The answer to that is always ME! No matter how many times I’ve seen a situation that was ugly or something happened that I had no control over andthe scenetried toescape my thoughts at the speed of light, some part of me dragged it back to dissect it and open it up from the inside out and try to rationalize why or how or where it was going. Once I’ve fully assessed the situation and I know it’s over and I can’t change it, my lazy side tries to sluff it off with “Who cares?”

Damn it! Damn the other side of me that always answers, “I DO!”

Caring is a very difficult task, it brings one to task, leaves us trying to find a solution or be a better observer so we can help guide ourselves and others around pitfalls and help those that didn’t see the hole in the road and fell into it. I’m going off on the lack of customer service in poker rooms and dealers that do not do their jobs and don’t give a shit if they do their jobs. I suppose – somewhere, somehow – I keep hoping that poker room management, staff, and dealers,in all locales,will read what I’m seeing in poker rooms in Las Vegas and start to make a difference by forcing themselves or employees to put a better foot/face/more knowledge forward to the customers that frequent the room. So far, it’s pretty grim. I could just turn my back on it here and pretend it doesn’t bother me. It does! I do care. But believe me when I tell you it’s much easier to ignore it than it is to try and struggle in making it different.

I’ve worked with some of the same dealers for the last 17 years – Mirage to Bellagio – and the rule at the Mirage was the same as the rule at Bellagio in almost all situations. Yet some of these same dealers act like they’ve never been exposed to any rule before. A few examples:

A playerwants to playover in the 1s in a $4-8H game. We have play over boxes specifically for this reason, to protect the player’s chips while they are absent from the game, and put in a live player to help the game. The Brush counts out the absent player’s chips, leaves them in a standing stack, and sticks a sticky note to the top chip, with the amount on it. and walks off. KEE-RIST! I jumped up, found two empty racks, loaded the chips into one and put the other over the top of the chips to protect the chips from an elbow or an absent minded grab by the 1 or 2s. The player playing over (PPO)thanked me.

In this same game, same dealer, the PPO posted and was dealt in. A few minutes later the 10s opened, the PPO was next on the list and moved into the 10s. The dealer (worked with me at the Mirage), put a reserved button in front of the PPO and told him he had to post or wait. WTF? PPO and I both said, “He’s moving into the blind and he’s already posted.”

Dealer, “Ok, whatever you say.”

That’s not the correct answer either. If the dealer isn’t sure, they should just call for a decision. But how can the dealer not be sure since this is and has been the rule for the last eight years at Bellagio. PPO would have to post or wait if they moved three or more live players out of the blind, not into the blind.

Two players come in from a broken game. One of them requests to come in behind the button. The dealer (been at Bellagio about two years) asked the same brush referenced above, if the player could wait and come in behind the button. The brush said yes. The dealer looked at me. I shook my head. The dealer prodded the brush again and now the brush responded that the player could wait and come in behind the button but they would have to post both blinds. The original question was asked because the player wanted to escape paying the blinds and be dealt in for free. The original answer given was not the same as the second answer given.

While playing at the Mirage last weekend, we had one dealer that dropped the rake as soon as the max rake was taken, even on the flop or the turn. After watching him do it about eight times, I asked, “Aren’t you dropping the rake too soon?”

Dealer, “I drop it as soon as it’s made.”

Me, “I believe it’s a gaming rule that you have to leave it visible until the pot is pushed. You might want to check with your supervisor when you get pushed.”

He stopped dropping it early.

Hell if I know, maybe all that’s changed and you can drop it whenever you decide.

It’s like watching a dealer count outa fill for a chip runner DURING A HAND AND HANDING THEM THE CASH BEFORE THE LAMMERS HIT THE TABLE. At Bellagio we are supposed to finish the hand, pull the deck to one side, count out all the bills in denominational stacks, $100’s face up, all other bills face down, wait for the lammers to be put down, pick up the bills and hand them to the chip runner. Maybe there are a few of us that still do that. I watch dealers pull out the cash, right in the middle of the hand, count it down with the deck still in their hand – in mid air – and hand it off to the chip runner; the chip runner then puts down the lammers. The worst part of it is that the chip runner takesthe cashand walks off. It’s an automatic one day suspension for both the dealer and the chip runner if security or gaming catches them doing it this way.

Another nasty little thing is watching a few dealers that stop players on their way to cash out, “Sell me your blue chips.” What? All the dealer can do is exchange red chips for blue chips anyway, so what advantage is it to the player? None. It slows down the game and as far as I know, it’s incorrect policy.

Too many dealers think they are the local comedian and everyone is entertained by their hobnobbing and noise and their great dexterity in throwing chips in the air and catching them on the top of their hand or flipping them to drop them in the rake slot. I was taught to take the rake after the action began on each street, not before I put up the flop, or the turn, or the river. I never drew attention to the fact that the game was being raked but too many new dealers now make an ignorant display of it.Spinning the cut card up into the air and catching it repeatedly while waiting for the action to complete is another moronic sign of incompetence.

I watch dealers take a $1 tip and never say thank you. I also watch them dig in their pocket to pull out $1 chips to change up a red chip a player threw out to call a bet with. It’s freaking ugly. I watch them come up with a pocket of blue chips and count out the blue chips in front of player expecting the player to give them red chips in return for the blues, or count out next to the dealer they are pushing and expect the dealer to give them red chips out of the rack.

The first few years the Mirage was open we received a poker room rule update with our paychecks every two weeks. Usually it was a random rule taken from our rule book and printed out ona separate sheet. I’m starting to wonder if all poker houses shouldn’t adopt this policy so the new dealers (and some of the experienced dealers and floor personnel) would renew their vows with poker and why they are there. But then again, I wonder how many people can actually understand and associate what they read into actual life/skill/work place habits.

Something happened a few nights ago when I was playing in a $4-8H game that is probably the most extreme lack of customer service that I have ever witnessed. I was in the 8s and every one in the game was new to me except the 7s, I’d played with her a few times before. The 4s had around 800-1000 in chips in front of him, on a rush, stacking and drinking and laughing. Everyone appeared to be in good humor.

The 4s won another pot, the dealer half assed pushed it to him (why I have no idea because he was a tipper), leaving a lot of it out in the playing field. The 4s had a fresh drink and as the dealer dealt the next hand, the 4s reached to drag in the rest of his pot and hit glass hard enough that it spilled over onto his pot and most of the ice cubes landed on the outer edge of the chips closest to the dealer.

If I’d been dealing (I’ve done this many times), I would have set the deck down, capped it with chips, stood up, scooped the ice together with both hands – while I called for dry towels – and just pitched the ice onto the floor. I thought about jumping up and helping out now. My brain went into you’re a player mode. The brush was standing a max of seven feet from me. I yelled, “Major spill! Dry Towels Table 32!”

The dealer did nothing. The brush leisurely walked across the room and retrieved one dry towel. When he reached table 32, he spread the towel out, dropped it over the ice and chips, and walked off…never to return again. I think my mouth fell open…I can still feel the bruise on my chinwhere it crashed intothe floor.

The next horror of crappy customer service was the dealer’s actions. The dealer reached out andpushed the towel that was covering the chips and ice, straight back into the player’s stacks. I swear the dealer pushed that towel further than she had pushed his chips when he won a pot. Not to worry, the dealer continued the game as if nothing had happened.

I left the table and headed over to the dry towel stand. I picked up three and hurried back to the 4s. I laid one out on the left hand side of the 4s’s stacks of chips and told him that if we got the chips out of the ice it would be easier to clean up. We threw all of his ice/drink saturated chips onto the towel. One of our chip runners arrived. I handed her the towel and asked her to take it to cashier and have them replace those chips with fresh ones. The 4s and I scooped the ice off of the table with our hands and he started sopping and mopping with the other dry towels.

I went back to the dry towel stand because two was definitely not enough. Our chip runner was digging through the garbage by the towel stand. She looked like she was going to get sick to her stomach as she explained that she thought it was ice in the towel I gave her and she dumped them in the garbage. I helped her rummage through the trash for chips, laughing as I did it. What the hell else can you do at that point? She felt horrible about it. We think we got them all. If he missed a $1 chip, I’m really sorry but we did the best we could.

When I returned to the table, the 4s kept mopping and wiping, cheerful as hell, and a little later I visited with him and explained that if he set his chips about four inches from the rail, he had plenty of room to set his drink behind them and wouldn’t hit his drink with his arm while reaching for chips and cards. *light bulb goes off* He was very receptive and extremely nice.

I waited about an hour and a half before I told him about his chips being thrown in the garbage. He laughed his ass off over that one.

I suppose in reality – mine – I do truly give a shit, in all areas, but especially in poker. Poker is the one place that you have the opportunity to really stand out above the crowd without any friends in high places, high finance background, or college education. It’s obvious every time you turn on TV or visit a poker room. So why don’t poker rooms and employees want to stand out above the crowd? I spend so much time in poker that it pains me to see something I love treated so poorly.

I believe that we all have to care. We all make a difference. When we play in local cardrooms, we need to know the rules ourselves and follow through with making sure the management knows when something is amiss. We need to sound off about the US and current legislation involving the internet. We need to be informed and pay attention to what’s coming up and what’s going on now. We also have to be intelligent enough to know that online poker sites will always find a new way to fund our account with them. Neteller closing to US players isn’t the end; it’s only the beginning of a new era. I will continue to play on the internet. I hope you’ll join me there.