A question for you......

[tikay]

Sometimes, I wonder why it's not called rare sense.

You are not wrong. Give me common-sense over intelligence any day. Luckily for me.

[RED-DOG]

My thoughts.

The dealer should not count the chips when it is an all in bet unless asked, simply because, especially toward latter stages of the tournament, it slows the game down so much.

At this stage, it's not uncommon for someone or other to move all in every 3 or 4 hands, and I have seen players holding their cards in the 'I'm passing' position, obviously not interested in calling, but waiting for the dealer to finish counting.

If the player wants a count, all he has to do is ask. Let's keep the game flowing.

 

[thetank]

Interesting, prevention of slowing down the game has used for both sides of this argument now.

[AndrewT]

Tsk, RED-DOG, you have to wander in with your common sense, your new insight which everyone else had overlooked and your sensible suggestion. Why can't you let us bicker in peace?

OK, new idea. All players should announce the size of their bets. In order to facilitate this, there should be more colouring up of chips, so that players don't have huge walls of chips in front of them. A player shouldn't really ever need more than, say 50 chips in front of them, if they're of the correct denominations.

EDIT: Actually, scrap that, I've just thought of three separate reasons why that wouldn't work.

[Swordpoker]

The is a very similar situation with fencing.

The referee is not allowed to 'voluntarily' tell the fencers how much time there is left for the fight. The fencers can ask the referee for the time whenever they like and the ref must tell them. But to tell the fencers the time left when no one has asked would be giving an advantage to whoever is losing and is therefore not impartial.

So, how important is it for the dealer to be impartial?

[ItsMrAlex2u]

I had a similar incident occur to me in vegas during a tourn in the bellagio but it wasnt the dealer who announced my all in amount. I pushed my chips in, in neat piles and the guy dwelt for ages and I swear he was going to muck, he was looking at his cards for a second long stare, eventually a player on the other side of the table said "its only xxx to you, you have pot odds". The guy called and put me out, I swear to god i could have smacked matey boy big mouth. What could I do at that point though? It is a 95% certainty that mateyboy piping up cost me my place in the tourn.  I made my feelings perfectlly clear but it didnt make me feel any better. I was furious. It was an obvious call and i cant believe he was thinking for so long but that is not the point.

[thetank]

The is a very similar situation with fencing.

The referee is not allowed to 'voluntarily' tell the fencers how much time there is left for the fight. The fencers can ask the referee for the time whenever they like and the ref must tell them. But to tell the fencers the time left when no one has asked would be giving an advantage to whoever is losing and is therefore not impartial.

So, how important is it for the dealer to be impartial?

There's no bias though, if hes doing the same thing all the time for all players.

Like if the ref in fencing were to always announce the time remaining every 30 seconds regardless, there would be no bias.

[tikay]

The is a very similar situation with fencing.

The referee is not allowed to 'voluntarily' tell the fencers how much time there is left for the fight. The fencers can ask the referee for the time whenever they like and the ref must tell them. But to tell the fencers the time left when no one has asked would be giving an advantage to whoever is losing and is therefore not impartial.

So, how important is it for the dealer to be impartial?

There's no bias though, if hes doing the same thing all the time for all players.

Like if the ref in fencing were to always announce the time remaining every 30 seconds regardless, there would be no bias.

Correct! But as it appears we have no such rule, inconsistencies, such as the hypothetical one I mentioned, will occur.

[Karabiner]

Okay, how about dealers who announce the suits of the cards on the flop ?

Personally I don't like that either.

[RED-DOG]

Okay, how about dealers who announce the suits of the cards on the flop ?

Personally I don't like that either.

Nor do I, but my biggest pet hate is the dealers who look at the cards before they show them to the players 

[ariston]

Ive only read the original post and not seen anybody elses oppinion on this but for me the dealer should deal the cards and do nothing else unless they are asked to do so. If you push allin on the bigblind and he autofolds his junk when in effect he should be calling with any 2 because of how little much else it is to call then thats his problem. I remember in 2002 when Julian Gardner pushed allin on day 2 of the wsop for what was a miniscule extra ammount of chips (raise reraise rereraise type situation on a paired flop) and his opponent folded then realised he only had to call a few extra chips to try and win a huge pot and eliminate Julian (too late was the tournament directors decision as he had already declared fold). julian was in fact bluffing and then went on to win 1.1 million dollars- can you imagine if the dealer had automatically said its only another x to you sir and induced the bloke to call?
The only problem I once had was when a dealer put me on the clock after I had spent a couple of minutes debating wether to bluff the river after being called on the flop and turn and I had missed my draw. I was trying to work out wether I could get it through and how much to stick in to give me the best chance when the dealer said "you got 60 seconds russ", i went mental and mucked my cards and it completely threw my game (this was a £1k buyin event as well). The dealer in question at least had the decency to appologise afterwards and there was no hard feelings after but imo dealers are there to do their jobs and let us do ours- interfearing with our jobs is not and should not be in their remit. They have a very hard job to do but they get paid to do it, if we cock up we are not getting paid so I personally think the best dealers are the ones who do their jobs effectively and quietly ( if they are easy on the eye  then even better ).

[dik9]

The dealer called the clock?

Off their own bat? or at a request from player or TD?

[ariston]

off his own bat. He decided I had enough time to act and no player had said a word. Long time ago now and am friendly with the dealer but i was not impressed at the time.

[londonpokergirl]

Okay, how about dealers who announce the suits of the cards on the flop ?

Personally I don't like that either.

That shouldn't happen, they can announce what cards they are
ie Ace, Queen, King etc

Responsibility of the player to see what cards are in front of them.  If a dealer did that i'd pull them up for that, it can lead to all sorts of problems including for example saying potential flush draw, a player may have not spotted that before it was said, and jump on that fact.

[ariston]

Incedentally you will not find me chipping at dealers or throwing cards at them as they have a very tricky job to do and that is all they do. Sometimes it feels like a dealer has it in for you but they are only doing their jobs and in many places they are trained poorly and taught how to deal incorrectly. Simple things like leaving people bets in front of them would make their job a lot easier but some casinos insist on making their life as difficult as possible by teaching them badly.