Was at an Indian casino (Turtle Creek) in MI this weekend. Was with a group of guys, all having a good time and winning. I don't know if the staff was super fond of us. The dealer seemed to be new.

Anyhow, tablemax is $200 and the table is full and I'm in the 1 seat.

I bet $100 and win, the dealer pays me and I leave my bet in the circle. I now have 2 stacks of 4 greens completely inside the circle. The dealer gives me a 10 and proceeds to deal to the rest of the table and just before he gives me another card, the pit boss comes and pushes half my bet back. I'm instantly like WTF, you can't just push half my bet back in the middle of a hand. I don't know what the dealer had, because the dealer hits me with blackjack as I'm protesting with the pitboss that those chips are in play. I wish I knew because if said pitboss had waited for the dealer to turn a 6 then push half my bet back, it would be even more BS. He says they don't count and after arguing for some time they say they will check the cameras.

So I sit around for just over an hour while they check the cameras and they come back with the police. They don't deny the chips were in the circle at all, they claim that a previous win isn't eligible to be bet sitting side by side like that.

So i ask, OK, could I have taken half my money back if I had been dealt a 6? Or hell, would I have been able to take half my money back after i lost the bet? if it wasn't a legal bet, then surely I should be able to take it back right?
They won't answer the question. They just kept repeating the rule they stated before.

This was an ongoing argument until the Police tossed me on my head and put me in jail.

So I have court Monday for disorderly conduct.

Was I out of line? Or is this a total free-roll bull**** ruling.

Random side note. They had been giving people a hard time for having their chips 1 inch on the felt. The circle was a good 2 feet away. They said they didn't want them confused as bets. Which makes it more laughable that my chips were 100% inside the circle and they didn't want it to count as a bet AFTER a favorable card was given to me.

I'm pretty sure the dealer ****ed up in multiple spots here. Just wondering what other views on the situation were.

I don't see what this has to do with poker, but maybe take it up with gaming next time instead of arguing with police and making a scene.

Hope things work out for you, but this is not NVG thread-worthy.

Perhaps an admin will move this to another forum??

If the story actually happened the way you tell it, you should get a lawyer and sue them for malicious prosecution. But I have a feeling you left some stuff out between "this was an ongoing argument" and "I got arrested".

Also I doubt the pit boss was trying to angle-shoot $50 in EV from you. Why was he standing right there? Was it maybe because you were being drunk and obnoxious?

Your bet is supposed to be in a single stack, a 2nd stack is improper and not a valid. It would also be easy to assume that you simply neglected to collect your winnings, rather than attempting to bet them. There's really nothing non-standard that the pit boss did here.

you seem like a reasonable guy, just state the whole story to the judge and he'll throw the case out and order the casino to pay you restitution

Seems to be an answer everyone can agree with.
Also, who the hell escalates things like this so much they get tossed in jail?

OP, I was a floor man at a casino for several years. The ONLY way this would have been escalated if there were several things going on: you were being rude to dealers, cursing, capping your bets, etc.

Now on the other hand, if the money is in the circle, it’s in play. I wouldn’t care if it was next to it or not. The card was pulled and that $$$ is in play. For a floor person to kick that back is not very smart on his part. Only because it’ll result in the player being upset, and the what if scenario? He should have asked if you wanted it in play BEFORE the card was pulled. Since it’s after, I would let the player know the $$$ plays and gl to them. If I were you I would have asked to speak with gaming at that point. No one wants gaming called on them.

I had only seen a couple people get arrested at my casino and that was for being belligerent drunk and not cooperating.



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When this happened, were the group of guys you were with laughing their asses off and yelling "worldstar"?

If they would of let the chips stay as they were, I wonder how they would of handled a hand that required splitting, re-splitting, and double downs. Thats a lot of stacks, lol.

dealers make mistakes. the hand should have never been dealt before you collected your last win. i don't see any problem with the floor pushing your previous win out of the circle. your bet should be in one stack but i can understand your disappointment. it's highly probable the situation would have been handled differently depending on pit boss/casino but i see no real problem with him pushing your last win out of play. a decision had to be made since you can't bet 2 stacks.

Says who? That's not a rule, it's just a convention. If the dealer's rack isn't set up properly, does that invalidate any pays too? Absolutely ridiculous point of view.

Lol in what universe is that the same thing?

You just tell the dealer to stack the bet and continue play.


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In the universe of nitty procedural minutia that has absolutely nothing to do with the outcome or rules of the game.

If Fubster wins the hand, of course it was a bet. If he loses, maybe not.

I'm not being selective or trying to defend angle shooting. It's not like nothing like this has ever happened before. Here's a case that has many similarities: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...12-03067-0.pdf

I’ve played at this casino many times and it may be the worst run casino in MI. That being said there is no way the police throw you on your head and arrest you unless you were being a belligerent drunk. I’m sure they asked you to stop and to calm down multiple times before they broke out the handcuffs.




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Odawa in Petoskey is run worse, IMO, although I haven't been there in a few years.

What happens if you get dealt a bad hand and then say, hey, I just never collected my winnings; I didn't intend to increase my bet.

It sounds like the casino is trying to protect themselves against that kind of angle shooting. As long as they handle it in a consistent way (ie, they push it back even when you have 16) I think it's fine.

The rest of it is a situation where we haven't heard the whole story, and I'm not a lawyer. Getting yourself arrested over $150 seems like a pretty bad life decision though.

Were these tribal police or local? What type of jail are you in?

The second stack is for splits and double downs - did you double down blind?

That's not remotely similar.

In that case there is no doubt that a bet was made. Here the question is, does not touching a dealer payout count as increasing your bet?

In other words, the question is not, can the casino push back your bet after you get your first card. I think we are all in agreement that the answer is no. The question here is, was the 2nd stack ever bet? I've played a lot of blackjack and I've never just not touched my winnings when I wanted to increase my bet. I've always stacked them on top. The idea of your bet being automatically increased without you taking any action seems problematic to me.

As for the rest of it, there is a big difference between being arrested by the police for disorderly conduct and being tackled, restrained, and searched by employees of the casino.