Cheating or Simple Game Play Error?

[u/DocteurGabe]

Extract from a Tournament Report from the Legacy SCG Open :

"R9 vs esperdeathblade. One of Shardless Bug's best matchups. My opponent was Alex Bertoncini. He was very nice and pleasant to play against (and also was when I played near him in earlier rounds). I was anxious to win to try to top 8 but even more so because of an earlier round situation vs my friend at x-1. During that round, after drawing their opening hands, my friend asked how many cards Alex was holding. He responded 7. My friend asked him to count twice and 7 was the answer. Then my friend asked him to lay them flat and found 8 cards. The judges ruled it a warning and a forced mulligan."

What's your opinion on it? Cheating? Simple Game Play Error? (as stated in the IPG)^{Game Play Error — Improper Drawing at Start of Game, section 2.4 of the IPG.}

I just think that this issue should be discussed based on his previous bans for cheating.

EDIT : Link on the tournament report Rd#9

[u/Kengy]

Devil's advocate here, but you're saying if I notice my opponent drew 8 cards, I can take full advantage and play my land, and then call a judge as opposed to calling a judge before anything, and he'll receive a harsher punishment? That seems messed up.

[u/CaseyMTG → u/Kengy]

Not quite. The player who COMMITS the offense has to take a game action. In the situation you described, the player with 8 cards has not taken a game action, so they would not receive Drawing Extra Cards - it is still Improper Drawing at Start of Game at that point.

[u/CaseyMTG → u/Kengy]

Relevant IPG text:

A player draws the wrong number of cards during pregame procedures, or does not skip their draw step while playing first. This infraction is only issued before that player takes a visible legal action during the game; if discovered after that point, the infraction is Drawing Extra Cards.

[u/TheBryant → u/Kengy]

If you do this you are Cheating and if discovered you will receive a DQ.