Major Problems with cardroom staff and management at Caesar's Indiana.

[purnell]

I played 5/10 limit for about ten hours last night at Caesar's Indiana Riverboat Casino. The new poker room is very nice, and the staff was very friendly, but there are some major problems. I am posting a copy of the email I sent to them this morning. ( And no, I am not steaming, as I ran good and got up around 25 BB's before I got tired and weak and a tough LAG (at leat I think he was tough, he was definitely LAG) got position on me, ran hot, and got the best of everybody at the table, including me. I lost about half of my winnings before I wised up and got out of there, but hey, I got outplayed and I knew it. C'est la vie.)

Anyway, here is the letter, in which are described the serious problems to which I refer. <--- -[img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] sorry, my dad's an english teacher-

"Dear sir or madam:

Your new poker room is very nice, and your staff is very friendly, but I observed some serious problems on Thursday night/Friday Morning April 7th-8th, at table 19.

1) Dealers: A few of them were quite good, but many were obviously inexperienced and poorly trained. the specific problems I observed were:

a) Throwing the cards way too high, so that anyone of a mind to sit low in his seat could see others' hole cards as they were dealt

b) Inability to read the board and accurately determine the winning hand without help from the experienced players at the table

c) Sloppy dealing- flipping cards over and exposing them

d) Inability to tell me the amount of money in the pot.

2) Management: there was only one incident worth reporting, but it was absolutely inexcusable:

A very large man who sat down late in the evening or early morning was fond of exposing his hole cards in the middle of a betting round. Once, he did it in a 3-handed pot after one of his opponents called, but the other had not yet acted. Worse yet, there was a floorperson standing right there watching it happen, AND NOT ONE WORD WAS SAID! In my opinion, this floorperson is incompetent.

There is a very good book published by 2+2, entitled "The Professional Poker Dealer's Handbook". Perhaps you could use it to help train your dealers. (No, I do not work for 2+2 or have any relationship with them other than using their very active discussion forums at www.twoplustwo.com.

Be assured that I will be posting a copy of this letter on said board on the forum entitled "B&M Cardrooms". You are, of course, free to defend yourself on this same forum.

Sincerely, Mike Purnell"

BTW, has anyone else seen this kind of stuff lately?

[Bulldog]

[ QUOTE ]
d) Inability to tell me the amount of money in the pot.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have the right to this info? I've heard players ask the dealer to "spread out the pot" so they can see the chips in there, but I've never heard a pot count requested or given.

[purnell]

"Do you have the right to this info? "

Maybe not. I think I have it from a reliable source (Mason Malmuth) that in some rooms the dealers are required to state the number of players and the size of the pot on each street. I'm looking for it now, and will cite it later or retract my statement.

[purnell]

" I think i have it from... Mason Malmuth..."

Poker essays, vol. 3, page 161, in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

"Sometimes the dealer is required to state the number of players or the size of the pot" (emphasis mine)

Obviously this does not show that I am entitled to this information at Caesar's Indiana, so I am still retracting the statement. It is even possible that the dealers are instructed not to count the pot.

[Jeffage]

[ QUOTE ]
Poker essays, vol. 3, page 161, in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

"Sometimes the dealer is required to state the number of players or the size of the pot" (emphasis mine)

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe this only applies to pot limit games (like PLO) where someone wants to raise the pot and is inquiring how much is in there.

Jeff

[TheNoodleMan]

[ QUOTE ]
d) Inability to tell me the amount of money in the pot.


[/ QUOTE ]
if you have trouble keeping track of the pot size in a limit game, try setting aside one chip from your stack for every bet. when you get to the turn, take away half (as you are now counting BB's) and keep adding one for each bet. It is a simple and effective way to keep track of pot odds.

[Stew]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
d) Inability to tell me the amount of money in the pot.


[/ QUOTE ]
if you have trouble keeping track of the pot size in a limit game, try setting aside one chip from your stack for every bet. when you get to the turn, take away half (as you are now counting BB's) and keep adding one for each bet. It is a simple and effective way to keep track of pot odds.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is some of the best advice I have ever heard. Wish I had of that when I was trying to learn the game, play live and keep track of the pot.

[steamboatin]

I assume from your post, that you never played poker at Caesar's In when the card room was smaller and in the middle.

If you had played there then, under the last poker room manager, you would be so grateful for the current state of affairs that you would go shake Billy's hand and offer to buy him dinner.

My buddy Paul chopped 1st & 2nd in the $500+25 tourney and while the final table was being played, I shook Billy's hand and congratulated him on the good job He was doing with the poker room.

If you knew how it was, you would appreciate how it is and be very hopeful about what it might become.

[purnell]

I'll agree that the new room and management are better than the old ones. But do you really think this is tolerable?

"...fond of exposing his hole cards in the middle of a betting round. Once, he did it in a 3-handed pot after one of his opponents called, but the other had not yet acted. Worse yet, there was a floorperson standing right there watching it happen, AND NOT ONE WORD WAS SAID!"

[winchips]

i just posted about my trip to trump (indiana) and how there was someone at the table who would say what he had after he folded, the dealer never said a word and it happened several times. For example if the board came up 77j, he would say i folded the winning hand, i had a 7.
I was shocked the dealers never said anything,
They were also sloppy with the deal