I just didn't go in to detail about point 1. Basically their eyes were very dialated, he was sluring his words, she was shaking. Also apparently before I was there he was popping pills at the table and talking about xanex so it was just the common assumption.

In reference to point 2 I agree that it's probably not worth the time and effort for that amount of money.

They must've changed their policy then. Haven't been there in almost 2 years, but I distinctly remember walking what seemed a mile from the the garage to the poker room and being denied entry for it. They told me I could go to the front desk and check it in there, but it wasnt near the poker room, so I just bailed. I was rather peturbed, so I just drove over to Derby. No way was I going to walk all that way two more times.

I've seen floor people tell players to remove racks of chips from side tables in Vegas. If it's out of your direct sight, it's not safe. Just like women are regularly told to protect their purses (draping it over the back of your chair is not wise), guys need to protect their backpacks. And definitely don't go setting cash or chips aside. I can't think of many places worse than a casino to leave valuables unwatched.

Don't do this:


There was a thread here eons ago where one of our regular posters decided to prank someone in the poker room and stole one of the guy's shoes out from under his chair. So it's not really a stretch to think someone could "accidentally" drop something behind your chair and while retrieving it help themselves to a stack of high society (or whatever society you have under your chair).

I usually play in rooms where cash plays, so it's very easy to add $100 or $200 if things go poorly early on. As well, most of the rooms I play in have dealers playing the role of chip runner so when someone wants chips at the table, while the dealer is cutting the new deck a shout of "player checks on table 6" takes care of it. No delay at all. But yeah, sometimes I have extra chips for various reasons and those go in a pocket.

I wasn't suggesting it was a good idea .... just a better idea then setting it behind you.

And at least you would have the satisfaction of having made the thief crawl for the money.

As kind of a sidebar, for the chips on the table, keep the bigger denominations at the bottom of stacks and/or keep stacks of those inside stacks of smaller denominations.

That way, if somebody does a grab & run, they'll get some of the whites (or whatever are little chips in your game) from the outside.

Of course, this only applies if you have enough chips to worry about being stolen, so I never have to follow my own advice.

You should never ever have your large denoms at the bottom of stacks or hidden from plain sight in a NL game. If you try this, a dealer should warn you about it. If an opponent calls a bet of yours that includes these hidden chips, they can ask a floor to rule that they are not in play (and can be successful, according to room rules). It's a very bad habit to get into.

It is acceptable to move them there if you are going to step away from the table, but not if you are in the game playing hands.

Agree. I always keep my big chips on top while playing but will move them onto the felt and cover them with a mess of whites when i'm taking a break.

That's just false.

Good point, you shouldn't do anything which might be considered as hiding bigger denomination chips while in play. Consider my original post to be modified along Dinesh and MaxRhino's lines.

+1 to everyone who said to buy larger-denomination chips and keep them in your pocket. Never leave money lying around. Someone will eventually steal it.

As to pressing charges, I think you absolutely should. From the sound of it, if the cardroom knows who the guy is (or the police do, which may be likely if he's a repeat offender), this is an open-and-shut case. All you'll have to do is talk to a police officer for a few minutes, and they'll take care of the rest. There probably won't even be a trial because the whole thing will end in a plea agreement. You won't have to be a part of any of it.

The reason I think you should do it isn't to get your $100 back. The court will certainly order them to pay you back, but that could go either way (and if they don't pay you back, they'll probably lose whatever leniency they got from the court). But what it will do is (1) get a couple thieves off the streets, (2) undo the example they've created that someone can steal chips from this cardroom and get away with it, and (3) if you care about this angle, may provide them with an opportunity to turn their lives around.

The rewards for pursuing justice aren't all monetary. Sometimes there's just a right thing to do, and you should do it.

His dumb ass came back in today, and when he went to buy chips they stopped him and made him pay the $100 back. He said, "I thought they were my chips." He paid it back without a problem though and they banned him for life after he paid it back.

Okay. It's still difficult to believe that everyone in that room keeps a stack of reds on a drink table. That is such a strange thing for even one person to do regularly.

Idk pretty normal at Ocala and Daytona.

You gonna continue doing that?

This is the sort of thing that only happens once. A hundo for the lesson isn't that bad.

I wish I knew how many $25 chips have fallen out of my pockets onto the floor and rolled away when I've pulled chips out of my pockets.

Glad to hear you got your money back. I still think you should report him to the police and demand that he be arrested for stealing from you.

sandwiching your chips between two racks and leaving them on a side table or putting them on the floor close to your feet, is not very wise. These are not smart alternatives.

Is it that hard to just rebuy from the dealer or walk up to the cage? It's not like no one has ever had to rebuy before. And, as far as slowing down the game, you're probably not paying time anyway and a rebuy should take but a few seconds. If the thought of rebuying isn't an option, I'm sure you can think of a way to keep your chips safe/secure in your pockets or in some sort of handbag.

Little pouch thing in most wallets, I keep 4 quarters and a black in there and even though it's sealed I take it out of my pocket and check it repeatedly OCD style

Topping up immediately is huge, nothing more tilting than finally catching a hand and not having a full stack

I love the dramatic verbal "all in" from ppl who don't top up and are making a 1/12 psb otr

I get my chips from a runner because if I stopped doing that and everybody else did too then the runners wouldn't have jobs and most of them are cute young girls so I wouldn't like that.

Someone called dirty stack on me in a 2/3 game once because I accidentally had a single $1 chip near the bottom of a stack of $2 chips when I had like 300 BBs in front of me and told the dealer to warn me about it. I was about to drop kick him in the head until he was like "lol I'm just ****ing with you".

In the interest of complete fairness, if he was in the drug-induced state that you reported, he very well could have thought those were his chips, especially if the table was between the two of you. The fact that he immediately agreed to pay it back instead of denying that he'd picked up the chips, also seems to give some credibility to his story. In such a case, I'd rather a player of his excellent skill level be allowed back in, just watch your chips a little better next time.

Never leave chips in a rack. I always de-rack them if I sit down and then go use the restroom or something. As others mentioned, have some greens in your pocket if you want to top off.

I play at a room where cash plays, but I always take my large bills off the table and ask for a money behind button if I take an extended break. I usually just color up though if I get $100s.

I'd be happy I was only robbed for a hundo and no one put a gun in my face... press charges? If he needed it that badly then **** him... not worth your time.

He moved the food table under the poker table so no one would see him take them. I think it's safe to say he didn't think they were his.