Can we stop saying it’s not a public game. It’s never been indicated that outside of the starting list (and an undetermined buffer afterwards) that it was never first come first serve

I think you just have to accept the fact that live poker has shifted in this direction. VIPs just make the rules even in public games ive had this happen quite a lot

You have to be a big time tool bag to not get in game as wsop champ especially a decade ago when it meant a little more

This set up is by definition not first come first served because anyone on the waiting list before this group arrives gets bumped to the bottom of the list, according to one floor person I spoke to.

There’s a starting list, and then as those people leave it’s first come first serve. Hasnt been indicated otherwise so far

You mean shows in a state run by the casino industry you can't do anything about it.

The tribal casinos would love to have a stick to hit the card clubs in CA and many DEI groups in Northern CA also are looking for causes. I agree OP is not influential enough to deal with this injustice but he can get people who are influential enough to make the cost of doing this not worth it to the card club that will be helping OP for their own reasons.

Lol yeah OP is modern day Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back. The Injustice!!

We haven’t heard many details from OP. Might have been trying to jump a guy who signed up night before and was five minutes away

Overall what Manners Please is doing is perfect.

His first few posts were very reasonable. Seems he got a bit of a raw deal at this card room. Isn't happy about tit and is sharing it warning others. Not only that, but he didn't just lazily come here and start bitching. He first spoke to casino higher ups, didn't get satisfaction. Then contacted gaming, he felt wronged and is fighting out of prinicaple which takes time and effort. Good for him. Most people often decide to just drop things like this because it's not worth it.

Lets say nothing happens, which is he most likely scenario. At least he got it out there, now it's much easier for other "victims" to come and say it happened to them as well. If this thread starts filling up in six months with many similar stories we know the card room is the problem. If this just fades maybe Manners was the problem and this never normally happens. Or maybe it was nobodies fault and that seat was being saved for someone and Manners mistakenly over reacted to the trust fund baby thing.

Must admit Manners lost me after a few posts and started seeming a little unreasonable and one sided. Started with what about young players with dreams, etc. So chances are the problem might be more with him, but who knows. He started out good though!

Again, we don’t know if he’s been reasonable at all. Might have been a standard starting list and he got pulled out trying to hop a guy who signed up night before and was five minutes late

Yes these games are dream killers for up and coming poker players trying to rise in stakes. I’ve experienced the stunting of my poker growth first hand. It keeps the money with a small group. It’s basically a monopoly on a smaller scale and we know what the Department of Justice thinks about those with all their antitrust suits.

Why one or two players out of a field of hundreds should be the gatekeepers for who gets to progress as poker players is beyond me.

You’re missing the point Scotch. The starting list means who gets to play while the game is still worth playing. By the time the non-invited get in, the action has lost all their money to the organizers and good, invited regs and you’re left with the regs. Hardly worth playing at that point.

So not being invited equates to not getting to play when it’s worth playing if at all.

Last night for example I got into the game 7 hours after it started and as expected the whales were gone. Plus I was 8 hours into my night and tired. I left 45 minutes in.

LOL, this has to be a troll.

Not a troll.

I think I get the point, OP is going all the way to the Supreme Court on this, but what I’m saying is that these games are kinda standard and setup is on legal footing

But obviously being in the game is preferable to not being in the game, not debating that!

Sometimes yes sometimes no.
I would never go to a casino specifically for a private game I may or may not have a seat in.

I have however been in the casino where I'm on the list for a private game where I may end up getting a seat playing a different game. Sometimes I never get the seat (or leave before I would have gotten one) , sometimes one opens for me and as you said now the game sucks and sometimes one opens for me and the game is still great.

Even among most of the people who disagree with the OP, there seems to be an undercurrent of acknowledging he is (or is mostly) right, but not wanting to buck the system, or not wanting to alienate themselves, or not thinking that the fight can be won. The OP should consider that a huge win in the court of public opinion! No really reasonable arguments against his position are offered, mostly just people afraid to stand up for something they believe in.

Good luck to you!

not much you can really do. that Fat Mike runs the show there at the Bay. he tried the same at Garden City, but they gave him the boot.

He’s misinformed

Whether these games are legal and within gaming regulations is an open question as far as I know. We may find out from the gaming agencies soon enough. I have put in my request as did the OP. And if there is discrimination against people on the basis of protected features like disability then they are assuredly without question not legal.

You downplay the importance of this topic with your sarcastic comments but in doing so you are enabling a perverse monopoly which disadvantages a large group of less influential but very talented players to the benefit of very few but less talented players.

The public poker scene can be analogized to the marketplace. A company that sells a fantastic product should be allowed to sell it without undue interference from a larger competitor that makes a subpar product. Attempts to interfere can be subject to suit and antitrust enforcement efforts. Why should it be any different for someone who is very good at poker?

I’m downplaying nothing. People are missing the point, this is just a starting lineup. Nothing has been indicated otherwise

You and others are going into stupid captain obvious side arguments which add nothing. Nobody wants to discriminate due to disability ffs

You seem to be somewhat ignorant of what is actually happening in these games and have not absorbed what I wrote above about the huge disadvantage the non-invited public is at compared to the starting line up given preferential treatment.

Again that’s Captain Obvious stuff, those not invited to the club are sad. Got it, thanks

But it’s a game with a set starting time and lineup. After that it goes to list like any other public game

Definitely this.

Let's keep in mind the salient facts as stated by OP:

He's 10th on the waitlist, yet jumps into a seat on his own volition, not going through the floor/board. Floor pulls him off table because it wasn't his seat to take. For all OP knows, player(s) ahead of him on the list are in the parking lot and notified floor as such.

The reported subsequent floor comments are total hearsay and laughable if he thinks they're actionable. In fact, what floor supposedly said to OP was probably just an attempt to diffuse with humor rather than chew out OP's ass for jumping into a table seat that wasn't his to take and without direction from the floor.

I don't think anyone even disagrees with your general point that not getting into those games hurts the bottom line of you and other players.

That's not the relevant question here though. I think we can agree that it's 100% fine for the organizers of private games not to invite anyone they don't want in their game. What OP wants to find out is if it is illegal in a public card room in his jurisdiction to prioritize other players over him when it comes to awarding seats.

Doing that is 100% fine in the vast majority of other parts of life and business unless discrimination against a protected class is involved. If you're waiting to get seated at a restaurant and someone who is friends with the owner comes in, they might get the next table. If you have the best roofing business in the county but everyone awards their private contracts to friends and people form church, that's their prerogative. But we have a different situation if the county awards a roofing contract. If you're the best and cheapest option you have a right to be upset (and more) if the contract goes to a member of the board instead.

That's what we're trying to find out here. Is the card room legally required to use a first come first serve system or not.

Not that I care one way or the other but OP said he tried to sit and they told him to get up, this assumes that he was next on the list…