Small card room in CA. $115 entry, $50 bounties, 10K starting chips. 20 minute levels, Big blind ante format.

I am in seat 1 at the table in the middle levels of the tournament with a little over starting stack. The blinds are across the table from me so I shouldn't be having to put anything in then suddenly the dealer leans over to me and says he needs change. I ask him how much he says one 5K chip. I slide the 5K chip to the dealer and he deals the cards and never gave me the smaller denomination chips for the 5K chip I slid to him. It took me a minute to realize I never got the smaller denomination chips when he said change. By the time I realize what happened the next hand is being played and my stack that was above starting stack went to 5600 at the 1000/2000/2000 level and got busted out with A10o shove and lost to set of Jacks. Should I immediately stand up & call floor in that moment? It was my first live experience I was trying to take in everything fast. Did the dealer take advantage of me because he sensed I was new and hooked one of the blinds up with my 5K chip?

It is unlikely you were intentionally scammed. It is curious, though, as to why a dealer needed you to give a larger chip for smaller chips. That is not a normal 'change' transaction, unless the dealer is trying to get ready color out small denomination chips by consolidating them with one player (but they would never do that with a short stacked player).

Live poker can be overwhelming at first, but all that goes away with experience. Pay attention to the chip movement, where the blinds are, what the bets are, who is putting chips in and how much. While it is exhausting at first, you will quickly get to the point where you automatically know when some is short, someone didn't get enough change, when a player was skipped. You will start to anticipate when a dealer is going to need change just be knowing other player's stacks, and what kind of chips they have in those stacks, and you can have the change preloaded and ready to go. This all becomes second nature, like breathing. But it will take time.

That's not the point. I was forced to shove because my stack was 5600 instead of 10600 which it SHOULD have been.

You are correct that what happened in the hand doesn't really matter.

I have no idea if the dealer was intentionally screwing you over, though I can't imagine why a dealer would do that. What I don't understand is anything about the transaction. If he needs change, in what way would he accomplish this by taking your 5K chip. If he needed change, he would give you a 5k chip and take 5 1K chips, or something like that. If he actually took your 5K and gave you 5 1Ks (which is what you expected) - that does not give him change, it reduces his change. That would be you asking him to change your 5K, not the other way around.

So, as soon as he starts dealing a hand without returning anything you need to speak up.

Ok call floor.

Question if the dealer asks for change can I reject him and say no? Can I get kicked out for not giving him change or tell him to get change from someone else?

Nobody at the table called it out. Especially the blinds players Seat 8 & 9. I think he put my 5K chip in the middle to pay for all the blinds & big blind ante so his possible "friends" don't have to pay for 1 hand.

If this is an actual card room and not an underground game, the likelihood of this being the case is close to zero

Turlock Poker Room. Ever heard of it? Grinder Mizrachi is affiliated with this card room. How would you know? Or are you just gum flapping?

His response seems valid, Killer.

You should have spoken up as soon as there was a delay in getting the swap completed.

You are right. That's the big take away I got too. Thanks for the input

If a poker room is regulated by a gaming commission, it is highly unlikely that they will risk their license by tolerating such open cheating. This is likely more true for casino based card rooms.

If it is a unregulated cardroom, operating in a legal grey area, then there might be some favoritism, but they have more to lose if they get a bad reputation than they have to gain by favoring regs.

Cheating in poker is actually exceptionally rare. You will see floor rulings tend to favor certain players, but out and out overt stealing of chips is very unusual. I have played thousands of MTT's, and honestly cannot remember a situation where a dealer outright stole chips from one player to favor others.

So, no, I don't know the specific room that you played in, but having played in many rooms, I can say that it is extremely rare to see cheating as you described it occur in an above board poker room.

Someone more familiar with the California card room situation can probably add more insight into how they are regulated and licensed.