Hi all,

What would you do if you suspect a dealer holds a grudge against you? I don't trust them to make basic ruling in the pots I am involved in at this point and just assume they are trying to screw me over at every possible opportunity.

Just the other night I was BB twice in a row because they did not move the button and they started to ship a side pot to the wrong player until someone corrected them that I was the winner. They are also rude, once barking at me "what are you doing with that" right after I was felted in a big multiway all in and put a pumpkin chip ($1k) on the felt in front of me, obviously for a color down.

This dealer has also made an openly homophobic comment in my presence at the table and may/may not know I am gay. (Gay marriage came up and the dealer said they keep their "shame" to themselves on that topic.)

It's gotten to the point that I have a negative emotional response whenever they start their down in a game I am playing.

Thanks,
DT

Regarding homophobic comments, that should result in a formal warning at the least and suspension/termination at the most.

I'd speak to a supervisor, name the dealer in question, and ask for the poker manager's email address. You might be surprised at what that can accomplish. And I'll reiterate that you don't want to publicly name the dealer, but when speaking to management, you probably should.

You should never have a dealer make rulings anyway. That’s what the floor is for. If you suspect the dealer to have a bias against you, I would approach him and tell him that you’re having a conversation with his manager if stuff keeps happening.

Regarding the homophobic comments, I would probably let it slide the first time if I think it’s an isolated incident. If it happens again or I hear that it happened at a different table, I would approach the poker room manager directly. That’s a no go in the workplace, no matter if anyone at the table is gay and if he knows about that or not. A repeat offender certainly deserves termination.

The combination of him holding what you call a grudge and the comments would probably lead me to talking to the manager immediately.

Send him flowers, that works w/ most people.

Hi DT:

It's difficult to think that a dealer just has a grudge against you. If this person did hold a grudge against you, my suspicion would be that he holds lots of grudges against lots of people and I doubt he would be dealing for long. (I remember years ago there was a particular dealer in The Mirage poker room who wanted to fight everyone. He didn't last long.)

However, in my book, Cardrooms: Everything Bad and How to Make Them Better, there's a chapter on "Talking Dealers," and here's the first paragraph:

If asked to name the worst problem that a poker room has, without any hesitation my response would be “Talking Dealers.” It’s an industry wide problem and I don’t know of any cardrooms that don’t suffer, at least to some degree, from this problem.

This sounds more like what you're running into and my advice is to talk to poker room management about this dealer with the emphasis on how he's constantly talking and not paying attention, is slowing down the game, and making mistakes. You certainly have some examples to present. Hopefully, msnagement will then work with him and you'll see improvement.

Best wishes,
Mason

I'd share concerns with the room manager.

I'm generally not confrontational, but at some point would be asking the dealer to stop the game and call the floor. As mentioned, the dealer shouldn't be making and rulings.

The button failing to move, absent other factors impacts the whole table. If I'm SB, have already paid my BB and SB, I'm not just idly taking a 2nd SB. I'm ready to take my BTN.

Until it's resolved, if you are emotional, I'd take the down off and speak to the floor about why you are sitting the down out.

Thank you sir! And thank you to everyone else for their considered replies as well.

Start documenting the issues with this dealer for a stronger argument.

This is tough. The homophobic comments are inexcusable. The slight edges against you that a dealer might be giving up has a lot of plausible deniability. He may not even know what he is doing.

Maybe the best strategy would be to talk to a dealer you have a good relationship with, away from the table, and see if he knows “what the deal is with this guy.” It might be more productive for you than going to the supervisor, because the dealer can mess with you a lot and have plausible deniability to say that he’s not. Short pitching, short pushing pots, “accidentally” mucking your hands/“forgetting” to deal you in, etc. So maybe if you find out why the guy is messing with you away from the table it will be easier to navigate in the long run.

Otherwise you can always escalate. It’s just hard for anything to happen to him without another “major” incident. If you have any problems with him whatsoever, call the floor. Maybe even talk to the floor as soon as he comes to your table.

I agree with Mason that it isn't likely this is due to a grudge against you. Instead, it is more of just dealing with a weak dealer who is sloppy and doesn't understand that you don't want to take a chance that something said could be offensive to another and cost him tips. Going to the room manager to mention the errors and insulting talk makes sense, but keep the personal out of it. Don't accuse him of having a grudge, just sloppy play and talk.

The last I remember, you were bouncing between 1/3 and 2/5. Even at 5/10, I imagine $1k chips are rare. Likely, it is going to require calling a floor over to make change which is going to slow the game down. The room will want to make sure you aren't washing money and that you actually bought the chip. If it was at a 2/5 game, it will probably require a fill. It would have been more polite to sit out a few hands, go to the cage and get change there. The dealer could have handled it better for sure, but you potentially played some role in it.

1k chips are rare at 5/10? That might be casino dependent because in LA it’s quite common for regs to carry 1k chips and 100 dollar chips in order to make addons and rebuys easier.

Agree, the homophobic comment is out of line and you should let the room manager know.

The rest just seems like a generally inattentive dealer with communication difficulties.

I have players throw chips around the table all the time and assume I know what their intentions are with them. Sometimes it takes me a second because my mind was just fixed on a completely different task and there's this random chip flying into my peripheral vision from an unknown location.

$100 chips should be standard in all 5/10 games. $1k chips are probably very room dependent. I'm sure some rooms allow for them to play but definitely not all.

Players carry them anyway because they're convenient but that doesn't mean they actually play. If they don't, that just means the dealer has to color them down once a player puts them on the table.

You are a customer and an employee is making mistakes and causing you to feel uncomfortable. Entirely reasonable for you to notify management. I'd also stop tipping this dealer unless and until the situation improves, and if he/she confronts you about it, I'd be polite and honest, but first offer to discuss it during their next break rather than in front of everyone at the table.

Hi Venice,

I've moved myself up to 5/T+ NLHE and 5/5/straddle omaha for a while now. This particular game was omaha. Just wanted to clarify. I agree at smaller stakes whipping out a $1k chip is a little douchey.

TIL. Then again I got weird looks at Talking Stick when I pulled out black chips. Apparently those don’t play at 8/16 or 20/40.

Letting another person dominate you like that emotionally? Speak up for yourself. Call him out to his face and stand up for your beliefs.

These are simply dealer errors which seems consistent with what sounds like an idiot dealer. And even good dealers make these mistakes. Notice you made the mistake of playing the BB 2x and not noticing. Happens often.

NB: the sb got screwed too.

And what? He thought he could actually get away with shipping the side pot to the wrong person? He’s either a bad dealer or a really great dealer to pull that off with no one, especially you, not noticing.

Is there a reason you said “they” and not he/she? This is just one dealer you are talking about, right?

Commit to your guess.

I think dealers only hold grudges against players that tip poorly.

OP- just as an aside, you might want to become a little more aggressive in protecting yourself and your action. Apparently you allowed yourself to pay the big blind twice without speaking up and telling the dealer before it was too late. Likewise, a pot you won was getting pushed to the wrong person, yet you didnt speak up and instead relied on someone else to correct the mistake. You definitely should be the first one to speak up when it's your money at stake. Or perhaps these things happen bc you are not focused on the game when you have money ar stake and sont even catch these mistakes. Either way, you really should work on that.

Something similar happened to me.

A few years ago, pre covid. I got sick, couldnt exercise and i took medicine that seemed to put my appetitie into overdrive. I gained weight. Not proud of it but my weight ballooned to 260 pounds (im a 6-1 male).

I went to casino often to play poker and distract myself. A table just opened up and i say down to play. The dealer made a comment “ you got a body thats perfect.. for online poker”. Not in a funny way. The dealer wasnt even laughing when i said it. I felt kind of bad but just ignored it.

A few hours went by and seat 10 opened up. I knew this was a good seat because to the right were two very aggressive players. The dealer asked if anyone wanted it and i said yes and so did another guy. The dealer said i couldnt sit there “ i need to have my arms free”. It was a ridiculous commemt. Ironically the dealer was very overweight himself and must have been over 300 pounds.

I wish i had did something more but i just never tipped the dealer. He gave me some dirty looks. Then i stopped going to that casino altogether. I probably should have said something back, but its not in my nature. I like to fight with cards only.

Tricky spot.

If the dealer is out to get you, this is going to escalate and he will do everything he can to hurt you..

If this is just an awful dealer it can be dealt with by calling the floor every time he makes a mistake and refuses to correct it immediately, to get a proper ruling.

I had this happen at the Borgota 20/40 LHE game. There was a female dealer who was decent except that she refused to muck hands at showdown when they were discarded forward. So she would say "show a winning hand" or something like that and leave the mucked hand in front of the player who mucked it.

One day, this happened and I told the dealer if she didn't move the mucked hand to the muck pile I was going to call the Floor. She said "call the Floor" and the other guy just turned his hand over and my hand was good (so I turned it over). Some time later the same guy bet the river was called and mucked his hand. We all sat there for about 20 seconds. The dealer asked the other player to show his hand and he didn't. Finally the player who mucked his hand turned it over and he had hit a gutter and won the hand (he was legit surprised because he had been on a flush draw and the straight went runner runner). Since I had already told her on my hand that she should muck the cards or I would call the Floor and she told me to call the floor, I went to the floor and told him what happened. As I was telling the floor what happened, it happened again. We were walking to the table and the guy had mucked his cards at showdown a third time. The dealer was still refusing to muck his hand. After some time the guy turned his hand over and his hand turned out to be good. Two players immediately picked up their chips (including the guy who lost two hands as a result of the failure to muck) and I never saw them again. The Floor pulled the dealer and they talked for about 10 minutes in the high stakes area. She was acting like she had done nothing wrong and the Floor looked like he was trying to convince her to change her behavior.

From that time forward every time that dealer sat down (and it wasn't often in the 20/40 LHE game) she made it a point to damage me. One time I was playing in a 10/20 LHE game and she insisted that the waitress card me (I wasn't ordering alcohol and I was over 55 at the time). Another time, I picked up my chips on the flop and put them down and she insisted that it was a min bet. The floor was called over (by me) and told her it wasn't.

Ultimately, I decided that I would take a half hour meal break when she sat down. It wasn't enough to just stop tipping her. If that meant having to go back on the wait list so be it. The Borgota wasn't going to fire her and I was not going to put up with her behavior.

Then those dealers suck. Gracefully dealing with a player not tipping you is part of the job.

Withholding tips to bad dealers is certainly warranted, but don't expect it to make anything improve. If anything, it will make it worse.

About all you can do is be as calm as possible and pick your spots. Look for clear examples that anyone would agree are mistakes or inappropriate comments and report those. Don't go nuts and scream about every tiny correctable mistake or judgement call. I've seen players do that and they come across as the crazy one. If you come across as the rational one you have a better shot at being heard.