management
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I have heard (from more than 1 reliable source) that post has gotten around some management types at various rooms here in town.
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Like who? Ballys? where the poker management has never even worked in poker before? I do know some management people who have never even worked in poker before frequent but never post here.
LOL...heres a funny one...there will be a shift supervisor in a room in town who has never worked poker also...but will be taking care of things as soon as they are finished with dealing school!!
GAWD LV Casino managements suck. NO CLUE.
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There are several problems with management, both in the poker rooms, and more importantly, in the casinos.
The primary problem these days is that the casinos don't PAY their floorpeople and shift managers enough money. More money attracts better people, more competition means better overall managers. The typical dealer makes MUCH more than their manager / floorperson does, thus even those management minded individuals who love what they do will inevitably revert back to dealing after they deal with enough BS and get enough flak for long enough (and for far less money than everyone else).
The problem in the poker rooms has to do with two things, ignorant casino upper management and the newly created massive demand.
Casino upper management doesn't usually know a darn thing about poker, so they try to treat it like pit games, or they just fumble about with poker like it's some ammenity they are forced to give, but don't have any real clue about how to do. Poker is NOT the pit. Get rid of that mentality right now, at least if you want your casino's poker room to be successful. Poker is a different animal altogether, and should be treated as such. Poker IS an ammenity, more so than a pure profit maker (at least on a purely profit per square foot analysis), however, poker is still PROFITABLE nonetheless. In addition to the fact of its profitability, poker is also essentially RISK FREE, it's not going to suffer fluctuations like pit games, sports book etc. With all the space in las vegas, the square footage analysis should be a moot point. Poker players do eat in restaraunts, play slots and table games, bet sports, see shows, and everything else. They may not be the TOP OF THE LINE casino patrons, but there is still money to be made, and let it not be said that anyone here in vegas DOESN'T want to make money!
Now the newfound insane demand for poker is really at the heart of the perceptions of incompetence by the knowledgeable poker crowd, such as many 2+2ers. They are partially right, but sometimes they are also partially ignorant as to what the real situation is behind why things are the way they are. It's sure easy to be critical, but not always easy to put yourself in the shoes of poker room staff.
For instance, what would you do if you all of a sudden had to staff about 60 people, and there wasn't ANYONE except for total newbies applying for your positions? Sure, if you could hire nothing but highly experienced, dedicated professional dealers, your room would KICK FRIGGIN' ASS. But gimme a break already, have you been to vegas lately? The VAST majority of dealers in this town are TOTAL NEWBIES. That's because the vast majority of seats at poker tables in this town DIDN'T EXIST THREE YEARS AGO, AND MOST DIDN'T EXIST EVEN 1 OR 1.5 YEARS AGO. Thus virtually EVERYONE is a newbie. The experienced dealers are mostly at the top of the line joints like bellagio and mirage, those with long established rooms. Almost everyone else is brand new with a year or less, mostly less, experience.
Now add in the considerably lower PAY that the people in charge of all these newbies will make! It's a recipe for generating lots of criticism from people like us on 2+2.
But on the other end of the spectrum, you've gotta consider that most of the newbies are dealing the smallest games, which are full of NEWBIE PLAYERS too! So maybe we should all just lighten up a little already and just go with the flow.
Sure, there will be problems, mistakes, disputes, incompetent floors and dealers, bullpucky and everything. Get used to it. The work ethic, the desire to do top notch work, to have pride in what you do, skill and craftsmanship, is a dying entity here in the USA (I am sorry to say). But poker will go on, and it will get better over time. Some rooms will darwinize themselves out of existence, and some will thrive. Same as it has always been, will always be.
al
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