Another story from Harrah's tonight. I have ranted several times before about dealers who just can't keep their noses and opinions and comments out of the action; see http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/2007/12/another-dealer-injecting-himself-into.html and the other posts linked therein. It's one of my (many hundreds of) pet peeves.
Found another one tonight.
The final board was A-K-Q-J-10, with no flush possible. In other words, the best possible hand was the five community cards. In that situation, it doesn't matter what hole cards the players have; everybody who doesn't muck his hand will split the pot.
But--and this is crucial--surprisingly often there are one or more players who misperceive what is on the board, or don't think through what those cards imply, or just aren't paying attention. Unless I'm up against a single opponent that I know is too smart to fall for the ploy, I will always move all-in in this situation, because a fair percentage of the time somebody will fold, which means that the pot gets chopped among fewer people, so we each get more of it. Yeah, it's cutthroat and taking advantage of other people's potential to make mistakes--but that's basically the entire nature of this game on every hand.*
Anyway, this dealer put out the last card, made a little laugh, then said, "Anybody want to bet at that?" The action was checked all around. The dealer then said, "OK, let's see what you all have." This was followed instantly--before anybody could actually react and expose their cards--by him saying, "Hey, you all have a straight! You all win!"
It's hard to find words for how improper this is. Even with no bets on the river, there could easily be a player who misses the fact that he has made a straight without even using his hole cards, and mucks his hand, perhaps because he's embarrassed that he was playing a trash hand. When the dealer gives off this kind of free information, he may be preventing a player from making a mistake that he must be allowed to make, if he is so inclined. The dealer is violating the fundamental rule that each player must make each decision for himself. He is helping players in a way that is absolutely forbidden by the most basic rule of the game.
It's bad enough when (as usually happens) a player can't resist the temptation to point out that the nuts are on the board and everybody will split the pot. It's unforgiveable for a dealer to do it.
*If you doubt that this actually works, see here: http://tinyurl.com/yvoaar. The key excerpt:
Beth [Shak], meanwhile, did a good job keeping up with her elite table and even
hit quads against Jeff Madsen and managed to get paid off on the hand. Beth did
make a bit of an error, however, in one hand where the board went
Ad-Ks-Jh-10h-Qs and Beth, as well as one other player, folded to an opponent's
all-in push. It's not a great thing to fold the nuts.
Note that this was a major tournament, with only experienced players participating. If two of them at one table in that high-level setting can make this mistake, you can just imagine what happens when you get people nervous from playing live in a casino for the first time, and/or drunk, and/or paying more attention to the football game than the poker game. (Incidentally, Shak later explained that she was wearing new contact lens for the first time and was only seeing a blurry image of the community cards. She said that after she realized what had happened, she threw the lenses away at the next break.)
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3 comments:
Someone really ought to tell my "favorite" floorperson what great personnel he has down there ;)
To be fair, he did inherit most of them, but still...
So even after it's been checked around you want to give players the opportunity to misread the board and muck their winnings hands? Sorry but that seems a little petty to me. It's one thing to move all in and try to get them to fold, but after action had ended everybody has the same hand and is entitled to their share of the pot. So technically the dealer was probably wrong to make the comments he did, but I think you come off looking like an angle shooter in this post, which is unfortunate because I know you're not one and I've always admired the way you seem to conduct yourself.
Yes, players must be given the opportunity to misread the board and muck their winning hands, as you put it. Reading the board and making a decision whether to reveal one's hole cards or just muck them is just as much a strategic/tactical decision as whether and how much to bet. At least 3 times that I know of, I have mucked the winner (or what would have been my share of a split pot) because I misread the board and mistakenly thought my hand was no good, and mucked it, only to realize my error a few seconds later. Too bad for me.
If a player just always turns his hand face up, he will never risk this bad outcome (except for the rare occasion that the dealer and everybody else misses something). But if a player chooses to selectively muck or reveal, so as to prevent other players from seeing what cards he held, he has to be allowed to take that risk. The dealer absolutely cannot expose a player's cards for him if he chooses to muck (in a cash game, anyway). The dealer can't even tell him that he has to show his hand. And the dealer certainly can't prevent a player from making a mistake of reading the board.
It may sound petty, but players each acting for themselves and being allowed to make mistakes is an intrinsic part of the game.
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