Great replies. Luv the one about it somehow originating in me. That's what solipsism is about in part ... like an externalized drama of one's inner life.

An innocent part of it is that I was just so cold for so long the dealer subconsciously just didn't think she/he could push a pot to me. They go functionally blind with a deep subconscious "I know this guy isn't holding anything that wins" type thought. Really. It's one of the factors.

But thanks for the great replies. I thought I was going to get lambasted for real.

So here it is, they know there is something weird happening, and they go fuzzy when they look at my hand. Continuously. They are a bit off-center at my glare and my whole aura over what is happening. So they are blocked when looking at the hand. Not just reading hands, but blocked and influenced by the whole thing. Meaning: disconnect. Makes sense.

No it's not. No dealer knows or cares who they push a pot to in general (exceptions: big tippers and stiffers, or if they have some sort of personal relationship with you, which would override every other factor).

They also only deal to you for 30 minutes at a time. Other than inferring from your demeanor (and specifically if it's out of the ordinary for you), they have no idea if you've been running hot or cold for more than 30 minutes at a time, if that. They don't see your hand very often.

Here's what I think happened, in likelihood order:

1- It just randomly happened to you a few times, and your lizard brain has decided that it is a pattern when it is really just coincidence

2- It's not actually happening to you more often than anyone else, you've just latched on to it and remember every bad event but not any counteracting good ones

3- The dealer is just bad and makes a lot of mistakes, and you play in a lot of pots so they happen to you more often

20- You're a giant a-hole, the dealer is not very professional, and those two things have positively reinforced each other to the point that they now decide to risk their jobs just to piss you off

It sounds like you should take a break from poker for a while. Or at minimum from that poker room. Or start playing at different times so you don't have to get hands from your villain. If dealers really value their jobs, they will not purposely act the way you say they are acting.

I have a situation in my room where a player and a dealer just flat out hate each other. I don't even know how/when it started because it long predates me. We're talking in the neighborhood of 20 years. Because the hate has built over the years due to a few big deals and many small deals, now even the smallest thing infuriates the player. At that point there is nothing to do to appease except a suggestion to take a break.

It's a bunch of different dealers in 3 different rooms. It's a certified insane streak of mistakes. Period. I used to be a dealer myself. There is a genuine hostility built up over an insane losing streak I had previously, and I can't abide dealers who sit there and expect tips without concentrating on the task dealing me death. So it gets hostile. Then comes the intimidation factor, which produces the disconnect factor of freezing when they try to assess my hand, change, side pot, etc. They know I know the situation better than they do and they're nervous. But that pot where I bet all-in on river, was insta-called not only verbally but by pushing his chips in ... then he asked to run twice and I said "no once" and he grabbed the chips back and the dealer said nothing, that was too much. He was out to lunch.

All it is is a freaky bad run of mistakes in my direction, freaky bad runs happening in all spheres, of course. Aggravated by momentum, the freeze/disconnect factor and my creating it thru expectation.

The lizard brain factor is a piece of it, as it is that part of me sensitive to it and instigating it a little, if not intentionally. Like this, at the table I always liked to act clueless and goofy, subtly or not so subtly, which can be a good tactic at times (though it can backfire when the deck goes brutally cold). Anyway, this clueless image when you spring the opposite of clueless double confuses the dealer, puts their attention on other than the simple fundamentals of "what is the proper change," "which hand is the winner," "which pot is he in for or not in for." That leads to mistakes. It, the clueless ploy, not only knocks the other players off-center (at times), it knocks the dealer off-center. Off-center increases mistakes. Now they've got, "this guy instead of being an idiot is seeing everything I do in the box and I'm sloppy." That hurts dealer accuracy. End of rant I hope. But it was very weird. At one point it was almost 20 times in a row that a winning hand was attempted to be killed by the dealer, it was my hand. The odds on that? A million-to-one?? Anyway, weird ... moving on. I used to be a great tipper. I stopped and went to the minimum, couldn't bring myself to stiff. That's a piece, somehow. Just a weird run. It started and it got stuck. My point was never actually that it was a cheat, but that it is so extreme it makes sense to suspect it.

It's a weird little dynamic that amounts to misdirection resulting in error. It exists in my mind -- I want it to happen (to confirm something in my subconscious) -- then it manifests in the world. This phenomenon on top of just a "run bad" scenario of dealer mistakes not being distributed evenly, maybe a few other things ... but not the cheat that is surely looks like at first bluff, as in, "can we give this guys pots away and get away with it." It ain't that. Never thought it was. So I needed an explanation.

An analogy occurs to the protagonist (thought I better avoid hero on this one):

You know when a player is bluffing all the way down, gets called, and flips his hand over and it is absolutely nothing? The calling player often does a double take, confused for a moment, and says, "What is that?" In other words he doesn't believe his eyes at first because the whole thing seemed a non-sequitur. Meaning, a very experienced player, the caller, is thrown and thinks he might be misreading the board for a moment. THAT IS IT kind of in reverse, as these are unexpected big hands, but still unexpected.

When dealing poker, especially some games such as hi-low Omaha, but any game really, the dealer often gets an impression who the winner is going to be from the betting and from other subconscious indicators. When mutlitple hands are being rolled out -- and that is how it has been happening -- it can lead to overlooks. And on many of these pots someone else was doing the betting. Oh well, near a wrap. It's really been happening at insane odds so had to run it down a little

Sounds like you think the dealers are out to get you. If I was you, I'd probably never mention this again.

Now, that sounds like a joke, if you are saying this kind of thing out loud to other people/dealers.....they likely think you are f'ing crazy, and are treating you as such.

The dealers aren't out to get you, they don't give one iota about your bad streak. And even if they did...they couldn't do one single thing to harm you. So relax and quite being a psycho.

If this is happening in 3 different rooms then this is a problem that you are the center of.

Your hostility towards dealers is unacceptable. As a dealer you should know that. There is no losing street that merits any hostility whatsoever at a dealer. When I lose a big pot in a cash game (or tourney really) in which I am massively ahead when the money went in, and then I get sucked out on and the Dealer apologizes, I am quick to remind them that they had no part in it whatsoever. It is not the Dealer's fault.

Even when the Dealer puts a turn card out too soon and I go from winning a pot to losing it, as long as the Dealer acknowledges that they made a mistake I make it a point not to blame them. I could be the other guy benefitting from the mistake. Its only when dealer's blame me for their mistakes that I get upset...

Stop doing that. And really its not that hard. Just announce your hand when you turn your cards over. Like "Pair of Aces Jack kicker" or "Straight to the 9" etc. Stop trying to prove the point that Dealers are human. And certainly stop acting like you have the losing hand. Being a victim is not going to get you the attention or success you need.

Do not tilt dealers. This is the most fundamental thing you can do as a player. Just don't do it.

You want dealers to respect you and care about you. The best way to do that is to respect and care about them. Stop making their job harder than it has to be. The reason you want respect and support from dealers is that there may be a time that you need it. Like in a controversy where you are in the right and about to lose money due to a mistake.

As to having your winners misread as losers 20 times in a row I would say the odds are astronomical. If you assume that on average the dealer will misread your hand 1 in 100 times (which I think is way too low) then to have it happen 20 time is a row would be a 1 in a 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ,000 event*. There is no name I know of to describe that number. And it is not possible. So either this is an elaborate troll, you are making up the 20 times in a row thing, or everybody really is out to get you.

If it did happen 20 times in a row, or even 4 times in a row, then the message is clear. Stop playing in that room. They are deliberately trying to cheat you. If it was just one or two dealers I might point it our to the Floor manager but I would guess that you have already been reported to him for past behavioral issues.

*If this is PLO then maybe you could argue that a mistake might happen 1 in every 10 hands which would make it a 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 1 in 100 Quintillion. Which again is not possible.

If what you say is true then there is an attempt being made to cheat you. Or the dealers are so incompetent that they should not be dealing. Either way I would stop playing in that room.

Just announce your hand when you turn your cards over. If its PLO high/low announce both the high and low hand if you are going for both.

Maybe that will cause some confusion but in general I turn my hand over when it is my turn to do so and only when I have the previously turned over hands beat. There are times I turn my hand over first. But if I were in a situation where hands were regularly being misread I would make sure it was understood that when I turned my hand over that it was ahead.

I think I misunderstood this. It wasn't 20 hands in a row, it was the last 20 times it happened it was to you...

Well the chances of that being random are at best 2 to the 20th power which is roughly 1 in a million as you said. and its much worse if there were more than 2 people in the hand on average... Also the odds get worse if this includes hands that you weren't involved in (assuming there were no mistakes then). So basically not realistic that it is random chance.

The stuff i have control over is my own behavior and attitude. That is why I don't blame dealers for the results. When I lose it is because I chose to play and if I am unlucky then I have to accept that it is part of the game.

If this was happening to me I would look at what was causing this from my perspective (as you have attempted to do in this thread). From your description I would change the following:
- I would apologize to the dealers I had taken the losing out on and make it clear that I would not be blaming them in the future
- I would look at how to handle bad beats emotionally. If it means leaving the table to take a walk or the game so be it
- I would be kind and considerate to the dealers. The last thing I want is for the dealers to be singling me out for anything
- I would avoid dealers who I think have been out to get me. I would take breaks or leave rather than sit through their downs
- I would speak up at showdown as I expose my cards to declare winning hands. And I would protect my cards at all times so they could not be mucked if i have the winning hand. I would correct dealer errors matter of factly without rancor (this is hard to do because when you feel something is unjustly being taken from you there will be a reaction in the moment but temper this with the knowledge that your image is according to you partly responsible for creating confusion)

There are very few dealers I have bad relationships with. I make it a point to be kind and considerate. When dealers make mistakes I point them out to make sure the game is not compromised but I don't try to make them feel bad about it. I probably make way more mistakes than the dealers do. And I am always looking to help dealers especially those with short arms.

I can't imagine that anyone would read this and believe it.

Well, there's a handful of minutes I'll never get back.

There is some great stuff in your reply. Yes a basic answer is to announce my hand to the dealer, and not doing so in the face of the problem amounts to a passive-aggressive bating of the situation.

It isn't the card death that irritates me at dealer but incompetence, or even more so, an uncaring attitude about being accurate. Tonight one of these types sat down and started running his mouth, paying less than half attention to the action, was called down on it by 2 regulars (I am not a regular), but just couldn't stop his bullcrapping. I knew I should get up, but I had just sat and the game was short. Sure enough a bunch of sloppy ass crap, and then the first hand I play it comes the worst card possible on teh turn, the 3 of spades, which beat my double nut hand but pairing low and putting flush on board. What gets me hostile is the incompetence combined with dealing death. I know they can't control dealing death to you, but it is a little insufferable to be incompetent too. I played decades and never got on dealers. I made clear it is the dealing, not the cards, that is so irksome.

Just as there a one-in-a-million runs of beats all the time (there are millions of players playing billions of hands), there are million-to-one runs of this mistake crap coming at you maybe once a lifetime.

When I see a dealer who is paying close attention and applying themselves, no matter how green, I have no problem with it. In fact I tip that dealer very well for their attitude. Sometimes in life there is a comedy of errors, and this is one of them, plain and simple.

Is this thread for real? Asking for a friend.

I dont know how you could write all that b.s. and not figure out the problem is YOU.

Maybe say what you have when you turn your cards over instead of just flipping your hand over and sitting there like a numpty. You've been staring at your hand for 2 minutes. Just say what you have. Saying what you have is a lot easier and takes such little effort compared to 3 or 4 people tabling hands all at once and counting on a dealer that you think is incompetent to read all the PLO (or high-low) hands in an instant. I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to read the hands quickly and professionally, but in most places, PLO is the least dealt game by many of the dealers and they don't take the time to really try to learn it because they deal it so infrequently. Maybe they should practice reading hands in their off time, but lots of employees in many fields don't spend their off the clock time trying to perfect their craft, so getting very little live practice isn't enough to get them to the level they maybe should be at.

This is the real problem. You sound like you enjoy this dynamic. You are exacerbating an issue so you get to feel some superiority in the situation, very likely, and this is a shot in the dark, so you feel justified in not tipping much, if at all.

This reads like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

"It is not possible.

It should not be possible.

But it happens.

In the Twilight Zone."

Certainly right about a part of me, anyway, liking/needing the dynamic. It's not about superiority or tipping. I get off on tipping outrageously in other places. It's down to the level of metaphysics and existential identity. Am I in the netherworld pre blowing this mortal coil? Those kinds of things. And if you don't think thinking like that will show up in all your outcomes in life, you got another thing coming some day.

I don't know about the show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Twighlight Zone description is righteous.

Just looked up Curb. Sounds awesome, of course.

I bellied up yesterday ... first hand was a snazzy little 2-7. Second hand was a suited-connector type, flopped a pair and a flush draw ... zeroed it out and lost about half a stack. Next hand was a 2-7 again. "I know you," I thought, concerning this voodoo run.

They called my name for my preferred game. I went over and no seat. I sat back at the original table for a few moments, then went up to the desk. Try again she said, someone left. I went over and two seats were now open. I marked one clearly, went and got my chips and when I got back that seat was taken and my marker was in a different seat. "Was he in the game already?" I politely asked the dealer. "Nope, if it's a problem we can call the floor. Do you want me to call the floor?"

Really? I mean really? I let it pass, making a mental note that that seat would definitely bust me, and soon. It gets weirder. I'm then questioned by the floor as to whether I was even on the list, and they are getting militant about this and banning people for 24 hours for this infraction. "I was sent here twice." Jeezus.

Sure enough I play a pot with 'my" seat. I'm in the big blind with A-J of hearts. Everybody folded and he raised in cutoff. I just called. Flop was A-8-3, I check-raised him and he shoved what little he had left. Well I guess he really has it, I say to myself, but so be it. Turn pairs the 8. "Ace-Jack" I say before they turn the river. Ready to throw it where all the losers go. He says, "Beats Ace-10."

She turns a 10 on the river. A very shaky dealer, btw. The dude after lying on his hand turns up A-9. Who lies on their hand in an all-in situation? He did so to save face a little. But the ace-ten he claims beats me, the actual A-9 doesn't. So I turn up my A-J winner. "Chop pot," says dealer, stacking it. STOP THE VOODOO, PLEASE.

"Yeah I'm back in the poker room," I'm thinking. A land of very strange occurrences. I might copy off a certain writers paper and call a story, "Strange Occurrences at Owl Creek Casino," fictionalizing it a little to protect the guilty.

I then caught zero cards for 4 hours, as always accompanies the weirdness, but actually won 300 over those hours, making three well-timed steals. Showed them all to my neighbor. Then, oddly, he moved across the table and I made a big hand against him but he didn't call, even after seeing my bluffs. I know he had a good hand. Hmm.

Very strange goings on whenever I show my face. It's stuck on this crap. No other hand was wrongly awarded in the 6 hours I was there, though the kicker split misread thing is fairly common.

TTHRIC