Not long after I started dealing I dealt a tournament for an organization of deaf people. Although there are challenges the first couple of years they started playing was pretty easy going as the players were not poker players they were just out to have a good time.

But I have dealt many poker tournaments for the deaf since then and as we got further along past the poker boom I have found the players in these tournaments are now "poker players" which means they are no longer the fun easygoing group I used to enjoy dealing to.

MMcD: nice one!

psand: my point exactly.

Player joins $2-100 SLHE game with $500. Ten minutes in, she loses almost all of it when her AA flops a set and gets runner'd.

The next hand, she gets AA again, and doubles up.

The next hand, her neighbor gets AA and wins a small pot.

The next hand, she gets AA again, gets all-in, wins, and is almost even now.

As I'm pushing the pot, the table is going nuts. "How many times are you gonna get AA?", they demand. Seriously, at least five players are loud and agitated about this.

"Fellas, she's still stuck," I point out while pushing the pot. "Quit yelling at her!"

***

$3-6 limit. New player sits, I toss a "Reserved" button in front of her, to remind myself that she needs to post in before getting a hand. As I shuffle for the next hand and call from the blinds, she posts, and tosses the button back to me.

I finish shuffling, then return the button next to her post. She again flicks it back to me. I again return it to where I had it.

It now dawns on her that this is where I want it. But this....this simply isn't supposed to be how the world works, in her mind. She relents, but huffs about it. She is visibly upset.

I start to explain why my way is better than the traditional way (as we've discussed here before, I don't need the player to her left to see a bet out there, and think it's his turn to act, while my attention is following the action at the other end of the table), but she doesn't want to hear it, so I shut up. When the action gets to her, I remove the button, play continues, and I hope that she notices the world did not spin off its axis during this crisis.

VERY NEXT HAND, player at the other end posts his missed blinds, and we go through the same charade, him repeatedly tossing the blind button in the middle, me repeatedly putting it back next to his bet, him not understanding. It was my bad luck that his player, and the lady in the preceding paragraph, are regs, and have demonstrated high levels of OCD over the years I've dealt to them--so they find this much more upsetting than most folks would. He wasn't at the table last hand, so he didn't know I just went through all this, and he made me do it again--except he was willing to listen to WHY my way is better. I pointed to the player behind him, and said, "So when this guy looks up from his video game and sees a bet out in front of you, he won't be misled into thinking it's his turn to act."

The player I used for my example was incredulous. He's been playing one of those Storm the Castle games on his phone since he sat down at this table, that's why I worded it that way. But he has not slowed down the poker game in the slightest; I have not had to call for his attention once; he's been a model citizen; and he cannot believe I'm calling him out like this.

I see his jaw drop and his eyes go wide, and try to explain myself--but he's having none of it. I praise how he has conducted himself thus far, but he won't stop scowling. After the hand is over, I set down the cards and stop everything to apologize to him, accepting full responsibility for this misunderstanding--and he's still won't relax. He never said a word through any of this, but it's clear that he's going to keep this one in his teeth and not let go.

Oh, and he put away his phone.

I suck.

Oh good, the push is here. Exit, stage left.

I go to the next table. Almost immediately, a new player posts in, behind the button...and while the action is at the other end of the table, this player launches the Reserved button far from her bet, and sure enough, the player behind her looks up, sees a limp-sized bet in front of her, and limps himself, wildly out of turn.

"TIME!" I don't even bother discussing it. Instead, I call out to a passing dealer:

YTF: Hey Joe!

JOE: Yeah, YTF?

YTF: Put me on the EO list, will ya?

I tried your button trick once a few years back YTF. It didn't work for all the reasons you describe. Never tried it again.

The cellphone battle is over. It was lost years ago. Society is addicted to their phones and (at least in this country) inconveniencing everyone around you so that you can keep using your electronic screen is socially permitted. I've given up and accepted that this is the way the poker community as a whole wants the game to be.

I started dealing before the iphone era in a joint that strictly prohibited even *looking* at an electronic device at a gaming table, headphones banned, etc. I honestly can't remember what that was like.

You know what's so funny, is the place i broke in back east in CT still has the cell phone policy, where you can't be using it or even have it on the rail!
And the latest one was, dealers had to enforce that policy and be really strict about it, or they'd be getting write ups!

Our cellphone policy recently changed from not being able to use one at all in the poker room to not being able to use one while seated at a live table. That means instead of me saying 'excuse me, if you must use your phone please leave the poker room to do it' while being given a dirty look to now saying 'please take a step away from the table to use your phone' while being completely ignored.

I had a new player come to the table and post (as per room policy) then walk away without saying anything, so I pushed his chips back and deal him out. He comes back livid, wondering why he didn't have cards (we were already on the flop). I explain that I had no idea he was coming back or why he put out chips and walked away and apologized. He again does the same thing the next hand, either ignoring me or completely oblivious to my 'sir, are you playing this hand. Sir? SIR' as he walks away. He comes back yelling and screaming (again well after his turn). The next hand he could post the BB but doesn't, apparently not hearing my prompt because he is still too busy explaining how incompetent I am, so I deal around him. Sorry Michelle, sometimes I don't go high.

That reminds me of playing in the worst room I have ever been in (not that you did anything wrong, it just reminded me of a story I want to tell). This took place on a river boat with the poker room on the top level. The room was non-smoking (not as standard then as it is now, this hand took place in 1998). The dealer was getting a fill, and that took a lot longer than it should in this room. The next big bling posted his big blind and went out on deck to smoke. He was watching the table through a window (we could see him), so he would be returning when the dealer started dealing. The dealer started calling for the floor because she didn't know if she should deal in the player with his blind posted looking at (but not able to hear) the table so he could return as soon as there was something to return to.

This story was a real treat to play in, it was close to my house before I moved to the west, it had great games, but everything happened in painfully slow motion (a friend of mine that is a sick gambler could fold preflop, run to a different level, 7 out on the craps table and get back without missing a hand or missing one or 2 if the craps table got hot). I once moved to the vacant seat to my left on my big blind, the dealer called the floor to see if I was allowed to do that. The floor didn't know and stopped the game while she looked through a book that was 2 feet thick. Eventually enough player were yelling at her that she agreed to let the dealer deal. I couldn't make this stop by waiting until after my blind to move because the lists were hours long (think of a boat that cruises so there are time windows where people can get on or off the boat). I was told I couldn't get dealt in one seat and reserve another.

Ah yes. The riverboat days. Don't miss those.

I'm quite certain that before this shift is over, i'm going to yank a phone out of someone's hands, and throw it against the wall. It's been beyond the pale tonight.

The worst was in the break room! This girl texting nonstop for 20 mins, her phone making loud click with every key stroke. It sounded like she was sending a telegraph.

For 20 mins.

That's pretty much where we are too. The tricky thing is trying to enforce it on players we like as well as players we don't like. Because we all treat everyone the same right?

I swear to God, ten seconds after I posted that, the door swung open, and here she comes again. She went directly to a chair, but before she was even seated, the tick-tick-ticking started again. I was NOT having it this time! "Young lady (waits for her to realize I'm speaking to her), could I impose on you, to mute that?"

She made a face like I had just asked her to suffocate her crying baby. But she complied.

And now I gotta spend the rest of the break worrying about whether or not I'M the *******.

I was venting about this later (I had a ROUGH night last night, it was a nonstop parade of rude jerks), and a buddy commiserated, "Yeah, these phones, they're a problem."

It's not the phones, I countered--it's the people. When they're not being inconsiderate with their phones, they're busy being inconsiderate some other way. Folks wear their pajamas to the grocery store now, because they Do Not Care what you think about it. This is their world, and we're just living in it.

And it just so happens that the worst of the worst these folks...find poker to be an appealing pastime.

[/Old Man Yells At Cloud]

"I have to yell at you and pretend to be mad so that I can actually yell at the people I don't like when they do it"


This is my response to both people I like and people I don't like.

I get why noise from a phone bothers you... I don't get why my wearing pjs to the store bothers you.

It doesn't. It was just an example, certainly not the best one, of folks who Do Not Care what others think of their behavior. I'd be embarrassed to show up to a supermarket in my pajamas...or if my kids ran screaming up and down the aisles, annoying people...or if I was constantly disrupting a poker game because something else was commanding my attention. I'd excuse myself from the table, and return to the game when I could give it my full attention, when I could be a player who did *not* disrupt the game.

But, more and more these days, folks don't care what I think about their pajamas. Or their screaming kids. Or their telegraph-sounding text habits. Or the poker game they're disrupting.

That was my point. The problem isn't the phones, it's the sense of entitlement held by the rude people. They don't think they're being rude, because that would mean they gave the slightest consideration to how they're being perceived by others. That consideration was never given, because there *are* no others! There's only THEM. THEY are all that matters. How you and I feel about it doesn't exist, because WE don't exist, in their minds, as people. We're just props, put here to serve them.

YTF I understand where you're coming from but that's a you problem, buddy. :/

My guess is that many of the people you see in PJs at the grocery store with screaming kids aren't exactly top of the economic/educational class and don't think it can be explained that they're just not trying hard enough. But that's probably a discussion for a different thread.

A friend of mine cured my road rage with a simple question: "Maybe they're not in a great place in their life right now. Maybe their kid is sick, or they can't afford dinner tomorrow. Would those few seconds have really made your life better?"

Isn't it amazing how the same people are not in a great place in their life day after day after day after day after day for years and years and years

Fact is that there are both inconsiderate jerkfaces around the place and there are also relatively normal people who do inconsiderate jerkface things occasionally because something else is going on which is not immediately apparent.

Please don't talk about us dealers like that =P

What is eo?

Early out (a list to volunteer to go home early if they don't need that many dealers).

I arrive to push a moment too late, and will have to watch this entire hand play out. I walk over to a loose reg in MP as he gathers in his cards to look at them: "Let me sweat this one, Joe. We both already know you're gonna play it!" He limps in with several others.

As the dealer pulls in the bets, I announce, "I've been working on my poker face, let's see how I do!"

Dealer spreads a flop, Ace-rag-rag.

I loudly drop my tip box.

OPTAH!!!

did he win the pot?

He did not, because I am a terrible sweater.

I once had an off-duty dealer sweat one of my hands. I guess I should have bet the river, because even though I won the hand, she loudly said “CHICKEN!!,” and walked away.

I've never let someone sweat a hand for me, and got any help from the board cards.

And I always make a bad call on the flop, so they can have the thrill of going runner-runner.

And I always fold the turn, when I still don't have a pair or a draw.

And they always feel betrayed by the fold.

So I don't let them sweat any more.