Spades Still an Issue
Back in Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, PokerNews reported an issue with the decks in use. Jon Turner had spotted a marked card in that event while at the final table and upon review, all of the decks that were checked had a mark on the 
. You can read about the incident here and here.
The tournament staff moved the players to a standard table in the Amazon Room rather than on the feature table. The lighting was a bit less and the "marked" cards were unable to be found once the players relocated to the new table. Now there seems to be another incident in this event.
On the table with Steve O'Dwyer, Ali Eslami, Matt Hawrilenko and Noah Schwartz, the players brought some markings on cards to the attention to the floor staff. The players complained in order to get a new setup for the table, but is this issue really squashed? Here are some tweets from some of the players at that table.
Ali "@Indigoae" Eslami: #WSOP cards are marked! There's a minor printing error on the BACK of small spades. Do those cards matter in the NL 2-7 main on now?
Steve "@steveodwyer" O'Dwyer: .@WSOPTD it is insane that the @wsop has not replaced the decks. when I sit in the 1 or 9 at almost any table I can see the marked spades.
@WSOPTD I first noticed it in the 5k nl and called the floor but they dismissed my concerns and I forgot about it until the 1k nl ft
@WSOPtd I'm now in the 9 seat in the plhe and am clearly able to identify the 2-5s when they are at the center of the tbl under the light...
@WSOPtd ...and I've been able to point them out when they are face down in front of me. if this isn't fixed by the morning @wsop is pathetic
Todd Terry and Jon Aguiar played in this event earlier, but have since busted. Still, they voiced their opinions on Twitter as well.
Todd "@toddbterry" Terry: After reading @steveodwyer re being able to identify marked cards, I join him in calling for @WSOP to bring in new decks immediately @WSOPTD
Jon "@JonAguiar" Aguiar: follow @steveodwyer for some scary info about how many of the WSOP decks are marked due to a printing error, 2s-5s easily visible face down
WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel repsonded on Twitter shortly after.
Jack "@WSOPTD" Effel: Dennis just gave you guys three pulls to draw one of the defective cards, & nobody could find them.
Will this be a reoccurring issue here at the 2011 World Series of Poker? Or will the WSOP swap out the entire thousands of decks of cards for new ones? Only time will tell. One thing is for certain, there's plenty of money on the line that could warrant all precautionary measures to be taken.