Friday, April 15, 2011

Screw-up

I was playing at the Palms last night. The game was short-handed--just five of us at the time, I think. I was in the big blind. One other player limped in, small blind called, and I checked with 10-6 offsuit.


Flop: 10-6-4. SB led out for $12. I raised to $32. Limper folded. SB moved all in; he had over $400. I called. I had started the hand with a little over $200, maybe $210 or so. SB showed 10-4 for top and bottom pair. My top two pair held up.

As the dealer was counting stacks to give me my double-up, a little conversation started about how the hand wouldn't have happened at all if not for the one limper. The SB and I had already set the precedent of chopping the blinds if it folded to us, and even if either one of us were inclined to vary from that precedent with, say, a jackpot-potential hand, 10-6 and 10-4 weren't going to be the ones to make that happen. I joked with the limper that I probably owed him an assist, or maybe a 10% finder's fee or something.

I got shoved a whole bunch of chips, and took my usual sweet time getting them sorted and stacked the way I like. Another whole hand had passed by before the stacking was done and I realized that I had been shortchanged. The stacks totaled about $375, when I should have had something in the neighborhood of $420.

But it was far too late to do anything about it. I had not counted my stack either before the hand started or when moving all in. Furthermore, despite the fact that I should know better, based on a couple of previous bad experiences in exactly this kind of situation, I didn't pay attention to the dealer's count of the chips.

So I'm out $50 or so on a dealer error--one that probably could have been avoided if I had paid attention to what was going on instead of relaxing and bantering with the other players. Time to sear that reminder back into my brain: PAY ATTENTION when the dealer is counting chips, either to pay you off or to take your chips to pay off another player. They get it wrong often enough that it's worth keeping an eye on their work.



Incidentally, rumors were swirling that the Palms poker room--aptly described by Pokerati as "architecturally challenged"--will soon be moving to a new location, allegedly somewhere in end of the casino near the cafe and Mexican restaurant and entrances to the clubs. In apparently support of this rumor, one half of the room has already been emptied of its tables:





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit confused how this happened in a non-split pot. He had you covered when he shoved, so when you called his bet the dealer should have counted your stack(s) and then counted his stack(s) and given him his change, then raked it all to the center for the turn and river. I don't think your mistake was the banter post-river --most likely the dealer messed up during the countdown of the chips. That the most probable story... That, or the dealer snuck chips out of the pot during the rake or post-river (and that, unfortunately, is not beyond the realm of possibility).

Rakewell said...

As commonly happens, he didn't take time to get the pot right before putting out the turn and river, because if I lost, he would just move my stacks to the other guy without needing to count, since he so obviously had me covered. It was only when I won that he needed to count them down exactly. I don't have any problem with him waiting to see if he needed to do a count when the hand was over.

Anonymous said...

maybe the dealer thought you were serious and took 10% out ($42) and slid it to the limper

though I'm guessing you would have noticed this