I was playing 2/5 at Bellagio at 4AM in the morning, the room had about 6 tables running and the usual Bobby’s room running.

When you’ve played a lot of live poker and you know when something doesn’t feel right.

I had 3 regulars on my table and 2 fish, and I was the unknown because I don’t usually play at Bellagio.

I was sitting in the 8 seat.

This is what I felt was suspicious:

(1) Dealer asks the floor if she can get “a shuffler” despite the current shuffler working fine. The floor looks to the dealer and says “are you serious?”. The dealer looks back, *chuckles*, and says “yeah”, floor person *chuckles*.

About 5 min later someone comes and relaces the shuffler.

I don’t really pay much attention to it all, but it did feel weird.

(2) Dealer is pitching cards high and on an angle so that the cards are fanning with the face of them facing towards seats 4-6.

I felt like this is an inappropriate way for cards to be pitched. If seats 4-6 are observant enough they could get information from the fanning face of the card. (Weather it’s red or black or a picture). Being in the 8 seat you get no information and your cards are fanned the most if the dealer is pitching right handed.

I did feel like certain regulars in the 4-6 seats were watching closely as the cards were pitched too.

In this situation, what is appropriate action to take place?

For me, I will always move seats so that my cards aren’t flashed to seats 4-6. I will also request the dealer to pitch lower. However, this can offend the dealer and start controversy at the table. It’s also just not good for the game, to start this kind of conversation.

I don't see anything weird with asking for a new shuffler...

If you don't want to cause a scene at the table, walk away and tell a floorperson that you are concerned Dealer So-and-so might be pitching a little too high where some players might be able to see some of it.

Some dealers do have a style where they pitch some seats high, and this is usually good dealers who go quickly and are putting a little curve on it, but at times I do get a little leery of the move. However it is also usually so fast that I don't think a player could make out much more than the color of a couple cards.

I get not wanting to embarrass the dealer or kill the table vibe, so that's what the floor is for, they can more tactfully address it, likely on their next break or table change. If you think the players are actively watching and gaining information, then just sit out the rest of that down and definitely ask a floor.

Thank you for your response. This was the first time this has happened for a long time for me. I will let the floor know and if it continues just sit out/move tables.

1 is not big deal but 2 - tell the dealer to stop dealing the cards like that
this isn't hard

I understand #2, I hate it when dealers pitch high. But every time this happens, and I look at the other players, they are never watching- they are on their phone, watching TV, etc. if I saw players trying to look at each card as dealt, I’d have to speak up/leave.

What's suspicious about the dealer asking for a new shuffler? I suspect the reason for the chuckling is that it's 4am and the floor doesn't want to do work.

Pitching high isn't cool. Let the floor know away from the table if you don't want to say anything to the dealer. It is something that should be addressed.

Are you trying to say that the floor brouyin a rigged machine and the dealer changed their pitch so that some regulars could see what cards were being pitched from this rigged machine? If so your tinfoil hat is a little too tight.

it's incredible. the same thing when the dealer rolls the deck. i've been playing poker for 14 years and i've only had one other person complain about this.

Ask for a table change. See if the shuffler follows you.

It's impossible for us to know if something was shady in your game.

Only advice I have is to ask for a table change. It doesn't matter WHY you feel uncomfortable in any game, it's just that you DO.

We can discuss if there was some collusion at play I guess - but my point here is don't ever think you're paranoid, or "it's just you", and try to play through it. You won't be playing your best game in that case. If you feel uncomfortable for whatever reason, ask for a table change. Also I guess a secondary piece of advice is that I wouldn't say anything AT the table. Get up and go smoke, piss, whatever, and talk to the floor guy about it. Better way of going about it imo.

"Dealer, your pitching the cards too high they can see them".

I would love to see a dealer pitch cards at an angle without it ending up being an exposed card. Maybe it's the weed idk.

/

And make sure the new dealer can only release the cards from this shuffler at the same height

I'm not one of those who thinks the shufflers can be rigged, but where is it considered normal or no big deal for a player to request a new shuffler when the current shuffler is working fine? I've never seen that happen, and can't imagine a floor honoring a request like that. It's hard enough to get them to replace a shuffler that isn't working right.

The dealer asked, not a player.

Yeah, pretty much this.

Oops my bad. . Though I still can't imagine a floor changing out a perfectly good shuffler even if it was the dealer requesting it. That is suspicious!

It is weird man.

Like honestly the whole vibe felt very weird, and I've been to a lot poker rooms.

I'm not a fan of the Bellagio Poker Room. I think there's a bunch of better places to go with better customer service and nicer tables/cards.

People can troll and make the tinfoil hat comments, but at the end of the day, it doesn't make sense for a working shuffler to be replaced. And it's unfair for the cards to be pitched high and on an angle.

I think due to the fact that there's 1k/2k+ games running only metres away from the 2/5 games, and some of the regulars in those high stakes games are pretty rude/condescending to the dealers/staff, their frustration can be taken out on the lower stakes games with messy dealing/chip-work. I've seen this happen a lot, where the dealers might treat the low stake games as a bit of a joke.


My take from all of this is, it's your responsibility as a player to protect yourself. Casinos aren't safe environments and there's going to be people trying to exploit edges. Some people will stoop to low levels to do this; not just by cheating, but by bullying players and/or making abusive remarks. If you haven't experienced this, you haven't been in/around poker rooms long enough.

Speak up. Say something. If you see something that might be unfair. Even if it causes a bit of awkwardness/tension at the table. Someone might be thinking the same thing as you. And if the game feels too far gone, in-terms of degeneracy or protection of the rules, just get out of there.

Rant over.

the bellagio has a bunch of lazy entitled juiced in dealers. one has literally fallen asleep in the box and nothing happened to him.
5 years ago the place was way worse as far as being shady/corrupt.

But again if you see a dealer dealing in a manner where they could be exposing cards say something.

I’m glad you mentioned that.

The ladies at the cage were super rude too. The whole card room must have a systemic issue with condescension.

It’s good to hear that I’m not the only person having these experiences.

I think on one of the super high roller cash games on PokerGO, a few of the players (one of them Stephen Sontheimer) were talking about how they will never play at Bobby’s Room because of the culture of the staff.



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Maybe you just weren't observant enough to catch the problem with the shuffler.

The dealer was trying to break your game, probably because she wasn't making any money. The shuffler comment was an inside joke to the floor, more like a code for "help me this is a waste of my time".

The lobbed cards were a result of her purposefully slowing down the game and leaning back in her chair to physically show you that she wasn't going to provide you with proper service because she was not being tipped. It's the tell tale battle cry of entitled dealers with bad attitudes when they aren't making the tips they expect.

The "weird vibe" was because they were trying to make you feel unwanted to break the game. Why anyone plays in a place where dealers act like this is a mystery.

Back when. 2/5 nl was the lowest game they spread the staff would treat you like a piece of **** if you weren't playing 10/20 nl +

Ask the dealer to pitch lower, if they make a scene or agree but don't fix the leak, just refuse to post your blinds until their down is over.

While I agree with the general sentiment, this happens to some degree at every place I've played. Bellagio is worse than average but the average isn't very good to begin with.

And let's kind of be honest, it IS pretty ****ing annoying when some run of the mill 1/2 NL choad acts like he's final tabling the WSOP ME and wants to be treated like the modest pile of $1 chips is actually a mountain of $100s.

Just nicely ask the dealer to stop pitching so high lol