Lots of players pick option 3, pay attention to their food until the dealer tells them for the second that action is on them.

Yes, sadly this is true.

Not really. You are still letting him eat and slow down the game.

madlex and Psandman:

You're suggesting that the dealers should just go ahead and read the board to these players because they're likely to just take their sweet ass time otherwise??

What a reason.

I guess you can say that about a lot of other things, too, like, not informing players when they fold to a check(or don't you concern yourself with that?), or not bothering to tell a player that they have to buy their first buy-in at the window *if* that is your rule?

How about: "Your hand will be folded if you don't turn around and act on it, sir."? Or how about: "Floor"!? And have them tell the guy that he can't be holding up the game like that? How about, you whisper to the rest of the table and ask "are you guys ok with this?" Just letting you know that you definitely have options here, and you should probably try to do what's best for the overall game. Do you think we want you to break the flow of the game and start doing these unnecessary "it's all about me" favors?

YES, for that particular situation the game might be held up a bit longer, but do you think he'll do this again in the future? Chances are he'll be less likely to(and that's really what TheFly and myself are trying to explain).

All I am saying is that a dealer refusing to read the cards to the player does not speed up the game. The only way that this game isn't going to be slowed down is if a floor tells this player that he has to sit out while he is eating because he obviously can't eat and keep up with the game.

Lets suppose that I tell this player that i won't read the board to him. Lets assume he doesn't know argue with me he just accepts that. Which of the following three scenarios is more likely to occur:

1) He pushes away the food and says, Ok then I am going to focus on the game now.

2) He says, OK deal me out while I finish eating.

3) He continues to eat, and slow the game down.


I am not saying this is OK. I am saying refusing to read the board cards doesn't solve the problem.

(and by the way if you check out, I don't stop you from doing so and it has nothing to do with game speed. And if my room had a rule that you had to buy your first buy-in at the cage then why would I not tell players that? --- I would also tell them the name of the manager so they could complain about that stupid rule)

Just as an aside to the discussion, like you all, I've played my share of hours of live poker over the decades, and honestly have never even seen this type of request. My experience has been players who choose to eat tableside are pretty conscious to at least try to not slow the game down or put any extra burden on the dealer, like asking to read cards aloud. Of course there are times when they need to be told action is on them, which is usually followed by a quick fold and a "sorry guys".

There's kind of an old saying "Beware the guy who is eating tableside who suddenly wants to play a hand". It's too easy to just fold otherwise marginal playable hands when you're busy eating. So when a tableside eater suddenly wants to play a hand, generally you know it's better than borderline marginal let's just say that.

And I disagree.

If the player only took the exact time to eat from when this 1 hand started to its completion, then I'd say, yeah, you're probably right(the same amount of time will more or less be wasted). But the truth is, he'll probably still be eating for many hands after that, so, informing him right away that you're not going to read the board and that he's going to have to act NOW on his hand, those are the hands that I'm talking about re: speeding up the game.

The player is being a big A hole about the situation and basically trying to belittle the dealer if you ask me, but at the same time it was another thread asking if being a dealer is a hard job and take any skill, this is a good example of being able to handle a holes in a professional manner and keeping in mind that this is a customer and they are to be satisfied because this is who tips me / pay me etc. Which is a skill, because I lack that skill and might have cursed him. So I think dealer should just read the cards maybe with a smirk on his face?

Politely say "I will do it this one time, but it will have to be the last time" and read the board.

Last night I pushed into a table and was told that one of the players couldn;t see and that I should read her the board if she was in the hand.

I know this is a different situation and no one really objects to doing this for someone who can't see.

But I want to point out that it was not a burden at all. It didn't make my job any harder, it caused no distraction.

I know it can't happen too regularly but I wish dealers could just reach over and muck the guys hand in this spot. I've seen it done on the sly occasionally. A player that is self distracting with a phone or something and constantly slowing things down and the dealer will look over and see the player hasn't pulled in his cards yet so the dealer just grabs them and mucks em. Half the time the player doesn't even notice and when they do the dealer gives a "Sorry I thought you folded" but you know the dealer just intentionally taught the guy a lesson.

Problem is I have never dealt in a room where dealers can demand a player act immediately. Trust me if I had this authority games would go much faster and not just due to guys who don;t pay attention.

I've seen players who are coming off the tail end of a 35-40 hour session be so tired they had to have the board read to them. dealer read to him pretty much every hand. compared to the squinting and leaning over the table after each flop it was faster for the game.

As per your last paragraph: Psandman?...This is not about you, the dealer(even though by you doing this, you might be putting your own bottom line at risk a little bit)---This is about a player disrupting the game, and taking time away from the rest of the players by asking the dealer to do this for him. Plus, now we all have to wait for him to put the fork down, turn his body towards the table now, take more time now to think about his options regarding that hand, etc..

Even if this only amounts to 15 seconds or so...those are seconds that could've been avoided if the player showed some consideration to the rest of the players by taking that 15 minute break away from the table while he enjoyed his lunch.

I eat at the table all the time, but, you would never know it; I don't slow up the action and I certainly wouldn't ask the dealer to be my bitch. As I said, even if the dealer doesn't mind doing this, I mind! I, meaning every other player at the table. And the reason why I'm speaking for the other players, is because, we're all paying Time...we all wanna get out hands...we understand when someone needs an extra second or so when there's a tough decision to make. But we don't tolerate nonsense. THIS is nonsense.

I agree with the poster who said "Look, I will read you the board this one time but that's going to have to be the first and last time I can do this for you."

But the point is this player if told "NO i won't read the board." isn;t going to respond by saying "OK well then i will pay more attention." He is clearly inconsiderate and now when its his turn we will still have to wait for him to put down his fork, turn and look at the board and then look arond and then act.

At least if I read the board maybe he will announce his fold faster.

And it is quite possible that when you eat at the table you do it in a way that is considerate to others. I see people do this. But I also think that the players who do slow the game when they eat.... think they aren't slowing the game.

He might not openly say "Ok I will pay more attention", but if he's sitting in my game and you(dealer) tell him that it's not right/fair or w/e for you to do this, trust me, he'll put that fork down. And I don't mean to insinuate that I'm some kind of bully(I'm really not) but everyone else in the game will quickly come to your defense(and, admittedly, we're essentially doing this for ourselves) when we tell him "C'mon, John, you're gonna have to turn around to the game when you're in a hand---the dealer isn't going to be doing this---we're paying Time".

In my games, our disapproval of his actions will be enough for him to stop. And, if for some reason he doesn't comply, then the Floor will be called over. In AC, less is tolerated, by players and Floor alike.

If this is the case then his asking the dealer to read the board is irrelevant. Suppose he never asked that. Instead he was focused on his eating so when its his turn you have to wait for him to turn and refocus....

If you guys can put a stop to this well fantastic. But in my experience their is a certain amount of leeway given to players. Sure I have seen floors speak to players about being over the top slow..... but by the same token I have a regular player who falls asleep in about 30% of the hands he is in, sometimes falling asleep on each street. the floors all know about this .... but nobody is going to do anything about it.


So do you guys also crack down on the guy who isn't eating, but he is so involved in "conversation" that he brings the game to a standstill?

If its a rare occurrence then I'll politely tell the guy that it's his turn. Maybe he forgot that he had cards or whatever(unlike the guy who's eating and knows that the action is on him).

However, if this guy is constantly having these long winded conversations, then I'm probably not going to be as polite. And I bet that they'll be other players in my game willing to take my side and say something, as well.

It's all situational and I try not to jump all over people's **** unless it's a real pattern.