Rapini said it well so no reason to belabor that point.

Really, it’s just more of a guest experience thing for me.

IWC was in the wrong, no doubt. And he was pretty heated because he lost a chance where he could confidently bet for value in a pretty large pot. Probably wouldn’t have been called but who knows. The table was playing very loose.

But, and why I posted, the only time he sees the floor that night, and maybe the only time ever, the floor talks down to him and puts him in a corner. If I’m managing that casino, I’m probably very disappointed that my employee took that tack. And if I’m IWC, then I have one major reason to leave and never come back.

That’s not good for the game. And I’d expect casino employees, when given two options, to choose the one that’s slightly more difficult but much better for the game.

Yes, I am aware that I have biases that affect my decision making. I try being as objective as possible but know I come up way short.

Same spot a few weeks back ... Play with a guy for over 2 hours and he knows my routine when action is on me. All of a sudden he wants the Dealer to declare my chip play as a check to get a free Showdown. Luckily I had the 'right' Dealer and Floor to back me up. I bet and he folded so I didn't gain anything ... and 'unfortunately' I would expect a potential different ruling if the combination of Dealer/Floor was different within this room.

There is a 'concept' that a Floor should come over and rule and walk away without much explanation. Obviously it can go either way if a player wants to escalate or is not wiling to accept the ruling, but I personally appreciate a Floor delving into their ruling a bit so I know where they're coming from ... and possibly address it later away from the table. GL

I agree; I'm aware of the "rule and walk" concept; but I think there's a correct middle ground between offering just the ruling without explanation, and allowing the discussion to go on forever.
I've seen this exact situation many times; it is usually not an angle (though occasionally it is). Most of the time the player is either unaware of how little motion it takes to check ("But I didn't tap the table!") or unaware of having made any motion at all ("Sir, you did this with your hand." "No, I didn't!") or thinks that the dealer should either be a mind-reader or somehow have everyone's mannerisms memorized ("You know I never check that way, I always do this!"). But once the next card has been dealt, the floor really has to go with the dealer, who took it as a check and announced it as such.
There's no need or good reason for the floor to "talk down" to the player, as OP says he did. He should be clear, polite, and sympathetic (and non-accusing) . But once he's clearly explained the ruling, repetition doesn't usually help much, and the mere suggestion that this might just be an angle is usually enough to infuriate the player even further.

I think most floor calls like this start out this way, but the player that we are talking about is the player that won't have any of our ruling. That's where this next quote comes in:
The floors that are good at handling problem guests are the ones that can do this even when the player continues to escalate. The truth is that many of these poker players are just tantrum throwing, grown up 5 year olds and they eventually need to be put in time out. We still need to give them the benefit of doubt until we confirm they are indeed a 5 year old instead of going straight to time out which many of the not so good floors automatically do.

There should be more training on this subject, but the truth is there just isn't. I typically train and mold my floors on the fly instead. When I hear about how they handled something that didn't go so well, I will critique it and explain how they could've handled it better. I am an ex cop and we called it "verbal judo" and it is a learned thing. The cops that are good at it will need their pepper spray/tazer/baton much less often than the ones that are not so good at it. The same goes in this business. The floors that are good at it will need their shift manager/security to escort someone out much less often than the ones that are not. They also are the ones that have to send me less emails explaining what happened last night in the poker room.

Is this the right spot for a LC HH from the other night?

Playing $2-100 spread at local casino. I'm about $550 deep and V1 is a very LAG/here-to-gamble middle-aged asian guy who's wife is sweating him at the table. He already bluffed me off TPTK with a max bet on the river - he had just sat down so I had no read and folded but seeing the way he had been playing since I wish I had called. Right now I'm about $550 deep and V1 covers.

OTTH.

V1 is UTG and straddles to $4. I call in UTG+2 with 66. 4 others call and V1 checks the option.

Pot is $24. Flop comes 6KK

I bet out $12, obviously praying someone has the king. Folds around to V1 who calls.

Pot is $48. Turn comes 8

I lead out $24. Villain pretty quickly maxes to $124. I figure he can do this with any King and he has way more combos of trips than boats, so i max back to $250. He re-maxes, I re-max, and he re-maxes to $550, I call, still 90% sure I'm ahead.

River comes 8

I puke in my mouth. Villian confidently table his hand

I see similar things like this happen with poker players from time to time. This happened the other day.

Full table, player raises, immediately after he gets a phone call he's been waiting for all day. It happens, it sucks, everyone understands and cuts him slack, no big deal, he wasn't slowing down the game or anything.

The call was about getting his windows washed. From what I gathered it would be under a hundred bucks or so for the whole house. He's haggling with the guy making sure there are no additional charges or that he won't get nickeled and dimed. You know, he doesn't want to see a BS charge of $10 or anything like that.

In the meantime he's firing off big bets, and loses about $400 getting out drawn.

My point, in non poker, players can be really cheap, but not bat an eye during the game.

-d

Is it common to chop it when folded to the blinds? Is there any etiquette involved in that? Do you chop all hands?

It happens, sure.

Don't base your decision on the strength of your hand and do it the same every time. Either you always play or you always chop. The exception is if you always chop and you have a high hand. Let the other blind know that you want to play it out and limp into the pot. Check it down to the river and fold if you don't hit your high hand or bet the minimum if you do.

Or you don't. Be consistent. Another exception is short-handed; some players who chop won't chop short-handed and that's usually acceptable as well.

Or don't do this even if you do have hole cards that could hit a bonus. In most rooms the house will take some rake even if you check it down after the flop, so doing this is almost always -EV.

I will chop 6-handed plus or at a 'new' table. Once a table drops down to 5 or less then I don't chop. I try to pay attention to the table and make sure the players know what's going to happen. The easiest way to prevent chopping is to have a straddle going on.

There are other threads that discuss the 'Flamingo' non-chop spots and I think it's important that you know the wishes of the players around you, especially when you are SB. If you have a player who is 'actively' chasing these HH/promo type of spots then you don't really want to discourage that type of play IMO. Look at it as a cheap investment ... or change seats to move out of the situation!

There are some rooms where the 'winner' will just return the chips to the loser after the hand if things run out dry ... see the specific threads for comments that! GL

Sat at an interesting table last week. I generally don't see why rooms normally allow black to play at low stakes NLHE. This table was an exception.

Game is 1-3 NLHE, 10 handed, 100 to 500 or match biggest stack. I walk up to podium and get seated immediately and buy in for 300. Go to the table and see I have just sat down in monster game. Big stack is a little over 5K, second is 4K+, a couple around 3K, I am the short stack by over 300. This 1-3 game has almost 25K on the table. Obviously, I am not going to be doing much bluffing.

This was a table where playing black made sense. We even had several purple, though I still think that was excessive.

What was interesting is I was only able to play a couple of hours, I was able to double up, but it wasn't the big stacks pushing around but it was the other short stack. Though the big stacks were not certainly not shy about calling light. And he did bust out as one would expect.

I don't usually read the LC thread, but I was bored yesterday and opened a random page.

I had a big reaction to this post:

....and I dutifully read the remainder of the thread, to see if anyone noticed what I noticed in this story. Nope! Looks like everyone missed the most stunning part!

That's racist!

Oh wait....good thing I reread that sentence. Phew!

(Dealing in Mississippi was a real culture shock for a New Englander like me. My first day there, when the TD said into his mic, "We're gonna buy up the blacks!", I thought, "Should you even SAY that, in Mississippi???")

In today's short cut world context is so important. Change the noun (blacks) to an adjective and insert the 'proper' noun (chips) and we are good for another hour or so until someone else messes up! GL

Last night I was playing 1/2 at Caesar's LV. Game was getting short. When it got five handed, an obvious local refused to play. Floor asked us if we wanted to break the table but we were having fun so we said no. The local couldn't be moved to another table since we were the shortest so he literally sat there watching us play four handed with only $1 rake for almost an entire down before someone left and the table broke. Someone even jokingly offered to have everyone agree to tank 30 seconds before acting so that he can sit there and nit his diamond status without bleeding blinds. It was one of the saddest things I've seen in a while.

Haha nice.

I was getting a fill the other day and as I was handing the bills to the cashier I said "All whites, please."

It felt weird for a second when I noticed both of the cashiers working that day were black.

Typical Saturday night for me.

Funny thing is, last night I was playing a long 1/2 session at the same room hungover, tired and kind of tilted toward the end of the night. Probably shoulda just racked up. So someone straddled, a fish limps in and I make it $25 with QQ. The nit I was making fun of makes it $85 with $300 effective. He plays maybe two hands an hour if that, but on the other hand I had been playing very aggressive and teasing him about his nittiness, which he seemed to take well and be proud of.

He could be making a play, but that's the tilted leveling hungover me talking. He's a proud nit he's never making a play lol. Standard play with QQ is to call and go with it on a non K or A high flop unless they bomb the flop but vs this guy might just be fine to fold pre lol. His range is literally KK+, AKs, and maybe QQ and AKo if he's feeling adventurous.



Conclusion - I've lost the right to make fun of this guy .

A friend and I are playing 5/10 NL together. We'd already talked about how we don't like playing against each other so we basically said neither one of us is gonna go after the other one. But never really discussed what exactly that entails. For hours neither of us really play a hand against each other. Then one hand he makes it 50, gets one caller (who is a huge nit) and I pop it to 210 from the BB with AA. To my surprise, he calls. Heads up, we're both deep. Flop is Q23, I check because I honestly think he must have a super premium as well and I don't want this pot to get crazy. Turn is another brick, I bet 230 expecting him to fold everything besides QQ or KK. River is a queen and he bets the full pot. Dafuq. I call, because I'm genuinely curious as to what the hell is going on this hand, he shows Q9s and ships the $2400 pot. Should I be upset here? I was.

Mostly because I'm folding Q9s 100% of the time in his spot, and by the river he has to know I most likely have aces or kings and is going for max value out of me after he binks. He seems to think this was a standard hand. Thoughts?

Upset because he double crossed you in your agreement to collude....?

You should be upset with yourself for entering into a collusive agreement not to play against each other, and letting the fact that you did get you to (1) misplay the hand, and (2) lose a big pot to your friend, making you angry.

Either stop having agreements (preferred), or understand that having one is going to eventually cause problems between you, if not with the rest of the table, and suck it up.

Not really that difficult of a fold preflop against the 1/2 nits I know. Then he still bets on the blanky flop. Standard 1/2 nits are not going to be committing themselves for 150bb with Ace High. Get outta there!

Is soft playing amongst friends really that big of a deal? I mean it literally happens all the time at live games basically everywhere. If you guys have a good friend at the table are you really trying to exploit him in all possible spots like you would some random person? If not, is that collusion? Anyway, so I guess to rephrase, should I be upset with my friend for double crossing me in our attempts at collusion?