Taking the Heat

Which of these statements comes closest to your idea of the attitude that should be taken by cardroom employees:

1. Employees should never be confrontational with customers.

2. Employees should take the initiative in settling problems, rather than waiting for complaints.

It is not always easy to choose between hypothetical platitudes, so let me give you a specific situation. You are a floorperson on day shift and the room is starting to fill up. There are games going, but still a number of empty tables. A couple of players on the waiting list plop into seats at the edge of an empty table next to another table that has a game in progress. They immediately strike up a loud and animated conversation with each other. One of the players in the game glances behind him, but it is not clear whether this is from annoyance or simply to see who is sitting there talking. Nobody complains. Would you ask the players to move a little farther away from the game, or wait for someone in that game to complain about it?

I think many floorpeople would pretend to ignore the situation, doing nothing unless a player in the game spoke up. If the people are asked to move, they might be a little perturbed about it. The general attitude of the cardroom staff is, "Why make waves?"

In the brief period of time that I worked as a floorman, my way of handling this situation was to be as polite as possible, but take the initiative myself by asking the talkers to move farther away from the game. The reason I did this was because when I am playing, this is the way I like this type of situation to be handled. If I, a player, have to complain about the situation, I might be the one to get into a beef with one of the talkers. To put it bluntly, I think it is part of the employee's job to take the heat himself.

Here is another situation in the same vein: You are a dealer who has just come into a hold'em game, and one of the players has his chips stacked in the form of a reef that protrudes into the pot. When you deal the cards, the player with the reef uses those chips to conceal his hand from the players who act behind him. Do you speak up now or wait for a complaint from someone? If you guessed that my answer is that you should say something immediately, you're right. This situation is bad for the game and should be rectified. The player who is concealing his hand is likely to take offense no matter whether it is the dealer or a player who says something to him. The dealer should be the one to take the heat. He is going to be in the box for only 20 minutes or a half-hour. A player who raises the issue may be gambling with the offender all day, and a tiff between players is bad for the game. In my opinion, it would be wrong for the dealer to let the situation go on until someone complains about it.

If you work in a cardroom, you know - or should know - how things are supposed to be in a poker environment. When something comes along that is damaging to that environment, it is your responsibility to take some initiative in doing something about it. If you abdicate your responsibility, one of two things will happen: either the situation will not get rectified or one of the players will have to lodge a complaint about another player. Either of these alternatives is worse than your being brave enough to take the heat yourself. Frankly, it is part of your job.

Many of these unpleasant situations could be minimized or even entirely prevented if they were handled properly early on. Here's an example: It's late morning and the cardroom is preparing to spread a new hold'em game. Before the players take their seats, it would be wise to place the seats around the table precisely where they belong. It is far easier to reposition an empty chair than a full one. But nobody takes the trouble to do this. Opportunity No. 1 has been missed.

Now, the players take their seats. Burly Ben, who is waiting for a stud game seat, decides to play some hold'em while he's waiting. He parks his hindquarters in the No. 3 seat, but puts the chair on the very end of the table, as if he were in the No. 2 seat, his favorite outpost in a stud game. I'm down at the other end of the table in the No. 8 seat, which in our 10-handed game is properly sharing the end of the table with the No. 9 seat. The dealer puts the cards in the air and we start playing seven-handed. There is a player in the No. 1 seat and the No. 4 seat, but of course nobody in the No. 2 seat, as he would have to be as thin as a rail just to be able to breathe. The dealer is scarcely in a position to ask Ben to move, since this would be squeezing the player on his left a little, and everyone has enough room at present.

A little while later, some small guy dressed in a suit whom I have never seen before wedges his way into the No. 2 seat. This is the moment to ask Ben to move over. But there is nobody seeing the new player into his place at the table, and the dealer, who has an obligation to make sure everybody at the table is comfortable, has his mind only on the fact that he will be getting off work in a few minutes, and says nothing. Opportunity No. 2 has been missed.

Although the new player is a little squirt, he is really crammed into what is supposed to be his area. I am not bold enough to bluntly tell Ben to move over, but I do my best to alleviate the situation. I see that our half of the table has a centimeter more space than the other half, so I say to the dealer, "Dealer, would you please square up the table a little?" This would give him a chance to ask Ben to move to his left and give the new guy some room. Instead, the clod in the box says to me, "Looks like you got enough space." I reply, "Yeah, I do, but I don't think everyone else does," but nothing happens. The dealer shoots me a glaring look, as if to say, "So, why are you complaining?" Opportunity No. 3 has been missed.

As expected, the new guy proves to be totally clueless. Ben gets called for his stud game, but sees that our hold'em game has a much easier lineup, and says, "Roll me" to the list person. The new player, who had bought in for a rack of red, rapidly runs out of ammunition. When he has called off all of his chips, he gets up from the table instead of rebuying. In my opinion, not having enough room at the table to be comfortable played a major role in his decision to quit, although there is no way to be sure about this. At any rate, the game is no longer as good as it was, and Ben takes a seat in the stud game when he is called the next time. Meanwhile, the damage to our game has been done.

The meek person who fails to speak up is often the player who is driven off when cardroom employees fail to take the initiative in ensuring a pleasant environment for a poker game. And it is often the case that Mr. or Ms. Meekness is equally unassertive in poker style and a highly desirable person to gamble with. So, you know who gets hurt the most by the poker staff failing to do its job: you and I.

Editor's note: Bob Ciaffone's new book Middle Limit Holdem Poker, co-authored with Jim Brier, is available now (332 pages, $25 plus $6 shipping and handling). This work and his other poker books, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker, can be ordered through Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons. E-mail thecoach@chartermi.net or call (989) 792-0884. His website is www.diamondcs.net/~thecoach, where you can download Robert's Rules of Poker for free.

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