The dreaded Time Collection. It comes around every half hour at Bellagio and from all reports by players in games, it is the most reasonable in the country. Yet a lot of players behave as if they had an appointment with the guillotine when “Time” is announced. Or they act like Time is supposed to be taken the way it is taken in other poker rooms around the country; or out of a pot that has $x in it, the amount dictated by the players; or on the 47th day of the month of No-Time-Ski; or any assortment of reasons for them not to have to pay Time.

Some of them even feel that if I do my job (keep in mind that I’m hired by Bellagio – not the players at the table) the way I’m instructed to, I can go on their stiff list. Wow! A novel idea. A stiff list! Wonder why someone else didn’t think of that about 20 years ago. Chit Mon, you are going to have to really work to come up with something I haven’t heard or witnessed before at a poker table.

I slide into the Box on Table 40. It’s $40-80 Mixed, four handed. A three inch by seven inch plaque has brown paper taped over it and is wedged right by the game limit sign on the left of the rack. It reads, Time $7, paid by each player before the first hand is dealt.

I cheerfully state, “$7 for Time please.”

I receive, “It’s taken from a Time Pot.”

As I set the old deck in the Shuffle Master, I motion to the plaque and state, “Not according to this.”

The 8s argues, “I guarantee you, Time is taken from the pot. We are not paying it.”

As I cut and get ready to deal, “I’ll find out.”

He persisted that they were not paying time individually as I called for a decision. I deal the hand, Skip arrives, I point to the plaque and ask him how Time is taken. He states that each player is paying $7 before the first hand. The boys cough up the Time and I finish the Down.

Umnhhhh! Now if the Dealers in front of me were doing what they were supposed to be doing, this would not be an issue. Wow! Another novel idea! I wasn’t ‘stiffed’ so that’s not an issue either.

For some reason in the $25-50 NLH game, all the players have the idea that Time is taken on the first pot that has $500 or more in it. That may be how it’s done in other parts of the world but not at Bellagio, yet it seems to surface all the time.

Players sitting down in a $30-60 H game with a new dealer coming in, always think they are exempt from paying $6 for the half hour Time charge. It just doesn’t work that way. Sit down, pay Time. It’s almost painful to watch them try to skip out of it…painfully embarrassing for them that is.

Of course in the ultra high limit, just push the pot and then ask the winner to pay $XX for Time…or a lecture is forthcoming from someone at the table. Even though we are supposed to take it immediately out of the pot, it’s just better to do it the ‘high limit’ way. And it’s actually easier than breaking down big chips and making the exchange from the pot to the rack.

Come to think of it, Time Pots can be horribly taxing for a dealer unless the dealer knows the nuances of the game they are dealing. A few examples:

$20-40 O-8, $5 each player before a hand is dealt.
$30-60 H, $6 each player before a hand is dealt.
$10-20 NLH, $7 each player before a hand is dealt.
$40-80 7 Stud, normally a $5 ante, goes to $10 ante with $7 taken for Time.
$80-160 H, after a Flop, a player with a ‘missed blind’ pays from their stack.

In Mixed Games and higher limits, Time is taken from everyone’s stack during the Stud rounds, whether they ante or not. In Flop games, they are dealt in unless they miss their blinds, Time is taken from the pot. Except in $150-300 and higher, it’s taken from the Blinds before the Flop.

Imagine new dealers coming in and trying to figure this out. It’s a labyrinth of limits and Time Drops.

I have a wrinkle in my brain about Time Collections. I’ve written about it in Poker Tales under the title, The Cost of Doing Business. I still marvel at players that think a casino owes the player the privilege of playing for free. Where, on Earth, can you set up any business and not pay some operating costs for that business? You can’t. Say hello to the dreaded Time Collection.