Chips missing after tournament break

[Jan]

Played a live tournament a few weeks ago and came back after the 2nd break and chip-up to find I had less chips than before I left.

Before the break I had T33000 - I counted 3 times to make certain because the blinds were getting steep compared to my stack, even double-checked w/the dealer on what the next blind structure would be, 1000/2000/no antes, and called my son who had busted out an hour ago and was elsewhere in the casino to let him know I was short stacked and might be out soon.

That's how SURE I was of the # of chips I had.

Left the table for 5 minutes, came back and knew immediately I was shorted. Did a count and I only had T24500!!!!

I immediately called the tournament director over who said we'll figure it out at the end!!! What??? Then the guy next to me said he was shorted T5000, the tournament director started laughing and said now everyone was going to jump on the bandwagon.

The tournament director actually laughed again, and then told the dealer to go ahead and start dealing!!!

I complained some more, so he finally said he would count the chips,came back 10 minutes later and said he came back with the same amount they brought out for the chip up.

He told me he would have surveillance check the tape,and then 20 minutes later I AGAIN had to call him over and he said the tape didn't show anything. The fact that I had to call him over makes me wonder if anyone really checked the tape.

Anyway, how would this situation normally be handled? If I hadn't counted my chips 3 times, I probably would have assumed I miscounted, but I didn't miscount 3 times. I also didn't like that they just went ahead with the tournament and did not take me seriously,it seemed.

Also, someone suggested to me in the future to have the dealer sign a piece of paper saying how many chips you have before leaving the table for a break.

What does everyone think?


Jan