Ok let’s fill in the details.
Your table was thinking of breaking.
Was there any discussion at your table about the other table or did u take it upon yourself to go over there and ask what u did.
Did anyone say if they don’t want to come here (less players to move) let’s go there? Or was it your table is thinking of breaking period and u went over to salvage your table.
These aren’t irrelevant facts not needed to answer your question objectively.
Context matters. Motive matters.
You don’t feel once we know the answers to these questions it will most likely change responses? One way or other.

if there were enough seats for everyone, why didn’t your table break and go over?

I assume you asked your table and they didn’t want to go. Did you also throw some kind of fit and storm off or am I just filling in the details from the times I’ve seen this happen irl?

That certainly would change things.

Yet another reason why 8 handed games are horrible for poker. They get short and you may have 3 tables of 6 each instead of two full tables of 9. Games used to even be 10 handed back in the good ol days for decades! Make poker great again.. bring back 9 or 10 handed cash games. On average one person is walking or a seat is open, so 8 handed games now are really 7 on average. The vast majority of players especially tourists hate short handed tables. All they do is generate more rake for the house.

It depends.

Are you doing anything wrong in a technical sense. Absolutely not. You did nothing wrong.

Are you doing something wrong from an etiquette sense. Maybe, but if so, it is minor.

It might piss some people off, but that is their problem.

The real answer depends upon your reason for doing what you did, how you think others will take it, are you willing to live with pissing certain people off for reasons that are more theirs than anything you did?

It should be noted that the dealer was absolutely wrong.

The dealer works in the service industry. For them, they should understand it is part of the job. There will be partial downs. Occassionally they will be at tables that close.

As a dealer myself, I would never ever consider admonishing a player for that. Maybe if the tips were juicy I might consider saying something, but it would have been a positive response to your comment. I might have said something like "The lighting and atmosphere are better over here. Maybe you should all come here". Or something to that effect.

There have been many, many times where I have been short handed with at least a couple players I would not mind continuing to play with. They might not have been whales, but they were players it was profitable to play against. But it was also obvious that they were already considering getting ready to leave. The constant hand after hand of poker was the only thing keeping them around.

If they had to rack up to switch tables, then it was clear they were leaving.

In this case if I noticed another short handed table, I would have absolutely zero problem going over to them and asking if they were considering breaking. I know the players at ny table are going home if the table breaks. If others come to our table they will stick around.

This assumes that the two short handed tables will continue.

Oftentimes it works in reverse. The two short handed games both break because players are thinking that if they are racking up then they will just leave. If someone would have spoke up they might have been able to salvage one game from the two short handed games.

It depends.

If you are minding your own business, thrn why are you telling other players what to do?

You are getting livid (your words) over someone asking a perfectly legal question?

You are playing poker. Why should your considerations take precedent over theirs? Why is it selfish (your word) for them to act in their best interest?

Are you selfish because you don't fold the best hand?

I wouldn't go and ask for another table to break. The issue of breaking has risen at our table, developed, it's our business. Att the other table it is a bomb suddenly dropped, not an issue which has naturally developed. Going there and ask them to rise their asses interferes with their business. Our table breaks if we want to, and we go there. But that's just my style of acting.

Whenever somebody makes an attempt to control my environment I get livid.

I have no problem with a player at my table asking if we are going to break or if we want to break. That is their environment and they are entitled to ask. But a player coming over to another table and trying to control their environment is outrageous, to me.

I get that there are a lot of bullies in the poker room. And I get that they will argue, like you, that because they are in the poker room they are entitled to whatever they want as long as it is legal.

But this to me is akin to an angleshot. It may be technically legal but it is an attempt to gain at other people's expense. Not just the players but as has been noted above, from the dealers as well.

If only there was a way to do this without going up to a table you aren't playing at and encouraging them to break.

Can't fathom what that solution could possibly be.

"We have four players and you have three players if y'all want to combine. If not no pressure."

Perfectly worded. It doesn’t suggest either table be the one to break.

My guess is the OP’s table hadn’t discussed combining.

I am sorry. I didn't realize you owned the table.

My apologies.

LOL. Your mistake not reading ahead.

Also, hilarious for calling me a bully and and angelshooter for asking another table if they want to break.

If that is the hill you are going to die on, that I'd the hill I am going to die laughing at you on.

I didn't call you a bully or insinuate that you were a bully. But I get why that was your take. Your first post above is nasty. You pretend to apologize and that somehow me not wanting somebody outside of the table I am sitting at to help break the table I am sitting at, means that I own the table. For the record the casino owns the table. And for a player to effectively try to change the table by talking to the players at the table is not something I would be happy about.

I doubt you are an angleshooter. I also doubt you would go to another table and try to convince them to break so you wouldn't have to play shorthanded which would mean that basically you suck at poker. But I could be wrong. You could be just at bad at poker as you are at dealing with other people on a website forum.

Bad etiquette. Let the floor deal with this.

Story doesn't match up: "do you want to break? We have a few seats open" vs "there were enough seats for everyone".. If you were interested in filling your table up wouldn't your question be "do you want to combine tables?" Address your question to floor, not other table.

How many people at each table? What is normal table maximum? 8 handed?

Really? Come on. I will quote your exact words to you:
"I get that there are a lot of bullies in the poker room. And I get that they will argue, like you, that because they are in the poker room they are entitled to whatever they want as long as it is legal."

How is that not implying I am a bully? You say that there are lots of bullies in the poker room and they will argue like me.

Whatever.

As for the angleshooting that is obviously a ridiculous overstatement by you. To the point of hilariousness.

I will sum it up a better way.

It is near the end of the night. Tables are closing, we are both looking for the best opportunities for ourselves. Whether that means your table closing and players coming to my table or my table closing and players going to yours. We each want what is best for ourselves. That is simple poker.

I'm neutral here, but I did pretty well in school well enough to know Mr. Rick was saying they argue like you, not that they're bullies like you but I do agree poker room staff is there to serve the players, it's not the opposite we're not there to serve them.

I was saying that bullies could use your words to defend themselves. I understand why you would think I was saying you were a bully, and I apologize for that, it was not my intention.

I have no problem looking for the best opportunities. The problem I have is when it affects a table I am not sitting at, I just won't do it. I have left difficult tables and taken meal breaks so I can get seated in the must move table and then hopefully a different table. But I would never try to break another table because I am not happy at the table I am currently at. I would just leave and make a go of it another day. I am assuming that the reason for this thread is either that DT doesn't like playing short handed or that in this instance his table was particularly difficult.

If DT was able to convince the table I was sitting at to join the other table, then I would leave for the night. So it has a positive affect for him and a negative affect for me. This is especially brutal when there is a fish at my short handed table because it is a huge moneymaking opportunity for me that would be taken away.

One time I was at a table and a guy went up to a fish and said they had an open seat at a different table (different type of game). I was stunned by that. I understood why he would do it (to get a fish at his table) but I found it offensive and disrespectful.

Yes, it's bad etiquette.

I chewed a dealer out a couple weeks ago for suggesting we break a table that I was short handed at with 3 super fish.

I mean I do think it’s way different for a dealer to do it though. They can actually get in big trouble for doing it if someone in casino management hears them.