course felt uncomfortable and decided to leave, even though I was begged to stay.

This game has private dealers. The Host also deals. The game is raked 10%, up to $10 per pot. Dealers get tipped and/or a % of the rake. Hot, fresh food, snacks, and an open bar is provided. This is a lucrative business for the house. These games run rampant in the area, numerous games everyday of the week. I would say there about 60 or so in the entire players pool. Each different house game have about the same 5 players playing, but not the same 5 at every game.

I've been playing Poker, live cash, for 4 years, an $7 an hour winner over 1800 logged hours. I've began to take my game to the next level, listening to podcast, watching videos, posting. My goal was to hopefully play fulltime within 2 years. I thought I could play these games in the area and do well. Now, I'm totally lost.

Everything is finally making sense. They raking way to much, maybe up to $2k taken off the table, or more. Maybe these "regulars" play for the house. Maybe the dealers are cutting to much. Maybe we're all fools and the hosts and select players are the ones laughing to the bank. The economy is also weak and the player pool is drying up. Most are losers...

I'm just furious inside and confused. The closest casino is 3 1/2 hours away. I'm not gonna play online. I put to much hope and dreams into this game. It's the only thing that I've had a strong enough interest in, the closest thing for a passion. Now my head seems to have a sense of clarity yet surrounded by fog.

I'm questioning everything now. My career, my marriage, my life. I've been so zoned into thinking this game would be my future, now I'm not so sure.

I had my mind set on getting out of the military in 2 years, putting me at a total of 9. Just want to be done with it all.
Obviously anyone would say you'd be a fool to get out, but the military isn't life support. There is life after it. We won't die.

I've been on the verge of divorcing my wife for a few years now. My idea, not hers. Issues unrelated to gambling. Poker is the only form of gambling I do and I've been a winner. We have a 5 yo daughter.

In my thirties and still don't know who or what I want to be. Just lost.

That Ace of Spades... A curse or a blessing??? Hopefully I'll figure it out sooner than later

So, my fellow trolls, I chose to share my mess, now do your thing!

On the other hand, this could have just been a simple mistake. Let's suppose you flop the NFD and spike the "what! another one?" on the turn.
I can sympathize with you due to shadiness that probably exists in countless home games, but for this guy to load the deck with the extra ace (and an ace of all cards) just doesn't make sense (except see below). It's also likely that someone had figured this out (use my NFD as one small example) during play.
The only logical reason I can think to spike a deck with an extra ace is that Ax hands see more flops in general than say 2x hands, and more flopped top pairs vs top pairs in that situation which might lead to higher pots on average... but would also lead to more folds I'd guess from everyone else.
If I found an extra ace in another deck, then I'd see a pattern and wonder what else is being done, but at this point, I'm willing to think it could be coincidence.

about all that private things and career etc i think you should get advice from somewhere else but a poker forum. maybe some other dc member will answer to that but i think is more like an issue of going to people that are really close to you or people that studied giving proper advice here. especially with a daughter involved. but esp the poker/life balance sounds like it should be rethought or the role of poker definitly be questioned, especially at this "early" part of career with only playing low homegame stakes.
referring to the poker thing i think its pretty similar to what stueyskid said. an extra As will be obvious kinda fast as soon as both cards are shown, say on board and in holding or both on board. this is not a way to long-term-cheat for the hosts at all. while there are definitly shady things happening in homegames, this extra A isnt prolly one if themyy

it's probably best to keep poker as a hobby for now if you're in the US, considering you're not very close to casinos (2/5 live homes games isn't enough to become a pro i don't think).

as for extra aces in decks, how does that help the house? it's only helpful if someone can pull that ace out when they need it. so it's more likely some player was trying to cheat in Friday's game.

stay cool, shawn.