Wow, I’ve never heard of this. It may even be against gaming regulations.

I've played and dealt a lot of rooms and never heard of that. In fact, one of the dealers in my old room got his gaming license revoked for pulling that move.

Washington state.

Yes, it is in Washington, and I'm sure they wouldn't be doing it if it went against gaming regulations.

It certainly seems better for the games than having people check it down to see if they hit.

I'm not doubting your story, just pointing out how unusual that rule is. I've played in WA a few times but never during a high hand promo.

I'm torn on how I'd feel about having this policy. It would make the 1/2 games less bad, and increase profit for the house slightly, and players would like it. And I suppose I'd deal an extra high hand occasionally that I wouldn't have otherwise. But it would get old being asked to run the turn and river every time a player has an overpair and they need to see if it would make runner runner quads after everyone folded on the flop.

Everything has a cost .. if you want to Rabbit Hunt, then toss in $1 more for the rake (not Promo Fund).

I'm also in favor of extra rake for RIT, so this should be no surprise here. GL

Anyone looking to move? Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee has posted the Poker Room Manager position with an eye on 'Spring' poker re-opening.


I have no clue how it's taken this long for this facility to reopen post-CV .. Previously hosting two WSOPc Series and Two Main and Two Regional MSPT events per year along with it's own tournaments.

While Rivers (near O'Hare) and perhaps Green Bay has taken in some of the poker action there has to be lots of pent up poker in this large city. They actually ran Limit Games on the regular too!

Just FYI .. GL

They don't run it out for that, only in the cases where just one more card is needed to make a high hand, when someone already has a set or straight flush draw.

Also, if the current high hand can't be beat they don't run it. So if there is already a straight flush on the board, they don't bother to see if you would have made quads.

Well with those stipulations, I'm on board. Sign up my room for this policy, it actually sounds good.

Now that I think of it, there was a room here in FL (Derby Lane) that had a spade royal progressive jackpot in the early 2000's-- as a few other places did-- before high hand promos as we know them today. And I recall that even if you raised PF and everyone folded, you were allowed to rabbit hunt the whole damn board and be eligible if you had two broadway spades in your hand. The only hole in my memory is that I can't remember if it was cash games only, tourneys only, or both.

It sounds like being a dealer has made you a better player even if it is just game selection because that is a very important detail to being a profitable poker player.


I agree that in order to get better watching poker you need to play back and review hands after you see them, but I think that hand review while slightly distracted is easier than most think. Even when playing and I am not in a hand and distracted (on my phone or talking to someone else) I still somewhat pay attention to the action so I would be aware if there is any gross plays or such. Same while dealing.

Unless distracted by dealer duties (counting my rack, getting a fill, etc.) I think dealing is fairly slow so there are lots of periods (especially postflop) where players are thinking that a dealer has absolutely nothing to do. A dealer can spend thus time glancing at the nearby TV (which I have done), mildly ogle a nearby cocktail waitress/massage girl (which I have done), or try and put each player on a range (which is what I usually do). The bigger games a great for this, not only are the players better and therefore much harder to read, but there is also much more downtime as the hands will take longer with more thinking.

That said, a vast majority of my dealer errors come from anticipating the action too much and being wrong.

One of the most profitable players I ever knew was a high limit PLO player. He gave me advice about winning that I never forgot. He told me that the most important part way to win money is to play against players who aren't as good as you. He used to get great lineups together and would reserve a table in my room that would have the other PLO pros drooling as they played at lower stakes against each other.

The better advice would have been to tell you how he got that group of players together. I have heard of this kind of thing many times and wonder how they do it.

By being very social and making it a fun game. The pros at the table made a point of playing looser than normal and would make EV- plays from time to time to keep the game lively. And they kept the alcohol flowing. The GTO pros at the lower stakes games never got the hang of it.

Back at my old house job I got pretty burned out towards the end. I rarely act out, but once in a while I hit my limit. Especially when players are touching me, I'm not a fan of that.

One night a player to my right was sitting low with his legs crossed and one leg sticking straight out. I'm sitting high up and his foot starts tapping me in the calf. I start asking him to stop. First subtly "Is that your foot?" while looking down, then more directly, then full on "Can you try to not kick me?" while pointing at his foot. He completely ignored me and kept on doing it. In fact, he was moving further under me and eventually he was non stop tapping the back of my knee with his shin.

Game on. Calling the floor would cost me hands and all they would do is ask him to stop which he would for a few minutes then start in again. So I wait. A few hands go by, he's tapping away at my leg, I'm saying nothing. Then the thing I waited for happened - seat 3 put a bet out that was too far for me to reach without standing up. I hook the guy's foot with my right leg then stand up on my left and move WAY over to the left to grab the chips.

Dude falls completely out of his chair and I just look over at him like I have no idea what happened. "Are you ok?" "Yeah fine."

He stayed pointed straight ahead with his feet on the floor for the rest of the night.

Anyone else have any stories of being petty on the job?

Oh man. As someone who can be the most petty when I feel someone deserves it, I don't know where to stop once I get started......

My first job petty story was against an A-hole shift manager. I learned poker dealing at a charity event company where the person running it was a nice guy, but literally did not give a duck. As a result, dealer rotations were haphazard. I was used to dealer rotations being always messed up.

So I land a regular casino dealing job. I am about a month into it, I have had the usual growing pains, but nothing too bad. Overall it is going well.

One day I get tapped out of a table and the rotation has me going to table 10 next. I head over and it is a different dealer than I have been following. It is this ancient,older, elderly dealer named Betty. I tap her and say last hand. She turns to me and says she has only been in the box a few hands. She wonders if I should be tapping her out. Now Betty is older than dirt. She has been dealing forever. She is old enough that she has probably slept with a couple of Jesus's disciples. If she is questioning me tapping her out, then I should be questioning it to.

So I look up and see the shift manager by the front desk. So I tell Betty I will go find out what is going on. I head over to the shift manager and explain what Betty said and question if I should be tapping her out.

He rips me a new *******. In fact he rips me two new *******s. He starts swearing at me and tells me I am an idiot and I just need to follow the rotation. The worst part about it is he does it on front of a couple of customers, another dealer, and the front desk girl. Just totally goes off on me.

I sheepishly walk away back to table 10 and tell Betty I am tapping her out.

Whatever.

A few days later I get tapped out of a game. The rotation say I should go to table 2. I head that way and table 2 is empty. I know this must be a mistake. Table 2 is rarely used on the room. It is in a corner that is hard to get to.

I stand there for a second trying to figure out what to do. I know I should go over to the shift manager and say something, but it is the A-hole. Even if I am right it is going to be a mess I would rather avoid.

So I double and triple check the rotation and it says I should be at table 2 so I stay there. I sit at a dead spread. Nope, not going to get yelled at again.

As I sit there for a few minutes looking around I see a couple of dealers looking around and realize that they have not been tapped out. It takes me a few minutes and I realize that they are downstream from me in the rotation. As one of them calls the floor over and talks to them I take stock of the floor and look at the whole rotation carefully.

I realize that table 12 is occupied and isn't in the rotation. I also see that all of the dealers downstream of that table have not been pushed yet.

It is really clear that table 2 in the rotation should really be table 12. I should have tapped table 12. However the rotation said 2. Being a person who wants to get it right, I start to get up and find the boss to correct it. Then my mind clicks to the other day when i was chewed out. I sit right back down.

I know what is right, but eff it, I am going to be petty and maliciously comply.

A few minutes later, one of the downstream dealers get a floorperson who then gets the shift manager. It takes him a few seconds to look at the list and try and figure out what is going on.

Eventually he comes rushing over to me and asks me what I am doing? I really try and hide my smile (but I am 100% sure I failed) and told him that that the rotation said I should be on table 2.

He starts to yell at me, but I can literally see his face change as he remembers what he said the other day. He swears a couple of times and tells me to go tap out table 12.

I go tap out table 12 and deal the last 7 or 8 minutes of the down.

I was so happy to be petty and piss off this shift manager for being an A-hole. Eff him.

The one downside I did not think about until later was that I screwed another dealer out of their break. They got stuck in the last table of the rotation. I just hope they made decent money on their extra long down.

In retrospect I'm not proud of this one, but it was very early in my dealing career, and I'll be transparent for the sake of the thread.

We had a 2-4 limit game and dealing it was pretty much guaranteed to be a miserable 30 minutes no matter who was at the table. But in this instance, there was an older guy who seemingly went out of his way to be a jerk at all times. He was downright nasty whether he was winning or losing. We had a player go all-in on the flop, so the main pot was closed with about $20 in it. The jerk was sitting in seat 2 and he was heads-up for a side pot with another player. The jerk bet the turn and was called, so now there was $8 in the side pot. The jerk bet the river and the other player folded. Jerk thinks the hand is over and tosses his cards to me, face down. I didn't hesitate and turbo-mucked his cards and pushed the main pot to the all-in player.

In the moment I was incredibly proud of myself. Looking back, I realize that the jerk brought me down to his level.

I would have done the same and would have been grinning ear to ear the whole time. Anyone who lashes out like that at someone who can't defend themselves (being a newbie underling) deserves to be mocked relentlessly.

Congrats on 10,000 posts.

One day while commiserating with another dealer about the level of misery omnipresent in certain players' lives, I commented something like, "Man, I don't understand how you can be like that all the time."

The response I got stuck with me. "Don't even try to understand it. If you can understand it you'd be one step closer to being like them."

So yeah. If you're a miserable prick, that's all on you, and I'm not going to waste a second thinking about it.

I like this thread much better when its about dealers swapping stories.


Not me being petty, but another dealer.

The player involved is the miserable type that won't respond and expects you to read his mind, then complain when you don't immediately know which of his two braincells he was using.

4/8 limit, and the guy always buys in for $40. He gets down to 2 or 3 bucks, and peels out a $100 bill and sets it next to his chips. Now while of course it is the player's responsibility to declare an amount to add on (and in absence of such, the full bill would play) this dealer knows that he always buys $40 and she gives him a chance to help himself.

"How much behind?"
The player holds up 4 fingers.
"Four?"
The player continues to hold up 4 fingers.
"Okay Four behind."

So yes, the game did come to a grinding halt/argument when the dealer ruled (properly? but pettily) that it was a declaration of four dollars added on to his stack out of the $100 bill and he was now all in for that amount after partially calling the first preflop raise. She was tired of his ****.

10,000... I had no idea. And I guess this is officially # 10,000.

Here's a petty one that I'm less ashamed of and it turned out to be fairly amusing. Maybe a year ago, a kid who might have turned 21 that day and was celebrating by playing in a casino on his birthday. He's in the 3 seat and every time he places a bet or folds his hand, he barely pushes his cards/chips forward. I've thrown my back out a couple times and I have zero interest in reaching that far and I'm sure as heck not going to stand up every time, so I speak up. "Would you mind pushing your bet forward? I'd really appreciate it." The first time, the guy sitting next to him in the 4 seat pushes his chips closer to me and I thank him.

The next hand, same thing. "Hey, would you push your chips closer so that I don't have to reach so far? I'd really appreciate it." After 3 or 4 requests, I realize that this kid just isn't getting it. So I start short dealing him. I'm pitching everyone else's cards right up to the rail, except for the 3 seat. I'm not even pitching the cards anywhere near him. I'm just placing his cards about 1/3 of the distance between me and the player. It's comically/obnoxiously short. And the kid in the 3 seat still doesn't get it. Without a word or a complaint, he just stands up to retrieve his cards, while the guy in the 4 seat (who's still pushing the kid's bets into my reach can barely stifle laughter.) The entire down went like this.

And, yes, the kid definitely spoke perfect English. To this day, I've never seen him in the room again and I still have no idea what might have been going on in his head.

Congrats! Here's to the next 10k.

Another petty revenge story I have was a tournament. There was a player who the postflop action was on him and I wasn't sure if he knew it. He was looking across the room, then staring down into his lap (maybe into his phone???? Unsure). In cash games I am pretty aggressive about letting people know the action is on them (it affects my bottom line), but even when I deal tournaments I am probably more aggressive than 99% of other dealers. Even though it doesn't directly affect my bottom line, my thoughts are that if I was a player I would prefer more hands, so as a dealer I try and get out more hands. Simple customer service.

Also though I am aggressive, it is because I think that I am pretty discerning. I pay attention and I am pretty good at reading when a player is paying attention and when they are not. I know for a fact that I am more accurate with this read than most. Also, when I have to remind a player it is their turn I am always very polite and gentle about it. My go to is to say "Sir, I hate to interrupt you if you are thinking, but I just want to make sure you realize the action is on you."

99% of the time if the person is aware it is their turn they will nod and I will say "Then take your time".

Anyway, back to this tournament. An early hand in my down and the player looked like he wasn't paying attention so I used my line on him. He went off. He said that he knew it was his turn and he didn't appreciate the distraction. He could have stopped there and it would have been fine, but he continued. He said that he was acutely aware of everything that goes on at the table and he didn't need me to tell him when it was his turn. He said he was more aware than any stupid dealer (his words).

Ok.

So I apologized to him and said I was sorry for interrupting his thinking and I will not do it again.

That just seemed to set him off even more. He then says that everyone else at the table is also more aware the action than I was and that I am just a dealer so I should not say anything and just move cards and chips.

I had literally just been there for a few hands and had not said a word other than to announce raises (which is room policy). I am not even sure if I said "Hello." when I sat down.

Ok. Whatever. I look around the table and none of the other players want to say anything. That is fine. I am very good at customer service so I can provide exactly what is requested.

For the rest of the down I do the bare minimum to control the pace of the game. I still call out all bets and raises (because it is room policy), but I do so in a very subdued manner. I don't look or gesture at players pre-flop to help them know where the action is.

Play slows to a crawl.

Most new dealers think that dealer speed comes from moving fast and efficiently. That helps, but only at the margins. Most of the time is spent waiting on players, not the dealer. So anything a dealer can do to help the players play faster makes a bigger difference in the number of hands dealt per down. The biggest difference between the dealers who get out the most hands per down and the ones that get out the fewest is that the faster dealers will be more active in controlling the game and moving the action along. Subtly letting players know when it is their turn will greatly speed up the game, even among experienced players.

The player basically told me not to do any of that and no one else was willing to disagree so I completely stopped controlling the game. It was a tournament so I didn't personally care how many hands were dealt in my down. So the fact that action slowed to a crawl was fine by me.

The cherry on the top was the very last hand of my down. The player who had the outburst was in the big blind. There was an early preflop min raise with two other late callers. Action got to him and getting great odds he called the min raise from the BB.

Flop comes out and the outburst player in the BB checks. Early player bets. The next player thinks for a significant amount of time and then raises. The third player goes deep into the tank. He thinks for a very long time. It is clear he has a decent hand and wants to play but he is facing a bet and a raise before him. After a long minute or two (or three) he finally folds.

Action is on the outburst guy in the Big Blind. My down is done as the next dealer taps me and I give him the down card. The Big Blind is just looking into his lap. This goes on for a minute. He finally looks up and looks around the table and then starts to look at a TV accross the room. It is quite clear that he doesn't realize that the action is on him. I don't even think he realizes he still has a hand. He folded in his mind when he checked 3 minutes ago.

I am not going to say a word. He made it quite clear I was not to control the game and let him know action was on him. Malicious compliance at its best. I will sit here as long as it takes.

After a long time the other players start to get uncomfortable. Every experienced poker player has an internal clock in their head on how long hands should go and we were well past that. Even if they are distracted looking at their phone they know something is off.

I look around at the other players at the table and a couple of them are distressed, but none speak up. Again, I am not going to say a word. It it quite clear that the outburst player doesn't know it is his action. I start to wonder why the other players won't speak up. Do they not care about slow play? Are they not paying attention? Are they afraid of setting this guy off?

It goes on long enough that even the dealer waiting to tap me out is getting agitated. He can see the action on the table but doesn't know what is going on. He just knows it has been a long while since he tapped me.

We sit there for quite a few minutes.

Finally another player calls for a clock. He doesn't speak up to the outburst player, he just calls clock. I call out "Clock table XX." to a floor. The distracted player looks up to see what is happening, but it doesn't register with him that the clock has been called on him.

The floor comes over and I verbally describe the action to the floor without making it physically obvious who the action is on. The floor then asks the standard question if the player has had long enough to act. I loudly say that he has had at least 5 minutes to act and probably longer (no exaggeration).

The floor then looks at the outburst player and tells him that he has 30 seconds to act on his hand. He is clearly surprised that he still has a hand so he quickly folds.

It literally took at least 5 minutes and a floor call for this guy to wake up to the fact that he had a hand. Being petty, I was going to let it go as long as it took. I wasn't going to do anything. The longer it took the happier I was.

I was amazed that not a single player at the table said anything either. I don't know if it was because of fear of outburst guy or if they genuinely didn't care. A player literally had to call clock rather than tell him that the action was clearly on him.

It was the best 5 minutes I spent staring off into space. It literally made my day.

had no clue they passed RIP YTF

My final malicious compliance story is still a fantasy. I totally want to act on it, but to date I haven't had the guts.

We have a regular who sits in seat 9. He regularly folds early because he is on his phone/tablet. The other problem is that his folds consist of pushing his cards millimeters forward. I am sure he does it because he doesn't want to clearly fold out of turn, he just wants to do it subtly. Of course, the problem is when the action starts on the other side of the table. The action gets around to him and his cards looks like they are pushed a couple of millimeters forward and he is looking at a tablet. I am 95%+ sure he means to fold, but I think those are terrible guessing odds on whether to kill a hand or not.

When tapping into a table and I see him in seat 9, I always resolve that I am just going to take his unprotected cards whenever it is his turn no matter what, but then when it happens in real time, I chicken out. As a dealer, I absolutely abhor making myself part of the action and inserting myself into the action.

So whenever the action gets to him and I am unsure, I always clarify if he is folding. As a player, I would rather have a dealer clarify a fold rather than take my cards blindly so I try and extend the courtesy to players. Better to ask than not. To his credit he has never outright said anything negative or confrontational to me asking if he is folding, but he regularly makes it a big deal. He will often sigh or roll his eyes and make it seem like it is a stupid question.

Furthermore, (and here is the catch), he will occasionally get engrossed in whatever is on his phone/tablet and not realize it is a new hand and he has new cards. So often enough me asking if he is folding will surprise him and he will quickly look at his cards. Not too often, but just often enough that it renders assumptions dangerous.

I dream of just sitting down one time and taking his cards every time action gets to him, butbi just haven't been able to do it yet.

One day.