What is it with dealers doing this? It seems to be becoming more common. I'm not talking like shortly before a break where low chips are taken out of play, I'm seeing it in the first level. It's like they're trying to help players count the pot.

You mean like, making change for someone about to be a blind who doesn't have exact chips to do it (or change for a player who may not have small denomination chips?)

I see dealers pulling greens out and replacing with blacks almost from the first pot.

Do the dealers where you play have a set of extra tourney chips to do that with? I dont play many tourneys but the ones I did the dealers dont have access to any chips. All change is made by asking another player to break the larger chip. So it wouldnt be possible for a dealer to pull greens out of play as he would have no black chips to replace them with.

Both rooms I work in, there is no "bank" for tournaments. Yes, we will get color-up chips near the break of the level where we remove a certain denomination from play, but that's it.

There are a couple of times when I do this:
1) Dealing single table satellites. I have color-up chips in the well and will start putting them in as soon as pots get big enough to do so. There's often a player or two down at this point and blinds are big enough that you don't need as many 25's. I do this to speed the game up.

2) Late entrants coming in with only large chips. If the pot is big enough and reaching into the pot won't block the view of any players still involved, I'll sometimes make change for the new player. I'd rather ask a player next to them to do it if they aren't in the hand, but sometimes nobody has enough chips to do it. Again, I do this to speed up the game.

Simple rack maintenance. If there's a lot of greens in the pot and she has only 4 or less in her rack with a lot of blacks, of course I expect her to color up. That saves her from going back to the winner of that pot for greens later when she needs it. If that helps someone count what's in the pot so be it. There's always a limited number of chips in a tournament and if there are more tables than expected it's even tougher.

It's not something I actually pay attention to, but my impression is that most times they have chips for late registrations plus additional chips to make change. I have never noticed that a dealer would have no additional chips available, but as I said, I don't go out of my way to check. This is for various room around the country.

Management wants small chips out of play as soon as possible so the tourny will go faster and we can start a live game sooner.

And if I don't collect up the small chips one of the players will.
Easier for me to make change out of my tray instead of asking players for change.

Doubtful that this comes from management. The dealers know that the faster ends, the better the downs are. I used to play on a room where they colored up so aggressively it would slow the game down because none of the players had enough change.

Now I work in a room where the dealers have no change at all to do this and only the supervisors do color-ups. This is way more professional and player friendly. Also, there's less of a chance of a mis-count this way.

Sure, who cares if it perverts the game for the players, as long as it conveniences the dealer.

This was at Ballys and Rio in Vegas, where a lack of dealers or tables is NOT a concern.

Yeah but the faster the tournament players bust out the faster they will get into live games.

Perverts? Seems a bit extreme.

That's a ridiculous reaction. It's not to convenience the dealer. It's to make the game go smoother, which conveniences the players just as much.

Part of the game is keeping track of the pot size. So yes, when someone not in the game (dealer) changes the condition of the pot unnecessarily, it perverts the game.

Unnecessarily? Coloring up 100 or 200 of green into black, which - again - helps the game, is not unnecessary. Coloring up a pot that's a mixture of green, black, and purple that happens to equal 7,000 into 7 orange would be considered unnecessary.

I would also contend that most people that are using pot size in their calculations don't need the help that coloring up the pot provides.

Very common these days. It keeps the collecting of the race chips from being a larger task and it also helps keep the amount of chips down 'per bet'.

I sense that the Dealers 'hate' the amount of red chips in our 1/2/5 PLO cash game as well when all the stacks are upwards of $1K and they are relentlessly counting down bets from every Player on every street to verify stacks. GL

In a tournament, dealers should never have chips in the well (other than unsold full-stack buyins, which they do not touch except to hand to the player when they join the game). If the dealer is coloring up chips in the pot, my concern isn't making it easier for somebody to count the pot. My concern is that now I have to watch the dealer to make sure they do it right, instead of focusing only on my opponents in the hand. Yes, I can assume that the dealer is going to get it right, but we know what happens when you assume.

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Yes, I had forgotten that aspect. I HAVE seen dealers color up incorrectly, and make change incorrectly.

The dealer is unlikely to have color-up chips in the well in a major tournament series, but I can see this happening in local weekly tournaments. Things get a little sloppy.