We have a break room that is bifurcated with one side being a smoking room, separated by a door. I hate it because the non smoking room smells like smoke all the time.

Every once in a while I can pick up an extra down. I just offer to stay on a table when a particular dealer is pushing me because I know he will let me have it so he can go smoke.

Bet on the latter...

I mean at the federal level.

Yesterday i was walking into walmart and i stopped to allow a mini-cooper to pass by in-front of me( windows closed). It slowly passed and i was hit by the unmistakable stench of stale cigarette smoke, a few seconds after it was gone so was the odor. I was really surprised for some reason, Ive experienced that stale smell inside rooms and from heavy smokers but not emanating from a closed car in the open air of an outside environment. i thought to myself, that person smokes A LOT.

Someone mentioned their 'perfect' day. Mine would be 6 downs (preferably cash, since we have many tournament downs), followed by a break, and then 8 more downs, followed by an EOB. Of course, the odds of that happening are rare, but one can hope!

I can easily work a whole shift with only one break, dunno why people want breaks after only an hour or two!

I'm a smoker and this describes me. You can get used to jobs that have frequent breaks, but you can also get used to jobs that require you don't stop for long periods of time. I don't much see the point of spending testing resources and being borderline discriminatory by not hiring smokers, if breaks were the only issue. Is it so difficult to just be firm about there not being smoke breaks during a shift? Or maybe turnover. Do people historically apply for jobs, thinking they will be able to handle several hours without a dose, then raise a fuss about it or quit if they find they can't deal?

I feel like the real reason discrimination occurs is more likely due to a company's desire to pay less healthcare costs, or to offend less customers apt to make a fuss about a stinky employee.

Healthcare, speaks for itself. It's valid. Legal drug use is not really a category of people you can discriminate against in the same sense as some other things. Drug use is a personal choice and an issue of discretion. Which leads into the second thing I mentioned. Many industries can't tolerate an employee with a coffee problem. Smoking is much more in-your-face. Some smokers... lack discretion. We'll leave it at that. It's not terribly difficult to minimize the impact your own habits have on everyone around you in a work environment in the service industry where you should know how you're expected to come across.

This

Smoking is voluntary. Smokers can choose to stop smoking and people can choose to not start smoking. Not only is smoking voluntary, it is well known to be bad for the people who smoke and to a lesser extent to the people around those who smoke. Also, there are benefits to smokers who choose to stop smoking.

Actions taken against smokers can't truly be considered discrimination due to the voluntary nature of the act of smoking. The members of groups that are classified as minorities have no choice in their membership in those groups.

Thoughts on rolling the deck? I frequent a room where it seems 75% of the dealers roll the deck to bring chips into the pot on their deck hand side. I was taught to never roll the deck. This is in a California card room btw.

This is debatable. Apparently it is possible to change your gender.

It is also possible to change your religion.

And if we start discussing the ADA there are many disabilities which can come from voluntary actions.

Of course my reading of the Constitution is that government has no right to regulate my private discrimination against anyone. Now if only I could get some Supreme Court Justices to actually read it......

It tilts me. It also tilts me when dealers use the two-handed cutting technique.

Whoa whoa whoa. Let's not politard it up in here.

EDIT to add: Just had to delete a few posts in here that strayed from discrimination as it applies to casino employees into a full-blown political/constitutional law discussion. Feel free to continue down that path in the Politics Forum.

Yeah. It tilts me when dealer picks up mucked cards and places them on top of the muck.

Slide the cards to the muck so you don't expose them, and don't
put them on top, mix them into the muck so they're unretrievable.

It tilts me when dealers push a pot without mucking all other hands.

It tilts me when dealers muck all hands including the winning hand and muck the board before pushing the pot.

Why is it the players who like to sit in the one and ten seats
are the same ones who like to keep their hands on the table?

Makes it tough to pitch to the two seat and don't they notice they're in the
way when I bump into them every time I scoop bets fron the two and nine seats?

fyp

And why is it the people in the 1 and 10 seats who keep their arms on the table are often off-duty dealers?

Saw this for a millionth time this week, so we'll add this to our list of "why" questions about common behavior:

Seat 7 racks up and quits. Seat 8 says, "I want that seat, dealer," but doesn't move. When asked, he makes it clear that he'll move as soon as someone else shows up for it.

Someone, plz, explain this one to me. Is he really just marking his territory, like a dog? Cuz I can't think of anything else it could be.

That's either laziness or position. He wants the 7, but if the new player is someone he really really wants position on, he'll just stay in the 8

In higher stakes games, it is common if the seat is next to you to lock it up and make your decision based on who is coming for it, especially since it is a huge swing if that person is directly on your left or right.

At lower stakes, who knows, probably feeling important that they have 2 seats locked up and when the knew player comes in they get to tell them how they are wrong when they are trying to sit in that seat that it isn't available.

If it were my room, you would have to move after the current hand, or lose the seat. Doesn't it just really screw things up when the new player comes?

I'm out at a local bar with my girl the other night, and a small group of coworkers come in, and of course invite us to join them. One of the girls in the group is dating one of our regular players ("dating" is to casual a term, they've been a couple for a long time), and he's with them. As the evening goes on, we're joined by two other regular players, for a total of three players, four other dealers, my gf, and me.

What made this post-worthy was this: if I were to make a list of the meanest, trouble-making players in our room, two of these guys would be in my top five, and the third would have a shot at the top ten. But this evening, away from the poker room, they were ENTIRELY different people. It was all laughing, joking, having a good time, being polite, being respectful. I never would have guessed.

It's pretty sad what poker does to some people (I just debated changing "poker" to "gambling" in this sentence, but I haven't seen other forms of gambling turn people into dicks like I've seen poker do it).

EDIT TO ADD: This post is the first thing that made me think, "Wow, now I can understand why some folks would be opposed to legalizing casinos in their area." I'm not saying I'm ready to join them in opposition; I'm just saying that I can begin to understand WHY they feel that way.

I think it is all forms of gambling. Lots of pit gamblers are this way. I know a doctor who is very polite and professional in the office but when he is at the dice table, he's definitely in my top five worst players. Constantly berating the dealers and other players and blaming someone for every 7 that rolls.

In my experience (~5 yrs dealing in the pit/ ~6 yrs playing poker) most unpleasant players simply HAVE TO have someone else to blame. Whether it is a player chasing a long shot and catching it at the poker table, misplaying a hand of Blackjack and "killing the table", or any other superstitious bs people come up with to rationalize why they constantly lose without looking in the mirror.

I'd go farther and say that it's all kinds of competition. I have seen it at bowling leagues, I have seen it on softball fields and we all know about how otherwise decent parents turn into umpire-berating ****-talking screamers when their kids are at Little League.

Competition can bring out the best and worst in us.

It may have nothing to do with poker, gambling or competition.

It may be a function of the social dynamic. When you are at work and he is playing he may not be considering you as anything more than a servant. And he treats you and the other employees in that capacity. When you are not working and you are in a social setting he sees you as a social companion and treats you that way.

I know many people who are perfectly polite reasonable people until they are in a situation where they feel they are in a position of power.

This is spot on. The guys I just mentioned in my little story were certainly talking crap about the waitress and bartender (though I wasn't paying enough attention to be able to report if they were talking crap directly TO the waitress and bartender, but my money would be on the "yes").