best thing is speak to the GM and manager that as on shift when the incident happened, they are the only ones who will be able to make the decision.
I'd rather not type out a huge long wall of text right now on why I'm banned but if enough people care to know then I will update later.
Jackanory time
Hi guys
Sorry I didn't reply to this thread sooner. I know I said I'd post my side of the story but I was a little on the fence to write it all up because I wasn't sure anyone could help me or even believe me. I sent the below to Tikay in a private message and he recommended for me to post it here, so here goes..
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Before I begin, I hope everyone can appreciate that while I am representing myself from my point-of-view - I wouldn't be still fighting to have my ban uplifted if I wasn't being 100% genuine. What has happened does appear very far-fetched but this is how events unfolded.
Here is a timeline of events...
Early 2014I'm a student at Aston Uni, Birmingham. In our poker society, in our weekly home games we are literally playing with cardboard playing cards until one of the students, who worked as a poker dealer at Grosvenor Hill Street, brought an discarded, unpunched deck from the casino. How can we not be overjoyed to have a proper deck of cards? As I attended the home game every week without fail, I took the cards and we used them every week - no harm in this I thought...
June 2014 - Dec 2014Not much to report.. Finished uni, went home + started to grind live cash at Bournemouth for 5-6 nights a week. I can probably add now that we only had 1-2 tables and had machine card shufflers (you can probably see where this is going by now). I don't have a car at this point so travel by train, 6-7pm I head out, with a rucksack to carry my headphones and rain jacket which is kept downstairs in the reception's cloakroom OFF the gaming floor.
Jan 2015I had brought my cards to bring to a family home game over the Christmas period and completely forgot to unpack them from my rucksack. I played on Xmas Eve and had an awful session and when I got home (I think on the 2nd or 3rd Jan) I wanted to get straight back on the grind.. so off I went to the casino.
On this particular night I decided to leave my wallet and debit cards in my rucksack. I know I should keep these with me but after my previous session I wanted a reason to step away from the table if I got stacked, nothing malicious here..
I lost my initial buy-in, and downstairs I went to ask for my bag to grab my wallet. Here's where things get dicey..
It was SO busy that it wasn't a receptionist that served me at the desk, it was one of the security men who normally stand by the front doors. I got my wallet out, even waved the debit card at him to gesture "hey I just needed this, sorry to be a nuisance" and went back upstairs. At this point I had no idea the deck of old Grosvenor house cards were in the rucksack. My wallet was in a separate mini compartment at the very front of the bag, and everything else, headphones, jacket and the Grosvenor cards were in the "main" compartment, it is impossible for anyone to have known they were there unless they went looking.
Half an hour later, I get a tap on the shoulder from the suits who ask me to come downstairs and immediately when I'm presented with my bag I know they know. They ask me what's in the bag, I get the cards out for them, and I'm not given any chance to speak with the general/duty manager. The deck was intact, all 52 cards and an old design (and maybe even different colour to the ones used on the night).
I was told there and then that they'd "look into it" and "get back to me" - that was the reason I wouldn't be able to just have a sit down with the manager. I'm sure there would have been questions I could answer regarding where the cards originated from - especially since if the Bournemouth Poker Room had been carrying out audits on the current/discarded decks of cards, they would see that none have gone missing..
No problem I thought, yes I was (excuse my language) knee deep in **** but surely if they checked the cameras and interviewed me, or someone who would have vouched for me (card room manager in Grosvenor Birmingham Hill St) - I would maybe be given a second chance after all.. because I didn't actually cheat or card switch/whatever I'm suspected of. But it looks like they have just blanket banned me..
From Jan 15 onwards I have tried contacting their official reinstatement team (only contactable by email, not telephone and never any names in the almost robotic, generic replies given), twitter (tweeted their ex-MD who asked me to email him but never responded) and got in contact with the manager who'll vouch for me - all without any success. I am really down in the dumps that due to this one error I am now categorised as a cheater in Grosvenor's eyes (and Genting in turn have nationally banned me). Poker is a game where the players have a lot of power and responsibility to keep things honest and within the spirit of the game - pointing out dealer errors, making sure people don't rat hole chips off the cash table etc. and I am 100% one of the good guys in poker - but it just feels terrible that the ones that hold the keys aren't even willing to take my side of the story on board.