The floors are no longer allowed to give out free rolls in the time games. I have no problem with this, in fact I think it's the way it should be. For those who don't know, it's been customary to ask for a free down, I.e. not to have to pay time for a half hour, if a game gets very short, or you are helping start a new game. Im happy to pay my $7 if I'm getting what I paid for, a dealer, a table, etc, a poker game all run honestly, fairly and well by the casino.
Raked games are different because as games get shorter the rake per player increases substantially. That's not true for time games, in fact I get more hands for my $7 per down.
But CAZ has to think about what they are giving players in return. The mix games have been enduring the training of a bunch of new dealers, who are still poor at running a basic Holdem game, and absolutely deer in the headlights awful at running mix games. Today a new dealer in a single mix down (HOB, mix doesn't get much simpler), forgets to burn twice, forgets to cut twice, deals 5 cards in O8 with no 5 card game in mix, and fails utterly in dealing every street of Badugi.
The table paid time, and what did they get? Far fewer hands than they paid for or expected, and mistakes that possibly affected the fairness of some hands. Did the house offer a refund? They absolutely should have, because they absolutely failed to deliver adequate service.
And I'm not blaming the dealer. Dealing mix is HARD, even for experienced dealers, and the regs must help dealers if they want a well run game. But why isn't the house first ensuring that mix games are only dealt by their plethora of experienced and competent dealers? Why does the game perpetually suffer from dealer mistakes?
The vast majority of experienced CAZ dealers are very good, but there is a small number of long time dealers well known to both players and floors as terrible, who never seem to improve, and yet still work often, seemingly at the expense of other, better dealers.
I have some ideas why.
There is one dealer that most CAZ regulars will recognize as trouble as soon as they come to your table. This dealer is the only dealer anywhere I have ever yelled at, or ever intentionally stiffed. They would regularly come into the mix game and chat up the players like its social hour, while making mistake after mistake almost entirely due to in-attention, dealing the wrong game, dealing in wrong player, etc., getting out fewer hands than even slow pitchers.
This dealer talks back to players, even on those rare occasions when the player didn't deserve it, and once nearly broke a game by repeatedly telling the games biggest action player that he was dumb for getting confused over whether it was a betting or drawing round, leading to the player sitting out and almost quitting. The only time i lost my temper with a dealer occured while stuck $7k and trying to get hands in to get back on track when this dealer screwed up 4 consecutive hands, while obliviously chatting away.
After a few years I made the painful decision to no longer tip this dealer until I see sustained improvement, and have been told I'm far from the only player to do so. So a few days ago this dealer deatl a Holdem down to me, and I stiff them every pot. Obviously they noticed, as I won quite a few pots that down and on their last hand I win another large pot, wherein a player had called then folded the flop while waiting for chips, so my pot was $40 short.
In this situation it's the dealers job to make sure to remind the players, as well as the incoming dealer of the debt, before leaving. The typical solid CAZ dealer almost never forgets this very important task. But this particular dealer vamoosed without saying a word. Fortunately I know I have to protect myself from them, and was prepared for this exact situation. I quickly reminded the other player, who was forced to angrily call back the vamooser to confirm the amount owed.
Now I can't say it was intentional, because this dealer makes more mistakes than any other, and also it would be accusing them of trying to rob me of $40, so I won't. But I did bring it to the attention of the floor, who said what has been told to me repeatedly for the last two years in similar situations. They can't do anything about a bad dealer unless a player fills out a signed report, to be put in the dealers file, and only maybe then might they do something about it. So no matter how many complaints customers make and how believable they are, and what the floors personal observations/beliefs are, a floor isn't empowered to do anything.
I've heard of few managerial rules this ridiculous. Essentially the casino wants to put the burden of punishing dealers on its customers, so I should decide if this dealer should be fired or suspended. CAZ can't trust their own managerial personnel? Despite my complaints, I decided to pass on filing a report for the time being, as while I don't enjoy this dealer dealing to me, I don't hate or desire to punish them or ruin their life. I would just prefer CAZ management just took positive corrective action to help them deal well and properly, so I could happily tip them like every other dealer.
But in the future, if CAZ is going to be cavalier about service quality, while never offering free rolls, I'm going to be a lot more vocal about requesting refunds on time paid for poorly dealt downs.
That, I'm happy to put in writing.
Last edited by DesertCat; 07-23-2012 at 03:49 AM.
Reason: Clarity, spelling
