Foxwoods - Dealer Incompetance in the 1/2 No Limit Game

[DVDerek]

I've been playing the $1/$2 No Limit Game at Foxwoods for about a year now. It's played with buyins ranging from $40-$100. When you get below $40 you may rebuy for up to $100. When I first started playing the dealers were very good about enforcing the table stakes. I played last friday and had repeated clashes with three dealers over this.

I sat down at a new table, with everyone buying in for $100. A seat opened up about 30 minutes later and an older gentleman sat down with a chip rack with about $500 in it. He began playing his hand from the chip rack. After the flop (now $30 into the hand), I reminded the dealer that there was $100 table limit for buyins. She relays this to the big stack who proceeds to count $100 in chips outof his rack and places them on the table. The dealer says nothing of this, and I'm not involved in this particular hand anymore so I don't pursue it.

This gentleman leaves his chip rack on the table. He's playing with chips that aren't in the rack, but just the presence of the chip rack on the table is wrong. I'm waiting for a floor to enter the area, but there's none in sight. After a while I ask, "When a new player sits down at the table, how are they to know that the chips in the rack are not in play?" The best the dealer can give me for an answer on this is "Well, we'll tell them." I press her on this, and then the best solution she can come up with is to have him put the rack of chips on the rail.

Watching this player, I caught him twice taking chips from the rack, supposedly out of play, to play with. I don't think he was doing this on purpose, but it was still being done. When I first started playing here I got yelled at for paying time out of chips I had in my pocket and now they have no problem witha guy sitting down with $500? I raise the issue again, appologizing for being an ass, and the dealer begrudgingly offers to color the player up so he can put the chips in his pocket.

In effect, I spotted a rules violation, brought it to the attention of the dealer, and the dealer did not act, despuit knowing it was a violation of the rules. I continued to press on the issue, and the dealer did nothing. I suppose I could have requested that she call a floor, but I was really trying not to come off as the hard ass. It is the dealer's job to enforce the rules.

Much later in the session, two new players sat down next to me with a mix of green and red chips. I counted them up, and one had over $150 while the other had about $120. At this point my stack was over $350, so I was glad to have the extra money on the table. Still, the dealer said nothing to these players.

This story actually spans three different dealers, so the issue is not with a single dealer, but rather the service at foxwoods. I am writing a letter to the manager, but with little competition in the area, I expect absolutely nothing to be done. Just wanted to share my frustrating tale and let you guys know to be on the lookout for things like this.