False-Shuffling Florida Poker Dealer Goes Down in 30K Poker-Cheat Scam

Racino Race to Poker-Cheating

Thirty-year-old Tishun Butler performed a series of false shuffles at the St. Petersberg Derby Lane Racino by which his yet unidentified cohort walked away from the poker game with thirty grand in profit.

According to reports, surveillance at the casino/greyhound track had quality videotape of Butler false-shuffling the cards on several occasions. The winning player also was an ex-poker dealer at the casino. He has not yet  been charged with a crime but probably will be soon.

This is not the first smudge on poker-play in the Tampa/St. Petersberg area. Twenty miles from the Derby Lane Casino is the Silks poker room at Tampa Bay Downs where several cheating incidents and good old-fashioned ripoffs occurred in poker tournaments. In December, 2016 the Pompano Beach Poker Tour collapsed in disgraced after it was revealed that several winning players from its Aruba main event who were due more than $300,000 had never been paid, including the tournament winner Stephen Deutsch who was supposed to receive more than $133,000.

As well, Tampa Bay Downs is involved in a lawsuit in which a Ponzi scheme bilked several poker players out of large sums of money. And if that were not enough, pro poker player Mark Klang accused fellow South Florida pros Justin Zaki, Paul Dlugozima, Fillip Khavin and WSOP bracelet-winner John Racener of not paying nearly $500,000 in debts tied to games they played at the Derby Lane.

My take: Well, it seems to me like Tampa is to crooked poker what Steubenville, Ohio was once to crooked casinos!