Subject: Cheating at PTQ's
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 12:40:39 PDT
From: "Jason Powell" <thewhiteranger@hotmail.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Dear Dojoites,

In the past, we have seen many reports about cheating here on The Dojo.
But, most of these reports were second-hand spewings from people who
heard about it from a friend.  Well, I am here to tell you about an
incident that occurred at Orlando during a PTQ for Chicago...

Date: August 8, 1998
Location: The Floridian Hotel

Here is my recollection of the event.

Since this was a sealed deck tournament, I was waiting to get my sealed
deck to register it, when, lo and behold, Andrew Pacifico sits beside
me.  Well after decks are passed out and I register mine, I ask Mr.
Pacifico what he thinks about it.  He says it is so-so with a couple
good cards and no broken cards.  So while I am sitting around waiting
for them to collect the decks back up, I see Andrew doing something very
strange with his cards.

I notice that he is palming the rare cards from his sealed deck, and
changing them with another deck that he just HAPPENED to have with him.
I saw him do this with all the rares in the deck, before it was
registered.  Now, I felt that I should report this to the judge, but
before I had the chance to tell them, I saw him give the cards to his
friend and say "Here, will you put these in your folder.  I just traded
for them. <wink> <wink>"

So I go and tell the Head Judge what I saw happen and he goes and looks
through Andrew's deck.  He says there is no way to prove what happened
unless somebody else also saw this occur.  So I told him that I know one
of the rares that he switched in and asked if that could help.  He said
he would look through Mr.Pacifico's deck and see if it was there, and,
there it was.  The judge came back to me and said that unless I can get
another witness, the only thing he could do is let him use that same
deck.

So I say sure and try to find somebody else, but nobody else saw
anything that happened so I was forced to just sit there and do nothing
even though Mr. Pacifico had cheated.  I don't know if there is anything
else that I can do.

All mail, flames, comments welcome.

Jason Powell
Level II DCI Judge

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com