So, I figured I'll weigh in on the subject of Alex Bertoncini's recent suspension by the DCI for his rampant cheaterness. I played the dude at the TCGPlayer 75K in the third round, at table 6 nonetheless! We got a deck check (so I am quite sure there was no sideboard shennanigans!) so Alex and I actually got a lot of time to shoot the shit and talk magic, and suprisingly, EDH. I played poorly because of the goofing off, and was soundly beaten. Did I watch him Ponder? No, and it is possible that the cards that punished my poor play were cheated into hand. Eitherway, bravo.
http://mixedknuts.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/unlocking-the-cheats-of-scg-player-of-the-year-alex-bertoncini/
I guess I am not ready to judge a man based on cheating in a card game. I know we all take it seriously, but a lot of the instances of 'cheating' were not caught by the opponents, so it seems like fair game. The big risk is getting caught, the pay off is an easy win. The math seems easy, just take a pair to get there.
There ar ea few damning videos, and I especially wretch at the double Brainstorm fiasco. That is four cards on the 7 minute Brainstorm, and you know he can count. His opponent, not so much. Good reason to keep asking about hand size and to keep track of the game.
The Kira to hand sleight of hand was so obvious, it would be hard to miss the fact that there should be two Kira's in the bin, and once he got caught with that, there was no way out. The man didn't get caught though, maybe because he ultimately lost.
The dude was super cool in my book, and cheating doesn't change the fact. Let's play EDH and we can both Brainstorm for 4.
