Limit games run best when played with a single denomination of chip. There is no change making required, bets are clear.

Having come from the east coast I was used to playing $5-$10 limit when I got Vegas I was annoyed that everything was $4-$8. I thought the idea that more chips created more action was complete bunk ...... until I managed to talk a manager into running a $5-$10 instead of $4-$8 and I saw the results myself (I understand that is not scientific and a really small sample size)

I used to play $8-$16 in two different casinos. In one they used $2 chips and in the other they used $1 chips and $5 chips. Not only was there more action in the 4 chip 8 chip game but the game just had a much more smooth feel to it. One thing I quickly realized in the game with red and white was that 4 chips could be $8 or $16

Nitty floormen are the worst.

It’s just a poorly run casino that doesn’t like poker. It’s a high limit baccarat casino, other games are a mild annoyance. There’s not a dedicated poker staff, it’s part of the table games rotation. It’s sadly the same everywhere up here. Quite the shock, coming from California, the land of dedicated poker rooms and a real passion for the game and its traditions.

I do get that, and I’m happy with some reds on the table. But not every player needs $1k in reds. One rack on your initial buy-in, okay. But if you’re topping up and already have $600 in reds in front of you, any more is a waste. Frankly, it looks amateurish. The 10/25 players hardly want any greens, they prefer black or higher. The 2/5 players really hold themselves like they’re the cream of the crop (10/25 is sadly a rarity), so dress for the job you want, guys.

But it’s not really the players, it’s the house. Many players do color up racks of reds, and I always thank them. The staff selling chips just doesn’t have a concept of this. It’s the worst in the 5/5 and 5/10 PLO. 2/5 NLHE is more amusing than anything. But $3k in reds in a PLO is maddening. (I have no problem tracking the pot without stacking, it's just a waste of time and space for the players.)

Fair enough. And I think a rack or so of reds is fine. But when someone already has that much and is buying more, bring green. There’s no reason not to. And have I mentioned our tiny, tiny tables?

Now THIS, I’m with ya. Grinds my gears to see reds in a white chip game. I color them up every chance I get. I figure if the player wanted to keep them, he wouldn’t bet with them.

Hah! Yeah, I’ve learned not to get involved here. I’m just a lowly dealer, I have no right in telling a player what chips he can or can’t use. He knows more than I do, I need to dummy up and deal.

But every red that goes into the pot is getting instantly changed.

This is true. Many of these guys are really scared little boys. We had some traveling higher stakes guys in town for a couple of weeks, and they intimidated the piss out of the regulars sitting behind mountains of red. The regs couldn’t handle the action offered, and actually drove off the new guys by being too nitty and boring. And since the visitors were slumming it and blowing off steam, they weren’t taking the game seriously and were dumping money on the table.

Yeah, tourney players can get twitchy about this.

Oh, side comment about useless chips in tourneys. We don’t always have a break when the greens are no longer needed. I started using variations of this, which works VERY well:

"Okay guys, antes are 100, blinds are 400 and 800. You’re going to want to use your green chips for this. I strongly encourage you to fight that urge."

Hah! There ya go. I’ve found players have gotten better about this in recent years. I usually have a few go-tos. "Everybody antes, this hand ’til the end, no exceptions." or "Let’s see who wins, the shuffling or the antes." or just sing-song "ante ante ante ante ante ante ante ante everybody ante get your ante let’s see an ante ante ante oxenfree."

Oh for crying out loud. I remember someone telling me about a 5/10 they used to have, and I asked about the chips. Same thing. They promised it was an action game. I just smiled and nodded.

Since it's NH, I can imagine half the table buying in for 10 chips, and then sitting with 3-4 chip stacks two hours later.

Unfortunately a $4 chip looks a lot like a $5 bill to people in NH!

Some of the younger guys sat in rapt attention as I waxed on about some of the things about the job that have changed since I broke in, especially: Overbetting in limit and PL when it's heads up, where the opponent can call any or all of it (or merely call the max bet, or raise/fold).

They looked at me like I was from Mars. I had to assure them that more than once I'd made a $100+ bet in a $4-8 limit game, got called, and the world didn't end.

Speaking of the end of the world: tonight in a tourney, as the preflop action proceeded around the table, the BB's phone rang, and he chose to answer it. The SB predictably shouted, "J'ACCUSE!", and told the BB his hand was dead (it isn't, of course). It was early in the tourney, we were still playing for pennies, and the BB didn't put up a fight. As I asked him, "Option?", he threw his hand in, and focused on his phone call.

I didn't muck his hand. Instead I called the floor. While waiting for the floor, the SB assured me that it was a dead hand. Other players nodded, and looked puzzled as to why I would want a ruling on this.

The floor correctly ruled the hand was live, and announced the BB would receive a one-hand penalty on the next hand. Eyebrows went up. "You KNOW you're going to win this hand now," more than one player told the BB.

Flop came K52r. SB checked, BB put out a massive overbet. Everyone folded, BB showed K5o with a grin, and got up from the table to serve his time. What a good sport (seriously, no sarcasm intended, he clearly blasted everyone out of the pot because he didn't want to benefit from his infraction).

While I'm pitching the next hand, "Dead Hand!" Guy is assuring Penalized Player that his hand should have been dead, that the (well-respected) TD must have made a special one-time-only ruling for some reason. When the "Dead Hand!" Guy turned his attention back to the table, he noticed that I was dealing in the penalized player, and frantically tried to get my attention. "He doesn't get a hand!!!!" He even reached over and started pushing those cards back to me.

I used my patronizing "calm down, dude" voice, and explained that I still have to deal him in, then kill his hand. But "Dead Hand!" Guy just. Will. Not. Shut. Up about it! And more he prattles on about the miscarriage of justice that has just taken place, the more agitated the other justice-seekers at the table become. Finally, his fourth or fifth "should have been a dead hand!" pronouncement was punctuated with, "...unless I'm wrong."

I seized the opportunity: "You're wrong, Joe." He seemed taken aback by my bluntness (it did get a few laughs), so I explained, "I'm sorry, I tried to stay out of it, but since you just won't let it go, I had to say something. The rules are pretty clear, there's just about no infraction you can commit that results in getting your hand killed."

Other players had questions about penalties, and were surprised when they heard the phrase "MAY be subject to a penalty". Many were under the impression that some infractions had Mandatory Minimums, like a one-round penalty for this or that.

I was hoping the matter was disposed of, but over the next few hands, it came up again, with more "should have been a dead hand!" grumbling (from players other than Joe). I just shook my head. "Gee whiz, fellas, take a deep breath. The guy answered his phone. He didn't set off a bomb, or anything!"

At about the same time, all folded to the BB. As I pushed him the pot, he stopped me with an annoyed, "What are you doing?" Apparently UTG had raised, and I completely missed it, and BB hadn't acted yet. Back to the "Calm down, dude" voice: "OK, ok, my bad, sorry. Give me a break, I was distracted--I'm on Bomb Squad duty over here!"

I love your stories.

Forgot to mention: one line I like to trot out in response to "You can't answer your phone!" is:

When I dropped this one on the table this particular time, one player asked Penalized Guy, "So was it important?"

"It was my Dad," he began in a somber voice.

Uh oh.

"I left the screen door open."



Thanks.

Over in Sporting Events, they're holding a fantasy draft for Greatest 2+2 Thread in History. The Ultimate Bet cheating thread went #1 overall, and names like Sup Bro and ZeeJustin and Adsman went early as well...then I was shocked to learn that my still-thriving weight loss thread in Health+Fitness went in the second round!

Something legit funny actually happened at a poker table. A guy got in a big fight over the phone with his boss about not clocking out properly and real nitty stuff it turned into a "you can't fire me I quit" hangup.

Guy goes away from the table and we're all in "did that just really happen?" mode.

Guy returns a few minutes later smiling and admits it was all a joke for our benefit!

PLAYER A: (bets 3000 on the river in a heads-up tourney hand)

PLAYER B: How much did he bet? 3000? (mucks hand, points to Player A and says) Give that dick the pot.

ME: (pushing pot to Player A) Here you go, dick!

Procedure Question Time!

What do you do when a card is marked or damaged and needs replaced?

What do you do with the old card?

What kind of logging or record-keeping is done?

Guy who took down a 50 man last night continually stacks all his chips perfectly even so all edge spots line up too. He would win big pots and spend the better part of the next orbit re-aligning a dozen 20-chip stacks.

I've been running so bad lately its ridiculous ...... the other night ended this way ... come back from break sit down in full game, deal a couple of hands no pots just pushing the blinds around...... then a couple of guys who are together get up, and this leads to the mass exodus .... break the table .....

Go see the DC get back in the rotation for the next push ....... my spot is a 5 handed game. Sit down deal 2 hands and the guy with all the chips leaves ...... break the table......

Go see the DC and take the EO because if it happens again I'm going to lose it......

What does it mean when the dealers are switching in the box and the one leaving says to the other, "Good Setup". I've heard this a couple times and am just curious on what it means.

No clue. But they're almost certainly talking in code about you players. My guess: "Not too many *******s at this table."

Nothing more disheartening than pushing out a dealer who tells you, "Have fun!" as he leaves.

My current job REQUIRES the outgoing dealer to brief the incoming dealer every push. How long the 7 Seat's been walking, which player called for cocktail service, etc. Even if there's nothing to report, you've still gotta say "All good," or something. Nobody told me this when I started, and I was used to getting up and out of the way as quickly as possible with no conversation when pushed, and the incoming dealers would stop me and ask me, "All good?", and wait for an answer.

Also, enjoyed Bill Simmons' story about how when he was tending bar in college, the bartenders would talk about the customers in code. For example, if you wanted to say, "That girl on barstool #42 is smoking hot!", you'd say, "Mo Vaughn looks pretty good this year!" Since poker seats are similarly numbered, I'd LOVE to bring this to my coworkers.

"All good?"
"Brett Favre is a real jerk!"

Dealer calls for a new deck
Dealer informs floor of the marked/damaged card(s) when the new deck is brought
Floor replaces the card from our replacement decks
Floor uses a sharpie and circles where the mark is
It is placed in a small manilla folder (one per card)
Floor writes date, time, table #, name of dealer, and signs it. (depending on the floor, they have the dealer sign it as well)
It's kept in a drawer for 30 days before it is tossed

Maybe this means a player asked for a setup recently and the room has a rule about how frequent setups can be asked for? Maybe saying "Good Setup" means a player asked for one during their down and thus, they can't request another for the next hour or two?

But that would make unnecessary the best opening line from an incoming dealer I’ve heard lately; he looks at us and says, “Who are the bad apples at this table?”

That means the incoming dealer tapped in just as the deck was finished being shuffled and it is ready to be cut and dealt.

This is against dealing policy at many places. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. Especially at the end of a 10 ball.

Today's entry in jokes that I make at the table that nobody gets but make me laugh inside anyway...

A player asks me what the C button is for on my Bravo display.

"C is for chips. That's good enough for me!"

Do kids these days even watch that show growing up?

Well I would have told him its for cookie.


My joke last night that fell flat.

"I'm sorry I can't hear you, you have headphones on.“

Sent from my SCH-I535 using 2+2 Forums

Groovy, thanks.

Do you have full replacement decks, or just a bank of cards?

What's the purpose of all the writing and signing? Does it get reported anywhere higher? Does a higher authority come and collect the decks, or require auditing of any sort?

When we switched out decks, 8 get deemed replacement decks and they get put into different boxes. Blue diamonds, Red diamonds, etc...

It's kind of annoying because after a few weeks, the cards get a bit dirty, so when we need to replace a card, the replacement card stands out. After a few months it's insanely noticeable.

I've been told all the documenting is in case DOG. Like maybe they catch a card marker or something, we keep them for 30 days and then toss them.

Go to the table and see the damaged card. Then go to our replacement decks and get a replacement. Call surveillance to tell them "I'm going to replace the brown 3 of spades on table 7". Take the replacement to the table and show both sides of both cards for camera and take the damaged card back to the desk. Black permanent marker an "X" on both sides of the card and put it back in the replacement deck. We keep a list on the box showing what cards have been replaced inside and also have a log book where we write the name and color of the card and the date that it was replaced and the supervisor that replaced it signs it. We keep them all until we get new cards because we have X number of set-ups issued to the room and all the cards need to be accounted for when they're replaced and destroyed. We try to use used set-ups as replacement decks to fight against the new looking card put into a dirty looking deck.

As I pitch the second card over the BB's bet and under the BB's hands, he lifts his hand to do (what I had yet to realize was) his usual move of pulling the card toward him before it had even slowed down, let alone come to rest in front of him. When the card met his hand, it flipped up, and I had to stop pitching, bring 'em back, and reshuffle.

Annoyed, not by merely this incident but by what has become a trend, I grumbled, "Stop trying to catch 'em, fellas."

"My hand never moved!", the BB protested defensively.

By this time, I was pitching again, and I pointed out, "I know, that's the problem. Look where everybody's hands are right now! All nine of you have your hands covering the portion of the table where I'm supposed to deliver the cards. It didn't used to be this way. It used to be, 'Hands high! Dice are out!", I whined.

It fell on deaf ears, of course.

I'll bet you walked 10 miles through the snow to dealer school when you were a kid...
Darn these young whippersnappers...
Love your stories....

That's all I've been doing this week, focusing on all the things people do that were never allowed in the past. Especially covering up the front edges of your cards with your left hand, so that the player to your left acts out of turn...then getting upset that people are blaming you for this, as you CLEARLY had your fingers spread wide enough that anyone (who's not sitting to your immediate left) could see the cards THROUGH them...