Was looking for a general live club feedback thread to post this in, but can't find it.
Maybe worth its own discussion though.
My question to DTD was:
Would DTD consider trying to do something to reduce the impact of tablet/mobile device use at the table?
Personally, I've never understood why someone would make the effort to travel to a live poker venue, only to whack their headphones in and watch a film while they play. Apart from the obvious disadvantage you put yourself at in terms of missed information about your opponents, you are also missing out on a large part of the live playing experience,
ie the human interaction.
That said, if it's not affecting the game, please your antisocial self, but it frequently DOES affect the flow of the game. Last night I was playing at DTD and several of the dealers were having to repeatedly prompt the same players for heir blinds and antes, repeat clear betting information opponents had made and prompt for action. One lad ignored three attempts by the dealer to put his BB in, then asked for the free wifi code. I snapped at him "he's not telling you till you put your bloody blind and ante in" which he did, but then went straight back into his shell and had to be prompted for his SB next hand.
I would like a dealer who has to repeatedly prompt a player for action due to the distraction of a screen to call for the Floor who would ask the player to turn it off and concentrate on the game.
You could just turn the wifi off
You realise that often people are just horrible and obnoxious to deal with?
What you request, is how it should be. It is the same with calling the clock. You make a request to the dealer, the dealer is trained and discerns whether your request is reasonable, if it is they call the floor and pass it up the chain. The floor asks the dealer if adequate time has passed, if yes, warning and clock implemented by the floor. On we go. If the floor has to keep returning, warnings are issued and on the game goes.
if you have a problem with the pace of the game, make it known to the dealer, if you feel the dealer isn't doing enough, ask the dealer to call the floor and walk slightly away from the table bring up your concerns with the floor and let them do their job. The fact is DTD is one of the very few places where you will get a good enough level of staffing for this approach to actually work. In many other places they don't even understand how the process of calling the clock should work, so you have little chance with other issues.