4 Color Decks in B&M?

[playersare]

i do the 4 color deck on all the onlines. why make a unnecessary mistake or do any extra squinting?

as for b&m, it's probably not necessary and likely won't ever be. the cards all have uniform artwork unlike computer graphics, and are big enough to see on the table with the naked eye. and you can always ask the dealer...

[andyfox]

I've made mistakes reading the board (B&M) where a 4-color deck would have helped me. But the cards flash often enough that seeing the color would be a major drawback, more than counteracting the benefits.

[GuyOnTilt]

I'm guessing you haven't played 4 or more tables over those 8k hands. The 4 color deck is a must when supertabling. I can't stand not playing with it anymore.

GoT

[private joker]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm guessing you haven't played 4 or more tables over those 8k hands. The 4 color deck is a must when supertabling. I can't stand not playing with it anymore.

GoT

[/ QUOTE ]

True, I only 2-table. But I hate that puke blue-green of the other suits. It throws me way off. I can't even tell what I have. I'd rather see two red queens than a red queen and a green one. I feel like my monitor is broken or something.

Also, a 4-color deck once punched my sister.

[surfdoc]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, a 4-color deck once punched my sister.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know, she told me all about it last night.

[AngryCola]

Agreed.

I love them online, but just say no to 4-color decks in B&M casinos.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Everyone:

Here's the essay. It's from my book Poker Essays, Volume II. All rights reserved.

Best wishes,
Mason

The Four-Color Deck — A Realistic View


Special Note: This is an essay I wrote in early 1995, but which for many reasons I did not publish until late in the year. Now that the four-color deck has had its run, and is not in use in any cardroom that I know of, I feel — for the benefit of poker — that it is appropriate to release this commentary. So here goes.

Over the past year, a strong campaign has been waged, mostly by another poker writer, advocating the introduction of a four-color deck. My stated opinion was that I didn’t see anything wrong with it although there were many more important issues that I thought card rooms should address. (See “Three Cardroom Problems.”) I am now going to change my position: The four-color deck would be very bad for poker, and I strongly recommend that poker rooms do not adopt it.

The most important matter that a cardroom can and should attend to is the integrity of their games. Not only should they ensure that their games are 100 percent honest, but they should also insure that the players believe their games are 100 percent honest. Poker players who are suspicious of the integrity of the games in some particular poker room, even if the games in that room are squeaky clean, will tend not to play there.

All the poker rooms I am currently familiar with have done a very good job in this area. I never worry when I sit down at The Mirage, the Horseshoe, the Bicycle Club, the Commerce Club, Bay 101, Hollywood Park, Fort McDowell, the Taj Mahal, Grand Casino Biloxi, or virtually any other cardroom that I can think of. But it hasn’t always been this way.

Ten years ago, when I still lived in California, there was one large cardroom that had a great deal of business which I would not play in. Whether it was true or not, I heard too many bad things about this place. I also believe that this was one of the major reasons why this room collapsed when the new superclubs opened. Players quickly deserted it for games in other locations which they felt were on the square.

So what does the four-color deck have to do with this? Why am I implying that the four-color deck may be bad for poker? And why should cardrooms be reluctant to use it? The answer is simple. Flashed cards will be easier to spot and when a card is flashed, there will be no doubt as to exactly what the suit is.

In the blackjack world, frontloading is the art of looking at a dealers hole card. My book Blackjack Essays contains the most extensive discussion of this topic in print. Even though frontloading is extremely difficult to do — and it requires a dealer who does not follow procedure well — those few players who have mastered it are at times able to have a large advantage over the casino.

Frontloading can also be a problem at the poker table. (See my book Poker Essays for a chapter on frontloading.) Any dealer, frequently a former blackjack dealer, who pitches the cards too high, is susceptible to a skilled frontloader. Even though I do not consider it cheating, I recommend that you quickly ask the dealer to deal the cards much lower. Obviously, a four-color deck will aid someone with this skill. Just knowing the color of a card will now be much more useful. This is especially true in Texas hold’em where each player only has two cards. I can imagine games where some players are constantly requesting misdeals because a particular color has flashed. (By the way, I do not have these frontloading skills.)

In hold’em, there is also a small group of players who constantly try to see the hole cards of the players sitting next to them, particularly the player on their right. It doesn’t happen too often, but when you are in the game when one of these players is being successful in seeing some cards that are not his, you will see some strangely played hands. Again, I don’t necessarily consider this cheating. As a player, it is your responsibility to protect your hand. If you don’t, you might release information that can greatly hurt you. (By the way, if you are new to poker, protecting your hand, that is holding your cards so that they are completely private, is probably the most important thing you can do.)

A four-color deck has the potential to make it easier for an unscrupulous player to get information about someone’s else’s hand. This could make some players question the integrity of the games and be bad for poker in the long run. Going to cards with large digits would make it even worse.

Once, when I was playing draw poker in Gardena many years ago, I threw three kings away before the draw. I did this because the person next to me picked up his hand so that the whole table could see that he held three aces. He also complained about how tight we played and that we never gave him any action.

My point is this: Even though there is nothing wrong in using this type of information when it becomes available at the card table, card rooms should not be assisting certain players in obtaining it. They should be doing just the opposite. (For instance, I believe that dealers should occasionally tell players, especially tourists, that they need to protect their hands.) But above all: cardrooms should not be introducing four color decks. I believe it would be a major mistake.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi AC:

That's the way I see it. Because of human dealers, they are a bad idea in B&M cardrooms. Online that's not an issue.

Best wishes,
Mason

[youtalkfunny]

Thanks for posting the article, Mason.

I loved the 4-color idea when it was first floated.

Then you changed my mind when you originally published your piece.

Then, when the internet came along, I again longed for the 4-color deck.

And now, you've changed my mind again.

I'm a sheep, I guess. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Like me, Andy, age is catching up to you. One reason I play very little stud live is that I have some difficulty reading other players' boards from across the table. 4-colors would help, but I agree the drawbacks outweigh that.