[b]Accused poker cheater wins $54,000[/b]

https://www.cnbc.com/id/102745601?__source=xfinity|mod&par=xfinity

"A poker player who won $54,545 at the World Series of Poker is accused of cheating by his opponents..."

..Players competing against Coca think he may have been marking the cards, either with some kind of invisible ink, or by making a tiny indent or crease with his fingers. His opponents suspect he may have marked the aces and the kings. One of his opponents, Connor Drinan wrote in an online poker forum that one of the few times Coca folded to him before the flop, was when Drinan had pocket aces.
Among other strange behaviors, Coca frequently asked opponents to move their hands so he could see their chips, which would likely also cause them to move their hands away from their cards. A tactic which is unnecessary because if you know how many chips you started with, and how many you have now, some simple math would tell you how much your opponent is playing.

Drinan says the player who eventually beat Coca, Keith Lehr, was warned and took extra care to protect his cards..."

Card marking at poker is not as rare as some people think.
At the Hawaiian Gardens card room there was a period of time that marked cards were being found upon cleaning and inspection of the decks. This inspection is done to every deck after it is taken out of play. Decks can be changed at a table as often as once an hour at the player's or dealer's request. It was determined that the marked cards were coming from the $300 no limit hold em tables. However no complaints from players were lodged and surveillance could not determine who was marking the cards.

I personally noticed slightly indented edges of cards while playing at the Commerce. It was only on the aces. I didn't say anything at first to try and figure out who was taking advantage of it. It would have taken a very sharp eye to identify the marks across the table. I could not make out the marks at a distance. When the dealer changed the new dealer felt the marks almost right away and called for a new "setup".

I am sure there are ways to mark cards that can go undetected except by those doing the marking. Wherever there is money at stake there are those that are going to cheat.

In the old west he would have been shot.