Quote:
Originally Posted by callipygian
+1 to every sentence. The benefit is so small and the cost is so high and for whatever reason the dealers and the players love it.
That reason is that it can save an enormous amount of time when the winner is one of the two big stacks. Even when the 2nd biggest stack wins its really only a HU count.
In cash games this is arguably important. Since most players are losers it benefits most players to take this time. However, in games in which time is paid this becomes more of an issue since by its very definition time is money...
In tourneys it is even more important. A couple of wild all-in situations and you are playing far fewer hands than the other tables.
I have seen the avoid making the side pots thing at every casino. It is really dealer dependent.
I have also seen:
- Dealers pushing the main pot first and then doing side pots...
- Dealers forgetting to get chips from an all-in player. One time this went undetected for 4 hands and caused a lot of butt hurt (though it was sorted out correctly in the end - with both players feeling they had been cheated)
- Dealers counting down the obviously largest stack first.
- Dealers that count in stacks of 5 (the norm) and then pile all the little stacks up once they have finished their count.
- Mistakes in counting. Which requires re-counting. This is fairly common. In most cases this is a non-issue because the chips are laid out in stacks of five (except for denominations of 25 which are in stacks of 4) so the recount takes little time.
- Dealers repeatedly making mistakes on the same hand when doing the side pots. Several times I have seen dealers give up and rely on players who have been keeping close track of what is going on...
- A player walk away from an all-in even though he had more chips and was still alive in the tourney!!! It took hours to chip him off because we were way before antes...
The drawbacks of not making pots right immediately as I see it:
- Sometimes dealers forget (and have to be reminded) to make the main pot right.
- A player in a cash game taking the opportunity to leave with his chips (I have only ever heard of this)
- A player in a side pot losing the main pot and then mucking his winning side pot hand because the pots were not decided in correct order.
- If mistakes by the dealer are made, the players have time before the hand ends to notice. But my experience is that mistakes are either noticed right away or not at all... It is usually only after a player stacks his chips that he notices he was shortchanged.
- I thought there would be more...
Last edited by Mr Rick; 01-25-2017 at 11:32 AM.