Two Poker Cheats CAUGHT at The Lodge, BANNED
Two long-time poker cheats were caught earlier this month plying their unscrupulous trade at The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, TX. Norberto Pardo, 49, and Yaiquel Mosqueda-Perez, 43, were marking cards to gain an unfair advantage. Management discovered what was going on and permanently banned them from the establishment.
What Were the Cheaters Doing?
Apparently, the two miscreants were acting as a team. They would occupy seat 6 and seat 1 of a table.
They were marking the cards by gouging them with their fingernails. Aces and broadway cards were marked on the sides near the top or bottom of the card while middling cards were marked near the center of the card. Low cards remained unmarked.
The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock (near Austin)Where the Cheaters Were Caught
The person in seat 1 was in a prime location to view the side of the current deck and notice whether there was a preponderance of high, medium, or low cards coming up soon. He would signal his confederate, and they would both use this information to gain an understanding of how the remaining community cards were likely to play out.
For example, if either of them held low hole cards and the next few cards were high, he would have an easy fold. Conversely, if one of them held middle connectors and the next cards to be dealt were also of middling value, then he might stick around in the hopes of making a hand.
Another aspect of their team play was trapping individuals in between them for multiple raises. To coordinate their efforts, they would gesture to each other and use different-value casino chips as card protectors to convey information.
Poker Vlogger Speaks Out
It wasn't just by happenstance that the staff at The Lodge managed to catch the cheaters. Rather, poker vlogger Anthony Martino recognized one of the cheaters and decided to take action.
Poker Vlogger Anthony MartinoMartino started a conversation with a floor manager about that individual. The floor admitted that several other players had raised suspicions about the two people in question, but nobody knew if they were cheating or what exactly they were doing.
Anthony then explained exactly how the underhanded shenanigans worked. The floor examined a deck from the $1/$2/$5 PLO game that the cheaters had been playing in. Sure enough, he found the cards marked exactly as Martino described. Pardo and Mosqueda-Perez were then permanently banned from The Lodge.
How Did Anthony Martino Know?
This raises the question: How did Anthony Martino know what the two cheaters were up to in the first place? Well, it turns out that he had seen them using the same method to gain an unfair advantage in card games several years ago.
It started in 2020 when Martino would often frequent the Tampa Greyhound Track and play poker there. He observed the two cheaters playing in the games. So relentless was their desire to occupy seat 1, that if it was already occupied, they would offer $50 to the occupant to vacate it.
Tampa Greyhound Track Poker RoomAnthony Martino continued to play in that game for several months, and then he explained that his "spidey senses" were triggered and he just knew that he was being cheated. Anthony didn't know precisely how the cheating worked at that time, but he was uncomfortable enough with the games to tell the poker room manager that he would not be playing at the Tampa Greyhound Track anymore as long as those two Cuban players were present.
After a couple of weeks, Martino heard that that two players had been banned from the Tampa Greyhound Track. Following conversations with dealers, Anthony Martino learned how the crookery worked and was able to look out for similar instances in the future.
Traveling Fraudster Pair
By comparing notes with other observant players throughout the country, Anthony Martino was able to piece together the duplicitous duo's modus operandi. Evidently, they would travel to cardrooms across the United States. Whenever they got banned from a particular establishment, or if they felt too keenly the heat about to catch up with them, they would merely relocate somewhere else for a while.
The venues where the pair were spotted over the years include The Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, Chasers Poker Room in Salem, New Hampshire, and many cardrooms in the Florida and Texas markets.
More Information
The poker community has put together some general info on Norberto Pardo and Yaiquel Mosqueda-Perez, which may be of use to those trying to determine if the pair are active in any specific cardroom. They're of Cuban extraction and are believed to be based in the Miami area although they move around frequently and are often encountered in other Florida cities and indeed other locales around the country.
Their primary method of cheating involves gouging playing cards and then relying on the team member in seat 1 to read the marked cards and convey information about them to the confederate in seat 6. They communicate particulars about the marked cards to each other via hand signals as well as the positioning of items around their cards (i.e., card protectors, chips, et cetera).
Though there have been isolated accounts of the pair using ink to mark cards or cheating through the use of an illicit “device,” these instances have not been confirmed. For now, the telltale sign of their specific form of cheating lies in the gouging of the cards with fingernails based on the value of the cards.
The two grifters prefer to conduct their misdeeds in Pot Limit Omaha games. Their division of the deck into high, medium, and low cards helps them choose their actions when holding rundowns (like AKQJ or 8765), which are especially important starting hands in PLO. Still, they have been known to engage in their duplicitous machinations while seated at NL Hold'em tables too despite it not being their favored game.
Mugshot of Yaiquel Mosqueda-Perez, 43Besides poker cheating, the two Cubans are suspected of dealing cocaine or at least consuming it themselves. They both have criminal records in Florida. Yaiquel Mosqueda-Perez was arrested in Miami-Dade County in April 2023 on unstated charges. Norberto Pardo was arrested in Miami-Dade County in July 2022 for possession of a controlled substance, grand theft in the third degree, and resisting an officer without violence.
Mugshot of Norberto Pardo, 49Path of Lawlessness Coming to End?
After spotting the Cuban poker villains at The Lodge in Round Rock, Anthony Martino spread the word about them on his vlog and on social media. He also called around to local cardrooms to alert them to the threat.
Having struck out at The Lodge, the two malefactors did what they had successfully done in the past. They headed out to what they presumed were greener pastures, namely Houston, about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Round Rock.
However, it seemed that details of their transgressions had preceded them, and they were not welcomed to the Houston poker scene as they had expected. Rather, they found themselves shown the door at more than one establishment. Spades Poker House is one location that they attempted to enter but were denied because management got wind of their scam and refused to let them play.
Personal Attacks Ensue
After Anthony Martino started alerting the Texas poker community to the danger posed by the two cheaters, they eventually realized what had happened. Martino received Facebook and Instagram messages from one of them. The messages were sent in Spanish; here is the English translation of one of them:
Hey, listen, look at everything you're doing, everything has consequences, okay, you fat, ugly faggot, you don't know a damn thing about me, okay?
It doesn't end here, I'm going to report you.
Where the hell do you know me from, you stinky dwarf?
Clearly, Martino got under the skin of at least one of the crooked players. And for that we applaud him highly.
Cleaner Games Online
There's always a steady crowd of observers chanting ceaselessly about how online poker is rigged and is susceptible to all kinds of collusion and other unfair practices. However, the kind of edge-gouging that took place at The Lodge is impossible to replicate online simply because there are no physical cards to deface over the internet.
When we look at other underhanded doings in live poker, like the Mike Postle scandal, we often see that the troublemakers employed tactics that are impossible or very difficult to achieve online. Therefore, we're inclined toward the view that the game of poker, as played on the internet, tends to be cleaner and more honest than when it's played live.
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Jan. 19, 2026 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief