I was excited, because I just saw Kd, Jh, and I was the Dealer.
I figured that I could increase the pot and knock out some marginal hands or players by raising the maximum $ 3. Little did I know what this would turn into.

The guy to my left folded, then others did their thing around the table.
The dealer gathered together all of the mucked cards, and was preparing to deal the flop.  I looked down at my hand, but suddenly realized that it wasn’t there.
 
Somehow the dealer had mixed me up with the guy to my left who had mucked his cards when I raised, and mucked my cards as well.
I said “Stop” to the dealer, and pointed out that she had mucked my cards, even though my raise was the last in that round of bidding.  (She had also gathered all the chips into the center as well, so I no longer had my chips in front of me either.)
 
I asked her if she could retrieve my cards from the table.  She said that she couldn’t do that after she had mucked the cards.  I offered to either whisper to her or write down what my hand was before she had taken it away, so she could give it back to me.  Surprisingly, she couldn’t do that either.
She was prepared to deal out the flop when I stopped her again.  I told her that if she put out the flop, I most likely wouldn’t get my Blind & Raise back either.  I asked her to call over the Pit Boss.  I explained the whole scenario to him, and told him:  “You can have my cards, or you can have my money, but I’ll be darned if I’ll let you have both.”   FWIW, I told the Pit Boss that this was an understandable mistake due to the guy next to me folding, and I didn’t want to get the dealer in trouble.
He directed the dealer to return my Blind & Raise, and apologized for any inconvenience.
 
Luckily after all of that, the rest of the cards didn’t contain either a Jack or a King, otherwise I might have been a little miffed.
 
I can bet you that I’ve kept a better eye on my cards from then on.  That’s also why it never hurts to have a little card protector.
 
From this I’ve realized that unless you’re in Timed Tournament Play, there isn’t a reason in the world to NOT stop the action to make sure that your issue is resolved prior to moving on.
 
Just be firm, but as polite as possible.  Dealers and other players are human, and occasional mistakes inevitably will occur.  However, the purpose of a Pit Boss is precisely to make sure that Casino Policy is followed.  Unless you’re in a horrible place, chances are that Casino Policy is to make the Customer happy.  (With the caveat that it be within reason.  Therefore, be Reasonable in your demands and with your issues.)
Because there’s a difference between standing up for your rights on a genuine, provable issue, and treating every transaction as if someone is trying to cheat you.  Just take your time to verify any amounts from a transaction before moving away or onto the next task.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 12:05 am and is filed under POKERprimaDIVAS Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.