Explain "multiply by 3 trick" please.

"$45 x 8 = $360. Plus $75 makes the pot $435. Raise to $480."

Am I doing it wrong?

The trick they teach is to multiply the amount of the bet you're facing by 3 and then add up all of the other trailing bets plus the amount that's already been pulled into the pot on previous streets. And that's the amount that that "the pot" is.


I'm not sure why you're doing $45 x 8 in the example I gave earlier, but if you're making it a raise to $480 then you're doing it right.

Not wrong, just differently. There is a pot of 75, then there are 7 players that have 45 in front of them when the 8th player says pot. When you say (45x8) you are accounting for the (7x45) already on the table, plus the 45 that player 8 (the raiser) would put on the table if he was just calling. In PLO the pot amount includes adding in the raising player's call amount before adding the raise amount. So your (45x8) represents all 8 players calling the 45. Then you add the 75 in the middle to get the total "call" pot amount, 435, and you then add the 45 raise amount as a separate step. In the end you ended up with (45x9) plus 75 to get 480. But you did it as (45x8) plus 75 plus (45x1) rather than (45x9) plus 75.

With the shortcut formula of "3 times the last bet plus the rest of the trail) you combine two of your steps into one step. The "3 times the last bet" represents player 7's 45 call, player 8's 45 call, and player 8's 45 raise. Then the "rest of the trail" represents the players 1-6's 45 plus the 75 in the pot, or (45x6) plus 75. In total this ends up being (45x9) plus 75 to get 480.

So both ways end up with (45x9) plus 75 as the total amount for the raiser to make a pot raise.

Shortcut?
Does not seem like a shortcut to this to me.
This is the pot size. Plus his $45 call make the bet $480.

That's not the shortcut. If you reread what bolt wrote, you will see that he told the other guy that that was "probably the way you do it". Bolt's next paragraph said how he counts how many 45s he has to add up, and does the multiplication, just the way you did. But by including the call and raise 45s in the multiplication he ends up with (45x9) then adds 75 for the correct amount in 2 steps, while you end up with (45x8) then add 75, total that, then add 45 for the correct amount in three steps.

Your way Calculates the amount of the pot if player 8 was only calling as a discreet sum, then you add the raise amount to reach the total amount. The shortcut eliminates the need to come up with the call pot amount, since player 8 isn't calling, and instead directly calculates the pot sized raise amount.

As I said, though, both ways get you to the same answer, so it really doesn't matter. IMO the shortcut is easier if the last bet is a reraise, (like player 1 bet 45, 5 players called 45, then player 7 raised to 150, then player 8 said pot) you go (3x150) plus (6x45) plus 75 to get the answer.

It's just a matter of when you add in the raise amount. In your way, you make an intermediate pot size calculation then add it, in the other way you include the raise initially. Just two paths leading to the same place.

Master_zo: one arithmetic trick I find useful is to convert the bet amounts that end in 5 into bets that end in 0 before I do the math. For example, if I have 6 bets at 45, That is the same as 3 bets at 90. So double the bet amount and half the quantity. For some reason my brain more quickly sees that 3x90 is 270 vs looking at 6x45. Same for like 8 x35 is the same as 4x70 or 280. The answer just seems to jump out at me easier that way, and it has helped me do the math more quickly

^^^ I hope I remember this next time I deal this stupid game. ^^^

The shortcut I was taught was just add 1x to each caller.

if there is 1 caller of the bet, it has now become 4x the bet plus the trail

if there is 2 callers of the bet, it has now become 5x the bet plus the trail

if there is 3 callers of the bet, it has now become 6x the bet plus the trail

Another quick trick... 1-4-14 rule for pot-repot-repot.

If there is a "pot" then immediately a "repot" it's 4x original pot size.

So say the pot is $300, player A says pot, that's $300. Then player B says repot. The trick is 4x the pot. So now the bet is $1200.

If someone immediately re-repots it, it's now 14x the pot. So if player C re-repotted it, it would be 14 x $300 = $4200.

Re-RePot usually doesn't happen and if it does it's an all-in almost always. But pot then repot happens a decent amount of the time and you can just 4x what's in the pot to get the potsize quickly.

If there's a "pot", then a call, and then another "pot", then it's simple just use 3x the bet plus trail plus the pot.

Another go-round with "Play better!" Guy.

He scoops the first pot of the down. Player who lost the pot asks him, "I'm supposed to yell at the dealer now, right?", so he's already been doing his 'riding the dealers' thing long before I arrived.

"This dealer once beat me out of a $400 pot, then teased me about it!", he pouted.

"You always leave out 90% of that story," I told him. "You're like Fake News!"

He scooped a few pots that down, much to my (and toke box's) chagrin. "I'm starting to like this dealer!", he beamed.

I tried to stifle the laugh, but couldn't do it. "I feel like Jack Lemmon at the end of 'Mr Roberts'. He spends the whole movie hating the captain, then after they finally meet, he pouts to his friends, 'He LIKES me! I have to go to DINNER with him tonight!'"

I need to watch that movie again. I've only recently started to fully appreciate Jack Lemmon. He won an Oscar for that one.

EDIT TO ADD: I almost forgot the reason I posted this: as I was getting pushed out, Play Better guy tipped me a few bucks, and said a few sincere words about how he appreciates my professionalism.

Thanks everyone for your tips and suggestions for PLO. I have been doing "decently" in class with only a few small flubs. I appreciate the info.

On to the good news...

1) License was approved in 1 week. (Sweet! Right?)

2) Was told I am being promoted out of the Dealer class, effective immediately!

3) I start new employee orientation tomorrow.

4) I may have the chance to deal for the first time late this week.

It has been a pretty crazy last few days for me. I am pretty stoked about being able to deal live soon. However, I don't have any illusions about dealing to live players. I know parts of it are really going to suck! As I mentioned in my original post, I dealt table games before so I know how casino players can be.

More to come soon!

-MZo

About 15 mins after tonight's Big O tourney started, I was sent to the tourney area to open a new table full of late registrants. I checked their tickets, passed out the chips, called for the blinds, and started pitching. As I dealt everyone's third card, three players cried out "Whoa! Wait!", trying to stop me.

"Wait for what?", I asked, continuing the pitch.

These three players all assumed the evening tournament was going to be NLHE. Surprisingly, none of them asked about a refund, they just soldiered on. None of them had a clue about "must use two in your hand", or what a low hand was, or how limit poker works.

I got pushed about 20-25 minutes later. We played 8 hands in that time.

I went on break, then dealt cash games for a few hours, then went back in the tournament area. Half the field was gone, presumably the novices first--but not too many of the other players distinguished themselves from the novices. Every showdown was 20-30 cards hitting the table at once, with every player looking to me to read their hand for them. These showdowns slowed the game so much, I could only think, "If these guys could read their hands, this tournament coulda been OVER by now!"

At one table, there was a fly buzzing around, at about nose-level. Three players sitting to my left were completely clueless what they held throughout the betting, and played with blank looks and slack jaws, their mouths all comically hanging open through the hand. It looked like a carnie game, "Guess Which Mouth the Fly will Fly Into!"

You crack my **** up YTF!

But why on God's green earth would you want to run a Big O tournament? Please tell me some benefits. We've been looking into doing some varieties of tournaments, but I'm not going to suggest anything that involves Omaha.

No need to avoid omaha. Omaha tournament players are not nearly the problems that omaha cash game players are and PLO and Big O players are not generally the problem that limit omaha players are. Actually PLO and Big O players are pretty mellow.

It's our Big Annual Tournament time, we set up about 30 extra tables, hire traveling temp dealers, and draw large fields for a few weeks. So we mix in a HORSE, Seniors, Ladies, etc. Last night was Big O night.

Old guy showed up to play in our room tonight dressed like Walter from Big Lebowski:

--glasses with yellow tint, cuz you never know when you'll need to start shooting
--hunting shirt with a million pockets to fill with ammo
--toothpick out the side of the mouth
--and finally, to update the look for 2017:

Last Friday two women were kind of chipping at each other back and forth for a little while until it finally boiled over and they started shoving each other. These two ladies were both fairly attractive so naturally the whole room of 97% men stopped to enjoy the show.

Players at my table: Wow look at them go at it
Ol' Gil: (loud enough for a few tables to hear) Throw some mud down and lets see them really get at it

Pretty much everyone at my table got a good belly laugh at it and one of our regulars high fived me.


Flash forward to last night and I got called in by my shift manager and a HR rep to the office and was given a stern talking to by the female HR rep about not making sexist comments at the table and that jokes like that can be viewed as a form of sexual harrasment and that would not be tolerated and that it could lead to an immediate termination in the future.


Only thing I could think of was that I am glad they dont listen to dealers talk to each other off of the table......

Annual Ladies tournament last night. Best night of the year to deal cards. Every dealer was in a great mood last night, you never see that. Wish it could be like that EVERY night!

Highlight hand: Flop comes all hearts. Pre-flop raiser shoves, enormous overbet. Only SB calls.

BETTOR: I hope you're not drawing!

CALLER: Nope! (tables her straight-flush)

Really enjoying these posts lately guys, thanks to all for sharing. I know I speak for many that I enjoy passing my breaks reading this thread before my next push, except I deal table games; really funny to know you guys are as punished by these degens like us in the pit yet rewarded with their generosity and crazy stories too as well.

I've got a fun story that happened one weekend recently so I'll share, sorry tldr. I'm dealing in our high limit room and I push into a blackjack game. It's an Indian casino so max bet is only 5k per hand, 2 hands a player. That kind of action is not too frequent but it happens; the norm average is a few hundred a hand or something like that. In my game sits a young Armenian guy in his late 20s with a couple stacks of black. My down goes smooth and a couple of shoes later, he's cleaned out the black in my rack (up probably 15k) and he's been tossing me a quarter here and there and I make a few hundo, so I'm happy (keep our own joint).

About an hour and a half later, I go back to that room to a different table at the end of my string and there he sits this time with a wall of orange (our highest denom was 1k) and was up over 120k and had the attention of the room because by then he was tipping blacks to anyone who could receive a tip including the waitresses, housekeeping, slot techs and most definitely the dealer was getting the lions share of it all. Many of our graveyard guys on the rotation made a couple grand and some even more.

I watch as he asks for racks which was a first for me to see as a table games dealer meanwhile he's continuing to tip "spare blacks" just pouring around his stacks of Orange to the dealer and everyone else. He goes to our cage, get's it all in cash, and I sit there on a deadspread listening to the sound of that machine spitting out his bills; he get's his cash and a DPS officer and leaves.

I ask around and other people tell me he's a semi reg smaller time player who only went through low 4 figure swings and that this was life changing money for him. This happened on my Friday and I come in Monday and I hear that he's been back, more of the same sick run up another 300k in 2 days only this time, he was going absolutely nuts and going around to all of our high limit tables and tipping a purple ($500) to all the dealers on deadspreads without them dealing a single hand to him. Apparently he did a few rounds of that the 2 nights and some dealers were luckier than others.

Again, some of our boys and girls made well over that if they happen to actually deal to him, and every department grunt worker those days who encountered this very generous fellow had their days made by him and his hundred dollar chips. Every now and then the right George goes on an insane run and makes it rain, but this guy was something special.

"makes it rain" reminds me: the other night, I heard the unmistakeable sound of someone dropping at least a rack of chips on the floor. It was a player from our highest-limit game, so these weren't $1 blue chips.

"He's making it rain," one player at my table remarked.

"Those are white chips," I observed, which are the biggest chips we got in this joint. "He's making it hail."

Tonight I had, hands down, the coolest moment of my dealing career. This was Clint Eastwood stuff.

ACT I

Seat 7 loses most of his chips. He stands, and let's out an f-bomb as loud as a howitzer. This simply isn't done, not in this room.

I see the floorman look up from his podium, his eyes wide, then quickly turn away to busy himself and pretend he didn't hear it. Most of our floor staff comes up big in spots like this, but this guy isn't even worth calling over, I'll just handle this one myself.

The player does not sit back down, he instead adjourns to the smoking area outside. The other players are looking to me, so see how I'm going to handle this. "Well, I'd call the floor," I explained, "but if the floorman didn't hear *that*, he won't be able to hear me, either." The players chuckled, the game resumed without our angry loser.

When he returned a few minutes later, he played a few hands, lost every one, and expressed shock and surprise at each of these losses. "Unbelievable!", was a common refrain.

ACT II

Finally, he straddles UTG. A few limpers, and he squeezes/shoves about 10x the straddle. Same player who's been beating him every single pot, calls him again. All others fold. Caller tables 99.

I run out the board. Our boy does not table his hand. Instead, he stands, and angrily flips his cards toward the muck. The cards are moving at about 1000 mph. One skims along the felt into the muck; the other goes airborne, and is now face-up (it's an Ace), and flying more towards ME than towards the muck.

I know there was no intent to throw anything AT me, so I'm not mad. I'm slightly amused at the spectacle....then I felt that Ace hit my left hand. It landed PERFECTLY between my thumb and forefinger, face-up. My hand never moved it to catch it, it looked like I just nonchalantly snagged this rocket out of the air.

You know in the movies, when the little guy throws a punch at the big guy? And the big guy CATCHES the little guy's fist with his much-bigger hand? And the big guy gives the little guy a look that says, "That was dumb. It is pure folly for you to mess with me. I can't believe you need this explained to you." That was the look I was giving this guy while holding his card in my hand. I played it off exactly like the big guy in the movies.

Busted, the player did not swear loudly or tantrum further. He turned and left without another word.

I had noticed a few jaws dropped when the card landed in my hand, but now EVERYONE at the table is completely agape by this scene playing out in front of them. Many are clearly starting to wonder if it was a fluke, like they thought at first, or if I really was the baddest man on the earth.

I looked back at the card in my left hand (the Ace of spades, COOLEST-looking card in the deck!), and announced, "OK, I'm going to play that off like it WASN'T a fluke..."

The table cracked up.

I'm not a fan of these non-conventional chip colors. I've seen some chip stack porn on this site from other rooms (California seems to be big into having unique chip colors) and it just doesn't feel right to me.

$1: blue or white
$5: red
$25: green
$100: black
$500: purple
$1000: yellow

Why can't this just be universal? Or at least national?

My casino is in SoCal and we recently changed from those horrible L.A chip colors to the traditional ones except 1ks are Orange and we just got new "chocolate" colored 5k chips.

I just thought about that from my previous post that I probably should've clarified what "black" meant for the folks out there with different denominations. I agree Bolt that at least in the U.S it should be universal.

I had always been told that non-standard California chip colors came to be due to asian culture influence.

Also, everyone should adjust to the California colors.