New Hollywood Casino

[dyehard]

Yesterday I went to the new Hollywood Casino, formerly the Argosy. This is a beautiful casino. It actually rivals some Vegas casinos. Not in size, but in the facility itself. The poker room is one of the best which includes rooms such as Caesars.

The downside is that since they built such a large poker room (41 tables), they had to hire a bunch of new dealers. So, for the most part, the dealers were horrible. Also, service from the cocktail waitresses was slow. Getting your players card swiped was annoying since most dealers didnt know how to do it. The tournament clock was inoperable, and noone knew how to change the tv channels (we were forced to watch outdoor bowling). Hopefully they will get things straightened out soon.

I went there yesterday to enter their new $300 $15k Guarantee Sunday tournament. Starting stack was $8,000, 30 minute blinds, and automatic card shufflers. Good structure to start, however, blinds started at 50/100 and antes started on level 4.

I'll share a contraversial event that involved me. During level 2 I get in a Hu match with a lady who was surprisingly aggressive. I held AdQc. I dont believe the flop or turn helped us much other than 3 diamonds. But, the pot had built up a decent amount as a result od c bets and a small feeler bets. The river comes another diamond to complete my nut flush. After another round of betting there was $4,800 in the pot. The older lady flips AxJd. I flip the Ad and left my other card face down. The dealer starts toshove the chips to the lady and I say "whoa, whoa, whoa. I have the nut flush." The dealer looks over and said oh, and the lady also agreed and helped to push the chips my way. At this point all the cards were mucked and I had stacked all my chips when someone said something about my hand being dead since I didnt show both cards. I'm only half paying attention until I realize that the dealer reconstructing what happened and starts to insinuate that the chips need to be returned to the lady that lost. After it was explained what happened, I acknowledged my error and admitted I didnt know the rule. But, I also said that it is the dealers responsibilty to take control of the table and pay the correct winner. To make a long story short, I argued that I had never seen a case where the dealer took chips out of a players stack once they were mixed, stacked, whatever. I have seen plenty of cases where a player was paid in error, everybody realized it was an error, the dealer and floor acknowledged it was an error, but could not take chips/money back once paid to the player. The only compensation in those cases I've seen is an apology. I had 2 different floor people come over to say that I had to return the chips. My arguement was that there is a reason why we tip dealers and why the house charges a fee for tournaments. This is to compensate the dealers in return of controlling the table and running a clean game. Needless to say I was steamed at myself and the dealer/floor. I was knocked out shortly after when I hit a K high flush vs. boat.

The good news is my buddy who I talked into going, won the tournamnet and cashed in $5300.