Dealer Insults Player (s) ?

About my favorite poker dealer is an older guy who has "seen it all". He will often wisecrack, lecture the players, dispense some wisdom, give instructions, etc. Sometimes its a little "pointed" especially if someone does something wrong or dumb. He will do this before and after hands--not during. Some people don't like it, but I think he is really funny. It does not seem to detract from his number of hands dealt and his accuracy and attention to the game is always good.


I walk up to his table with a rack of chips and he asks if I want to post behind the button. I drop 2 chips on the table and begin "unpacking". He deals me a K T o and I'm thinking ahead to raising if all fold or only one limps. Instead, an early (tight passive predictable) opponent raises. All fold to me and I put in a very cheezy call. The big blind (a bad player) also calls.


Flop is Q J 7 rainbow. Bad player in blind checks, TPP bets, and we both call. I think it was right to just call here. My raise will just knock out the blind and get me heads up with a better hand and he will probably reraise.


Turn is an A. BP bets out. TPP twitches and calls. I raise, and they both call.


River is a 4. BP bets out again. (??) TPP looks at board again and calls. I raise again, BP calls and looks at me. TPP is not happy -but calls.


Before I can turn my hand over, the BP asks (a little too loud); "Do you have the straight?"


The dealer then says (also loudly); "WELL, OF COURSE, HE HAS THE STRAIGHT."


I bite my lip and turn it over. The BP then shows his A 4 soooted, and complains about how he hit his pair on the turn and again on the river. TPP says nothing but flashes me his flopped set of Q's.


Favorite dealer pushes me a nice pot and then says; "Nice posting job, there."

and another nice post by abe...thanks..gl

I don't think the dealer should have said that "of course he has the straight." This comment could alert any newbies or fresh faces in the game to a couple of things, one being that you aren't the type of player to raise lightly in situations lie that. It also could have made someone feel a bit foolish.


His comment "nice job posting" wasn't all that bad. A little funny, but from a purist point of view probably he shouldn't have said that either--but if he said that to me, I wouldn't mind.


Back to the first point: I don't like it even when dealers call me by my name in the game, as even that gives away information to players who are not regulars. Maybe I go a bit too far with this, but I look askance at anything a dealer says which could influence the course of a hand (a huge no-no) and at anything which could influence the course of future hands (a lesser no-no).


I believe the very best dealers are like good referees at a sporting event. They help keep the game running smoothly and accurately, but they don't add to it or detract from it by injecting too much of their own personality or by comments. Now I don't mind the occasional light comment from a dealer...that's fine as long as that's all it is...but they aren't really supposed to BE PART of the game: they're just supposed to RUN the game. And that's just what the very best ones do.

There are some dealers I happen to like quite a bit who do "get into the game" a bit too much. They are competent in other ways. I would like them just as much personally regardless of whether they "got into the game" so much or whether they didn't; but they would be even better dealers if they didn't.

I agree with M re: dealer's comment about the hand. Dealers should not remark on hands IMO under any circumstances unless it is to call the best hand once cards are turned over. Babe

I'm generally easy on dealer's but this guy I would take aside and let him know I'm not going to tip him until he deals without the "play by play" and that I'm advising all my friends to do the same.


Of course this dealer would say I don't have a lot of friends anyway and he can live without my tip!


Regards,


Rick

Dealer might just have added "you moron" to his :of course he has a straight".It was a direct insult.

Since most of you calloused Vegas regulars seem determined to "take the fun out of the game" I might remind you that presumambly it is we tourists who help support your living. Although I have never been accused of supporting the Vegas games yet I suppose I am due for a loss or two. Now most of us go there to be entertained and have fun. If the local rocks are going to be grumpy that leaves the job to the dealers. Personally I would seek out this dealer and enjoy my session win or lose.


In the same vein we tourists enjoy knowing the names of the other players. If the dealer provides this information it is all the better. Familiarity makes us feel more comfortable not afraid of the Big, Bad Vegas Sharks.


My suggestion to M, Poker Babe and other Vegas locals is that they evaluate this informaton and reconsider the value (+EV) of an entertaining dealer.


Just a different perspective,


Jimbo

where i play, half the people are known by name. when i first stared playing it had me very nervous, until i realized that a lot of the regulars were just as bad as me. heh.

I say let the locals entertain the tourists a bit: be courteous, low-key, make a bit of small talk with a humorous perspective if possible. After all we are PLAYING a GAME and it shouldn't be too hard to find a way to have a little fun with it.


If the locals insist on sitting there scowling at the tourists the whole time, then they almost deserve a motormouth dealer who makes tons of mistakes.

Rick,


This is one of the problems in CA. The dealers are so used to being yelled at from all directions that when a player makes constructive critism the dealer is immediately on the defensive. I can tell you about something that happened to me recently. As you know I relocated to MS from CA. I was dealing a 1-5 stud game and a player asked me what I used to do; now I expected him to sya I shoudl go back to doing that, so I ignored him. I spoke to him out of the box later and realized he was just curios because he thoguht I was probably a banker or teacher becasue I ran the game smoothly and in a professional manner, but I was so used to the line of questioning in LA I immediately wnet into a defensive posture.


Randy Refeld

I heartily agree. It is interesting to see the various views, but in general I think these forums are much too tough on dealers. As long as they do most of their talking while shuffling, deck changes, waiting for tray refills, etc. I believe friendly dealers are much better for the game than quiet ones. Of course, they must play attention to the game and keep control of it. But in my experience, friendly dealers seem to be the better dealers. My guess is that the less skilled dealers are too worried about screwing up and losing their jobs to talk much. This opinion may be skewed by doing most of my playing in CO, where the stakes are low, there are no pros, the dealers are tipped well, the games are mostly friendly, and the regulars all know each other. But I do visit Vegas 3 or 4 times a year. I believe friendly dealer make the tables better and draw in the social players, newbies, tourists, etc. There is no reason to complain about people being friendly as long as they are doing their jobs. The Vegas locals should lighten up, IMHO.

Mabye you are right, but a dealer should NEVER say anything about how a hand was played/should be played. Period. It is one thing to make small talk with players. It is another to influence how players play their hands.

100% right, and they should save the small talk for getting into and out of the box, or sometimes a bit between hands--never during hands.

The problem is that many talkative, friendly dealers DO NOT keep their chatting for in-between-hands time. Lots of them chatter away during the hand, It's damn distracting; it can influence the action; and it leads to dealer errors due to inattention.


Between hand chatting is more or less OK as I see it, but let's not forget that there are often around 8 or ten people at the table. If the dealer is too chatty, even between hands, that's a way of monompolizing the conversation and that gets old quick, just as it would if some player talked enough for 6 people.


I'm not hard on dealers, but I do think they should be expected to do pretty much what they're supposed to do in the proper manner. And I personally find it annoying when a dealer tends to monopolize the conversation at a table.

I've never been hard on dealer's, but there is a poker room manager that is angry with me because I suggested it woudl be a good idea to have his dealers shut up in the box and to find some that can pitch the cards with exposing them.


Randy Refeld

The world's going to hell in a handbasket;-)


As far as some people are concerned, the word "competency" is just another word in the dictionary.

Wow--thanks guys (and Babe) for all the comments and posts.


In one sense, this is just a funny cardroom story. It was not mean to stir up any "tourist vs. LV regular" dispute.


I agree the dealer was way too harsh with his comment to the bad player. I would have been embarrassed. He really did say it like ---"you moron". He was also making fun of me as a very tight player too.