Police issue Real Hustle style warning to US players

Police issue Real Hustle style warning to US players

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Police in North America are warning players in live games to be on their guard against a gang of scammers who have hustled their way to thousands of dollars from unwitting marks.

The latest person to be parted with his money was Alex Tkach, a bigwig in the Vancouver media and movie industry. The fiddle saw Tkach invited to a “business meeting” at an office where he was greeted by a group of men playing cards. Told that they were just finishing off a party for one of the businessmen Tkach was invited to sit in for a hand of 7 card stud while one of the men had to take an urgent business call.


Tkach won $2,000 for the missing player in a single hand who gave him a $1,000 bonus for his troubles. The unfortunate dupe was persuaded to play for one more hand and was dealt a full house, nines full of fours. Understandably not having enough cash on him to play, he told the other players that he was would head to a nearby bank to cover any losses.


Of course you can see what's coming next. The deck had been rigged so that Tkach was on the wrong end of another, jack high, full house, and down the best part of $9,000. The movie man duly paid up and didn't realise that he had been scammed until told by police.


Det. Jack Connolly of the Hamilton Police Service told The Province newspaper, "They are very, very polished. They are well informed. They have done their homework. [And] they are making pretty good money."
Tkach kept a sense of humour about his hefty loss though, telling the paper, “"Everybody at the table has a role. Everyone has a script. Everything happens for a reason. It was so well played, I wish I could have recorded it."


It would certainly have made interesting viewing


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