vegas props

[el Jefe]

I think this is the proper term -- casino employees (off duty dealers?) that play in the poker room.

I was playing in Vegas for the first time last week and during a daytime sesssion at the Luxor (4-8 half kill) it quickly became apparent that almost everyone at the table knew each other and all of the dealers in the poker room. I was ok with this as the game was pretty loose-passive and just figured them for a bunch of locals playing their regular game -- except many were quite young. After an hour or so another obvious regular (all the dealers and some players greet him when he comes in) sits down to my left and says to the guy sitting to his left "are you working or playing?" In very hushed tones the player to his left says "working"

my questions are: is this a standard occurrance? are these guys playing with house money? should I avoid games like this in the future?

later that night I was playing at Binions and brought it up and there seemed to be some disagrement over whose money was being played (house or tips) and whether or not you wanted these guys in your game. FWIW the guy that was 'working' was by far the loosest player at the table.

what do you all think?

thanks.

-Jeff

ps. the live low-limit games in Vegas are every bit as good as advertised. Thanks 2+2!

[DimensionPresident]

I'd love a job where all I did was play with the house's money just to keep games going. How often does something like this happen?

[Randy_Refeld]

A prop plays his own money a shill plays the house's money. The only time I know of a shill being used in Vegas was at the Stratosphere in 2000 (before I get flamed, it was my idea so this is first hand knowledge).

RR

[AllVegasPoker.com]

Under Nevada law, a poker room must disclose prop or shill players upon request. Most poker rooms have a sign stating this.

One poker room that definitely uses shills is the El Cortez. It's not uncommon to see the poker room manager smoking a cigarette and playing a game.

[B00T]

Was his name Michael, and was he really f'n annoying? Did he look like a chipmunk? If so kick him in the junk and tell him to catch a hockey puck to the piehole to push his teeth back in.

Oh yeah, he cant play poker for his life either.

[el Jefe]

hi BOOT,

If you're referring to my experience at the Luxor, the person in question was a young asian guy and I think his name was David, but I'm not sure. He was actually pretty nice and friendly. His girlfriend/wife was also playing and sitting to his immediate right -- which was another minor cause for concern and something I witnessed on two seperate occasions at different casinos -- but I suppose is a subject for another post...

-Jeff

[doughhater]

I've played in a lot of different casino that allowed their dealers to play both on the clock and off the clock. Usually you should look for these games and play in them whenever possible as dealers, for the most part, play horribly.

As for concern about the prop and his girlfriend playing in the same game, I really doubt that anyone would be dumb enough to attempt collusion where they work, especially on the clock.

[ChicagoTroy]

You don't play with the house's money.

[MrBlini]

A shill does. But he doesn't keep the winnings.

[2planka]

Haven't been to Vegas in about a year, but I too noticed a lot more prop players at the tiny Luxor "room" (at the time it was just a roped off area) than at the larger, more crowded strip cardrooms. Heading back in Nov. and was not planning to play at Luxor. No game selection.