In a recent trip to Las Vegas I was again overwhelmed by the outrageous rude behavior of the locals. My chief complaint this time is the "white buttons."


I asked Donna Harris if she thought giving people an hour and fifteen minutes away from the table was reasonable, and she seemed to think it was fine. Personally, I think it's ridiculous, but apparently I'm a minority of one.


On two occasions two people got up together from a stud game to go eat. They were gone the full hour and fifteen minutes. One of them never came back and called in to have themselves picked up. The other came back, played one hand, told a story about how they hadn't even been served yet (like anybody cares), and left again for an undetermined amount of time. Undetermined because two of us quit in disgust.


Oh, but you can play over, you say? Playing over is stupid. It's just an excuse to let people stay away from the table. Some floor person usually has to approve and they often have to count the persons chips you are playing over. By the time you get settled in the person comes back, and if your stuck it's the pits--what a headache.


My solution is simple: you get 20 minutes away from the table if there is a list, and if you can't get back in time too bad. Eat at home, the snack bar or before or after you play. Poker is not a game of eating, it's a game of people played with cards. The problem is if there are no people then everybody else gets pissed off.


As far as I'm concerned this is the most abused rule in Vegas. It's even worse at the big tournaments. I'd say 50% of the people never come back, or they come back and pick up. This would mean that you'd have to hire at least one extra person just to pick people up at a big tournament. But I guarantee you the games would stay full and the players actually in their seats playing wouldn't get so upset. Now, when people want to go eat they would cash out and put their names on the bottom of the list. Half the people that are on the list aren't in the room anyway.


End this archaic practice.