I guess this is more unusual than funny. Depends on where you were standing or sitting.
A while back I was playing poker during a tournament up in Lake Tahoe. I was doing ok in a modest 10 and 20 limit hold’em game when I heard a disturbance at a nearby table. The table in question was a $40 and $80 limit hold’em game. It seemed that one of the players had left the table to freshen up. A couple of minutes later he was back playing, but seemed to have inhaled several drinks in the meantime. He immediately won a large pot and started playing very aggressively. In a short time, he was up several thousand dollars. Just as he had been pushed another winning pot, the original owner of the seat showed up, totally refreshed and totally perplexed. How come he had been removed from the table during his absence?
Not angry yet, just perplexed. The floor was called and questions were asked. Oops. His chips were still on the table, they just seemed to have grown by several thousand dollars.
The complete story, as compiled by the floor person, was that two different men had left the live game area to take a break, one of which had consumed quite a lot more free refreshment than the other. One had been playing at a $40 and $80 table, the other at a $5 and $10 table. The inebriated player returned first and sat back down at the wrong table and got on a hot streak using another players chips and chair at a much higher level than he had been playing earlier and, in his muddled state, never even noticed.
This is when things got rather loud, I mean really loud. That is when I strolled over. I could not help myself. I had been on the floor in card rooms for years and had even run my own table games division in a Palm Springs casino. Before I stood up to walk over, I had already heard enough to know that this was going to be really fun to watch. I had only heard of this happening once before, in Vegas, and that was with both games of the same limit. This was totally off the charts. Even more interesting was the fact that the floor person looked like a duel rate, (I was right) and totally out of his pay grade. The other players at the table were demanding their money back that had been given to a player who had no legal right even to be seated at the table, and were doing so in chorus, and quite loudly I might add. Boy, I wished a had a picture of the smile on my face at that time. That poor duel rate, he could not even quiet down the players, let alone have time to think up a solution. I already knew what the decision was going to be eventually, that is if it was done correctly, which was not always the case, depending upon who eventually took charge. Just then a real manager walked over, calmed the table down, and heard all of the things he needed to hear in order to make a decision
Before I go any further, how about you be the manager for a second. What would your decision have been? Like I said, this was not a go by the book kind of decision to just rattle off and walk away for something more interesting to take care of. This was almost unique. Take your time. Personally, I think that most of you will not have a clue or will be wrong, but who knows, maybe some of you actually know the game of real live poker, not something that a machine has programmed into it.
Ready?
Manager’s decision: Even though the player did not have a right to be at the table, the chips did. It would have been nice if someone had noticed the change of players, but that had not happened. The new player could just have easily lost chips then won chips. At which time there would have been a lot less yelling, except for the original owner of the chair and what was left of his chips. The basic ruling of most cards rooms is that once a hand of poker is over and a new hand has begun, the past is just that, the past. Live with it. The owner of the chair sat down to play, several thousand dollars richer. The player from the $5 and $10 game was gently escorted out of the card room for the night. Any questions? No? Good, dealer, begin dealing, and the manager left the area.
It felt good to see the right person in the right place. That was almost word for word what I would have said.
Some of you will think otherwise but go read the poster on the wall of a live card room, the 13 rules of the House.
Rule #1 The floor person is always right!
(At the bottom)
Rule # 13 If the floor person is wrong, please reread rule #1.
Have a Happy New Year,
David