I'm going to copy and paste this here. I posted this under a cheating thread and unfortunately it has become relevant here. I did not mention any names or make any accusations. This is my side of the story...
So I have an interesting story. I was falsely accused of cheating and was blackballed by my friends. In early 2023, I connected with a large group of local players and started playing 1-3 times a week with them. Up until that point I had played mostly online with "play chips" except for a few occasions. This was my first exposure to "real" poker and I loved it. From the beginning I tracked every loss and win. I can't afford to just light hundreds of dollars on fire every month. I struggled to stay even and got stuck for a few hundred a few times. I was studying poker online and learning from my opponents. I started to win more and eventually started gaining ground on my bank role. Then after about four months it all came to a sudden end. One week I had the opportunity to play five days in a row. We had five host in our group. I went on the best sun run of my life. I won about $1700 profit over those five days. One of those games was a big cash game we had planned for months. $1/$2 blinds with a $400 max buy in. I bought in for $400 and cashed out with $1436. I felted several of my friends. It was ten times the size of what we usually played or won. Within a few days I got a text from the leader of the group saying they thought I was cheating and I would no longer be welcome. And that was it. Nobody would answer my calls or text. No discussion. No evidence. Just completely cut off. I was dumbfounded, hurt, angry, and stunned. I'm the only one who can know with 100% certainty, the truth. I know I did not cheat in any way. They said I was a card mechanic because I dabbled in card magic for about 6 months 15 years ago. I don't even know how it would be possible to manipulate the deck in our games. We used two decks, usually Copag. We always used cut cards when dealing. We rotated dealing and shuffling with the previous dealer shuffling one deck while the next dealer deals. So one person shuffles and another cuts the deck and deals. If the shuffler were to manipulate the deck in any way, the dealer negates that by cutting and then dealing with a cut card on the bottom. They said they thought some cards had been marked. I never noticed any marked cards. I certainly never marked any cards. They never showed me any marked cards. The whole thing really sucked. I lost a lot of friends and I felt very betrayed. I took about two months off from poker. After a while it kinda turned in to something I'm proud of. I beat the game of poker! I won so much, I was kicked out of the casino! I still miss playing with those guys though. Last week another friend outside of that circle invited me to a 12 man $50 buy in tournament. Before accepting his invite I had to explain what happened. He knows me well enough to know I would never cheat. I won 1st place and $500 that night and it felt really good. I used that $500 to buy my first sets of chips and a used table. I'm looking to start hosting my own game now. I've been lurking and learning a ton. So, thanks!
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