I like this. I also have seen people call clock at showdown for the same reason, which I think is appropriate. No one cares that you got sucked out on or you wish your hand was different or whatever. It's much more respectful to your fellow players and the dealer to get to the next hand ASAP.

I actually like it when people talk about poker at the table because it gives me an idea of how much they know. I was at the local charity poker room once when after a hand a guy looked at how it played out and instantly said something about one of the hands having a three and a half percent chance of winning. I checked when I got home and it was 3.7%. I had no idea that this guy was serious enough to work on learning hand equities, so the next time I saw him I gave him more respect than I had the time before.

It can work the other way too, when you discover someone is a bad player. I had a guy go off on me when I got his stack, yelling that I was the worst player in the room and a few other things. I didn't mind the yelling because he was giving me information. First, I just slowplayed a big pair, there wasn't anything unusual about the play at all, which means the guy didn't know what he was talking about. Second, now that I know he can get that emotional, I might get a chance to use that against him.

Grunch. I absolutely hate that some casinos require their dealers to confirm w/ the floor manager or whoever whenever changing cash for chips or vice versa. Do they not trust their dealers? They are manning the tray that has thousands of $$$ in there yet they have to waste everyone's time yelling for that absentminded manager who is invariably stoned-out looking elsewhere.

Where have you seen this happen in a poker room!? That is awful.

Most of the time it's written in their internal controls that a certain amount of buy-in ($300+ normally) needs to be confirmed. It's followed more in the table games pits than poker. Maybe this certain casino has gotten in trouble for not following the rules to a T.

Unfortunately many places I frequent.

We're not even talking about that, just $100. It's a big joke and waste everyone's time.

Where?

I've seen that in Toledo. Something about having the same rules for the poker room as the pit games (didn't differentiate when submitting stuff to Gaming Control) so they need to call for confirmation on color ups and buy-in's. Makes more sense in a pit I guess.

Basically every Ontario casino. I guess we really got shafted w/ the crap service here. They are uber anal here.

That sucks a whole lot more for the floor staff I bet. That would make me nuts.

Every room I've frequented (Vancouver and Toronto) had this rule. Any change over $100 must be verified. Usually it's pretty quick, the dealer just cuts out the chips and the floor glances over and says ok. But it can cause a delay if the floor is busy or far away.

I assumed this was a casino-wide rule intended more for pit games where change-making was more frequent and the boss would always be right behind the dealers.

The poker dealers would occasionally get around it by just changing $100 at a time multiple times in a row, or when the floor is on the other side of the room they'd mumble "five hunned check change" and a player would just cover his mouth and say "Yuuuuup"

But then some dealer would be short $5 one time and it's back to strict mode for a month

Actually, I don't get this 'checking w/ the floor' rule, esp since I've seen other poker rooms that don't do it. What are they trying to get at there? If there is a counting issue, the cameras will figure out which dealer screwed up.

The casino would probably like to catch the mistake before losing the money

Ok, but it's simple math and chip color recognition....can't believe they are treated like babies, never mind they are manning the tray worth thousands of $$$, just stupid imo.

At a pit game where they have $1k or $5k chips, and the rack does *not* always have the same amount of money in it the rule makes perfect sense. Too easy for a dealer to slip a extra chip to a partner.

The places that I've played that have it (Toledo) the Poker manage is actively trying to get the rule changed. But dealing with Gaming is always a pain.

It's the case in Columbus. It appears as often than not the dealer calls it out and the floor just goes 'yeah okay' for players buying chips. Buying change it does seem to have a better eye kept on it.

Didn't read all 37 pages so apologies if it's been mentioned but...

They guy at the table that has to ask a question about how much the blinds are or what the raise was every single time, generally because they aren't paying attention.

You can forgive some of the older players for not being able to hear or see across the tables but still gets annoying in a long session.

I wouldn't assume they aren't paying attention. There are many medical reasons for this behavior, and they don't apply only to older players.

I do this a lot because my sights sucks and can't see the bet size when it's across the table, and I don't process auditory information well so I like to confirm if I didn't clearly hear the bet size. I had one hand recently where on the river the dealer said the bet was "35" but I was sure I heard "55," so I put out 55 and he calls a raise. I'm like "what? I didn't raise, I called" and he tells me the bet was 35 so I have to at least minraise. Obviously this screams my hand is somewhat marginal (tpgk), so after I do the minraise my opponent shoves and I fold.

Anyway I'm more careful about that now and will confirm the bet size if I can't clearly see it and didn't clearly hear it.

Yep I get this and it happens. Still get the odd chump that has absolutely nothing wrong with him yet still has to be asked to put blinds in and then asks how much every single time.

Also policy in some rooms is to not announce the raise size and to merely announce that a raise has occurred. So, you know, there's that.

Someone asking what the blinds are is probably not an experienced poker player and is welcome at my table any time.

Even with bad eyesight I can tell the difference between 35 and 55 across the table. If you know you have trouble seeing and hearing bet sizes though you really should get in the habit of verbalizing your action. If you say "call" and then put out 55 the dealer gives you change rather than lighting $70 on fire.

One room I play in does this and it's terrible for any non obvious bet amount. If the guy throws in a green sure I don't need you to tell me that it's $25 but when there's a stack of red chips and I'm going to call I need to know if it's $30 or $35 and often I can't tell because players don't cut their chips properly.

It annoys me when the table is suddenly 4 handed and the dealer announces "no more bad beat" This comment usually breaks the game. A couple of players will say something like "well then there's no point in playing."

I'd played over 4000 hours of live poker and never seen a bad beat on my table. I'd be more than happy to have the 10k or so back that I've probably lost in $1 drops to the BBJ fund. At least a part of me loves that there's players who think the bad beat is the reason to play.

Agreed! I want players to underestimate me. I don't want to give anyone a clue that I know what I'm doing, in fact I cultivate an image that is very different from how I play.

I'm a conservative guy by nature. I don't curse, I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I don't insult anyone. I always wear a dress shirt and pants to a live tournament (and just about everywhere else.) I'm also 61 years old and white--the perfect Tight Old White Guy stereotype. Also, I'm mostly an online player (which I would never tell anyone) so I'm not good at things like handling chips because I don't do it very often. I even add to my tight conservataive image by doing things like shining my shoes before I play a live tournament.

No one needs to know that I study 10 hours a week, play online seven days a week and play a lot of speculative hands.

I remember a live tournament where there was an all-in, the cards were turned up and someone said to the guy with the worst hand, "You're three and a half percent to win." I checked when I got home and the exact percentage was 3.7. If I see that guy at the table again, I'll know that he's a serious player who runs equities and he's probably pretty good.

You do NOT want other players to know things like that about you.

The only charity poker room in my county (the nearest casino that deals NLHE is more than 100 miles from me) uses chips from two different sets. The $25 chips from one set and the $100 from another set are so close in color that I can't tell the difference with sunglasses on, even if the action is just a couple seats away. In fact, I once saw a dealer pick up the two different chips and look at them closely because he wasn't sure.

Don't wear sunglasses indoors. You'll be able to see much better without voluntarily impairing your vision.