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Gaming Guru
Deal Me In: The weighty power of the pit boss15 February 2013
Let's begin, Steve, with the dealer's error; failure to notice first base's placed wager. There is no need to get into a tizzy here. It happens. Dealers deal 300 hands an hour, six hours a night, five shifts weekly, equating to approximately a half-million hands a year of pitching, counting, and paying and taking. Players and management alike should come to expect an occasional mistake. Note here, full disclosure: My share was probably higher than "occasional." So, Steve, what would be the proper handling of your scenario? The simple answer: whatever their policy was. As long as you are getting consistency among pit bosses within the same casino, operating under the same rules, consider it a fair shake. I do not have a problem with how it was handled. Besides, you could have just as easily gotten a 10 instead of a six. Actually, it would have been more likely as there are 16 10-count cards and only four sixes. Now if I were to play referee, which I have done thousands of times during my 18-year sentence on the inside, I would handle your circumstance in the following manner, based of course, on the casino rules where I was employed. I would have continued the deal out to where all players got their two cards, the reason being that the joints I worked in never backed up the cards. Nor did we use the word "misdeal." We tried to work out a solution, generally to the player's advantage, knowing we would most likely get the courtesy windfall back within the next three hands. So, I would have allowed first base to stay in at her average bet or table minimum, everyone else would be given the opportunity to receive both cards, then they would be given the option of staying in, or calling their hand dead. Solution two would be as you described. Before dealing each player's second card, I would allow an early exit for any player wanting out. I can see myself calling either one, having had that arbitrary freedom to do so. In the future, your legitimate gripe against management shouldn't center on what happened to you, but rather on arbitrariness, with different pit bosses, sometimes even in the same pit, rendering contrary decisions. Calling a particular hand differently confuses casino clientele. That's why most casinos have an inch-thick table games manual with rules and regulations covering every possible situation. Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "A faint heart never filled a flush." — Old Western Saying Recent Articles
Mark Pilarski |
Mark Pilarski |