Hold a fish to the rules or let it go?

[Scarmiglio]

4/8 at commerce. I'm at a good action table and running well. A player sits to my left and it's obvious that he's newish to casino poker. My first indicator of that was that he didn't really understand the posting behind the button rules and had to have them explained by the dealer. Anyway, the player burned through his first rack in about 20 minutes. He pulls out a $50 bill and rebuys, but asks the chip runner for $30 in chips. He takes his $20 in change and puts it on the table behind his chips. Shortly after that I get in a pot with him. I turned a flush and bet it all the way. On the river, the fish has only 2 chips left to call, but still has the $20 bill on the table. He throws the 2 chips in the pot and says "all-in". I informed him that he was not all in as he had money on the table. He got upset and asked the dealer. The dealer called a floorman who told him that as he had money on the table he had to pay $8 to call. The guy makes the call and mucks when he sees my flush, but was very upset and berated me for being "greedy" etc...

Personally I can't stand players who buy in short because I want to get payed off when I hit a hand, however this guy was an obvious casual player looking to kill some time. That being said, he was going to lose his money and I figured I may as well take it. Should I have let this go or would you all want the full bet also?

[psandman]

Here's the thing. I'm the dealer you don't get a choice. I see the money and it plays. And this is the case if he had the stone cold nuts as well, so you would have had to pay the money if you lost.

[Frond]

I believe that at Commerce any cash on the table in front of a player plays. Not greedy at all IMO by you.

Ni Han

[pfapfap]

You saw what happened with the chip runner, why didn't you inform the person that he should take the $20 off the table? Why didn't the dealer? Have some respect for yourself and your fellow players.

BTW, the word is "paid".

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I'm surprised that $20 bills play as cash on the table. Cash on the table is bad for the game, here's yet another example of why.

In all honesty it's 6 of one half dozen of the other here. The presence or absence of one fish at commerce in a 4-8 game won't change much.

Al

[TheBad]

Do whatever you can to make the fish feel comfortable when loosing his money to you. You win 8$ but you may loose a lot more...

[jeffnc]

You're in a tough spot here. I )(*&!@#! hate dealers that don't do their jobs. You didn't need to be the bad guy here, the dealer did. The dealer should have explained to the guy to begin with that his $20 was in play (in fact he should have said it out loud to the whole table.) After that, he should have gently, but quickly and firmly, explained to the player the money was in play.

As for you, I probably would have let it slide if you thought the guy would keep playing. If he left in a huff, then it wasn't really +EV. Sounded like he was setting a stop limit for himself though.

[AngusThermopyle]

Extra money enforcing the rules: $6
Pissed off fish swimming away: Priceless

[Mr Rick]

Dealer should have been the one informing the player. Having said that...

If I sense it is a player who is new to casino play, I would have cut him some slack and just told him he has to remove the $20 from the table or otherwise it is in play. Of course, if it happens again, the $ is fair game.

If I have any doubt whatsoever that it is an angleshot, I insist on the money being in play.

I do the above regardless of the strength/weakness of my hand.

[psandman]

[ QUOTE ]
You saw what happened with the chip runner, why didn't you inform the person that he should take the $20 off the table? Why didn't the dealer? Have some respect for yourself and your fellow players.

BTW, the word is "paid".

[/ QUOTE ]

presumably the minimum buy-in to this game is $40, so one might reasonably believe that the player was buying in for the whole $50 but wanted only $30 chips. I see this weird behavior frequently.