[PokerBob]

[ QUOTE ]



However, tonight I saw something that was not reasonable. A player was on the phone. He was up and away from the table (like he is supposed to be), reading an email or text or doing something with his phone. He was dealt a hand. He then placed his phone down on one of those small drink tables behind him. It was still open, but several feet behind him and obviously of no use to him or anyone else. The dealer said "Your hand will be dead unless you close the phone." (Or something to that effect.) This is completely absurd. The phone may as well have been 3 miles away. Are we really going to be militant to the point of being utterly irrational? It looks like we are.


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I should qualify this by saying that another dealer mentioned that he could be suspended if someone is caught using a phone at the table during his down.

So, either one of 2 things were going on in the above situation.

(1) The dealer in question is just an overzealous prick without an ounce of common sense.

(2) The higher-ups have horrified the dealers with threats of suspension/reprimand/demotion, etc. so much so that now dealers are hyper paranoid and thus totally irrational to the point that an open phone on a drink table 5 feet away elicits a "close that phone behind you or your hand is dead" response. Either way, this reflects badly on Canterbury and makes playing there feel like living in a police state where no one trusts anyone.

My suspicion is that in this particular phone case it was more (1) than (2), as this dealer tends to be a bit of a stiff.

That said, I do know that the aforementioned floor person tends to be a complete hard-ass when it comes to the phone situation. Not merely enforcing the rule, but going out of their way to "stake out" tables and individuals (dealers mostly, as they are the ones who suffer most from this stupid rule) in an effort to bust them. On several occasions I have seen this individual attempting to stealthily observe someone who may or may not be reaching for a phone. It is comical. If you want to be sneaky, you sure as hell better make sure no one can see what you're up to, otherwise you just look like an idiot who is going out of their way to bust the very people you should be trying to make happy. It's ludicrous.