[bav]

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There's no reason to flame on a dealer because the house painted a betting line on the table. If you agree with me that painting a "betting" line on the tables means that its a commitment line, you're much better off giving what for to the management team versus a dealer.

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The only thing worse than an enforced betting line seems to be a line on the table which does impact betting, somehow, but which absolutely is NOT a betting line, except sometimes maybe it is.

Last time the "then what's this line for?" argument came up at Caesars it was almost comically bad. Caesars LV has a very bold line on the table. But from day 1 is was not enforced (except in tournaments--different story--they stopped that after a near-rebellion just before their first WSOP circuit a year ago), which is good because the line is actually WAY too close to the players leaving folks in the 1,9,5,6,7 seats too little room. But they call it a "courtesy line" and in the past the description was always something like "put your bets out there so the dealer can reach 'em".

So someone is facing a $20 bet and grabs a stack and counts out 3 stacks of 4*$5 in front of his cards. Ok...in my mind, he's done--he released the chips in front of his cards (but behind the yellow line). But he then goes ahead and pushes the chips over the line so the dealer can reach them, trying to do so with one hand. In the process, one of the stacks slips off and only goes about halfway to the line while the other two stacks go all the way past the line. Then he reaches back and pushes the other stack.

Dealer proclaims "STRING!" and pushes back the last stack. Player will have none of that and calls for the floor. Floor backs the dealer (TOTALLY bogus ruling--sorry CP guys, I loves most of ya but you blew it--if you're going to always come over and say "I have to back my dealer on this one" then why even pretend you're there to give a correct and consistent ruling). In the ensuing debate the line comes up several times and the floor references it. Player points out that line is *NOT* a betting line and should be ignored in this discussion. Floor agrees it is not a betting line but says it's a "courtesy line" and since the chips didn't go over it those that got left behind are not a bet. "What you just described is a betting line." "No, it is absolutely not a betting line." "THEN WHY ARE YOU USING IT AS ONE?" Never got a real answer. A minute later a different floor comes by and the player again asks. Once more, gobbledygook comes out. It's SORT OF a betting line, but really not. But the floor cannot say what it is and gets upset when the player keeps asking for an accurate description of what it is and how it impacts betting--player NEVER gets an explanation.

That's the only time I've ever seen that come up like that. Every time prior the floor woulda ruled the other way and would have not even mentioned the line. It's like someone had a meeting where they said something about doing a better job of using the line and now everybody is confused as to what it is.