Quote:
Originally Posted by Starpoker
The worst I recall was a 2/5 game at a card room now closed. Dealer was one of the regulars and was actually pretty solid.
Several players get involved and it ends up as an all-in with at least 2 side-pots, about $2k in total in the middle. Prior to peeling off the river, players are trying to get the dealer to set the pots correctly, but for whatever reason she just wants to run it out. At showdown, dealer realizes she significantly($200+) miscounted the pots as players call it out and then accidentally combines 2 pots.
I was getting up from the table for a dinner date, but I imagine it took a good 5-10 minutes to unwind that mess as she had to call the floor. Dealer didn't get fired, but, that was a large, totally avoidable error. I'm guessing she was just hoping the large stack would scoop and save her work, but that did not happen.
I find the fact that the players were the ones asking for the side pots to be made right prior to continuing to deal interesting bc my experience is just the opposite. Often, when I start to make the pots correct, a vocal player (often not one in the hand) will loudly insist that I should just deal the cards and then sort it out after. That way, if the biggest stack wins, everything can be pushed to him without taking the time to make the sidepots correct.
When I first started dealing, we had the option of which way to do it. It was sort of viewed that new, inexperienced dealers needed to make them correct, while the experienced ones could sort it out later. Some players would get very irate if a dealer didnt sort it out at the end. Finally our room made it policy that pots were to be made right prior to dealing to make it standard. While there were mistakes made by dealers, esp when you are running it twice, what drove the policy was actual player behavior. When the sidepots werent made ahead of time, we had players muck Without tabling their hand after seeing a hand that beat theirs, only to realize too late that they would have won a side pot. (Of course, then they said it was the dealers fault, bc if they had built the sidepots they would have seen it. This even though they were one of the players pushing the dealer to skip ahead in the first place). We also had players refuse to pay off the sidepot, claiming they didnt know a third player was allin until after the cards were dealt.
So I always built the pots before completing the deal, and do it fast enough that it really is no big deal. IMO this is far better than the total chaos that can occur when you get4 players calling out who gets what, with 3 being wrong. Then it takes a long time to fix the mess.
But I just found it funny that you had players insisting on making sidepots first, as I have never seen that happen. Though I have had players tell me privately Later that they liked that I insisted on making the pots right So they could feel confident where their money was. But no one ever spoke up about it at the table. I guess it's sort of how no one admits they actually like Nickleback.
Last edited by browser2920; 05-05-2021 at 09:04 AM.