borgata shufflers not accurately counting cards

[Chuck Norris]

dealer deals out a hand, sb notices he only has one card. dealer assumes he made a mistake, misdeal. and it so happens his down is over, and he instructs next dealer to count the deck to be sure. next dealer puts the deck in the shufflemaster, shufflemaster says all 52 are there.
we use the deck, the next time the deck goes through, it comes up 52 again. the third time through, it says 51, and we check under the rail (nobody checked earlier because the rail appeared tight and unlikely a card could get under) and theres card #52.
next day, same table, dealer is taking cards out of the machine, and some cards spill a little. it appeared to me that a card fell onto the other deck that the dealer loaded into the machine. i tell him, but he says no (the colors are extremely similar for some reason), they were ok. he deals the hand, whatever. machine says 52 cards for the other deck. he takes out the deck and spreads it to check the backs, and theres a card from the other deck in there.

so, at best, the machines (at least this one), are unreliable. shift said they had one other similar complaint about a different machine.

[soah]

I've seen some machines that repeatedly report that cards are missing when hand counts show 52.

[pfapfap]

Reporting missing cards is common. Machines aren't serviced properly and cards are dirty and sticky. I'll generally try a deck two or three times when it gives a short count, and if it comes up correct one of those times, I'll use it but count the stub.

I had a fun time once a while ago when a deck consistently came up short. I attempted to subtly inform a floorman of this. The wrong floorman. The one who reacts as if it's a personal attack when you inform him of how many seats you have open. Anyway, he loudly talked down to me that the machines get sticky and that the deck was fine. No, really, floorman, I've tried it several times, please check the deck. I TOLD YOU IT'S FINE.

Yeah, so, these days I try a different floorman and simply report that I have a sticky deck and would like a new setup.

But back to the OP, I've never had that situation arise. That's a borked machine.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Bravo for counting the stub. So few dealers these days even know what counting the stub is. Bravo again for checking even tho there's a machine. Shufflers are today's poker dealer's excuse for absolutely never bothering to check for 52 cards ever, no matter what. I have had more than one dealer not even know what counting the stub was.

Shuffler machines do malfunction and do need maintenance. If you cheese on the maintenance you wind up with shufflers that need constant attention, jamming + whatnot. Since shufflers pay for themselves only by making the shuffle faster, they aren't paying for themselves if they aren't maintained + constantly jamming.

I've never heard of a situation like the OP, but I'm not surprised.

Al

[pfapfap]

Our shufflers are a joke. Only every now and again do I see a brush spray it out with compressed air. When I first started I'd see a guy do maintenance on them regularly, but maybe that apsect of the lease expired or something. Combine that with cards that are used too long, and miscounts and jamming are expected on every down. Usually one or two machines will be out of commission all night.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

[ QUOTE ]
Our shufflers are a joke. Only every now and again do I see a brush spray it out with compressed air. When I first started I'd see a guy do maintenance on them regularly, but maybe that apsect of the lease expired or something. Combine that with cards that are used too long, and miscounts and jamming are expected on every down. Usually one or two machines will be out of commission all night.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gee, almost sounds like you work for a harrahs joint, where they stamp out efficiency wherever they find it.

Shuffle machines speed up the WORST dealers by a few hands an hour, my estimate in a previous thread was something like a MAXIMUM of 2 or 3 hands/down. Really fast dealers are not helped very much by shufflers. ANY TIME the dealer spends significant time screwing with the shuffler, the machine is not paying for itself, let alone making the house extra $

Al

[Mr Rick]

At FW this weekend shuffler keeps showing the red light card missing indicator. Dealer asks floor for a new setup because its happening only with one deck, and then only every other time or so.

Floor declines request and instead has a new shuffler brought in and installed. Dealer manually counts "bad" deck and concludes it has 52.

Red light intermittently comes on the new shuffler on the same deck. Floor finally brings new setup (first time I ever thought a new setup was a good idea). Everything is fine after that.

Kudos to dealer who was so fast shuffling the "bad" deck I didn't realize he was doing it for several hands.

[jar]

[ QUOTE ]
Kudos to dealer who was so fast shuffling the "bad" deck I didn't realize he was doing it for several hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is getting rarer at Foxwoods since they've had shufflers for a while now. I've noticed lately that some dealers just sit there staring at the shuffler waiting for it to finish after a quick blind steal. Dealers that do this really slow down shorthanded games.

[hayduke]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Kudos to dealer who was so fast shuffling the "bad" deck I didn't realize he was doing it for several hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is getting rarer at Foxwoods since they've had shufflers for a while now. I've noticed lately that some dealers just sit there staring at the shuffler waiting for it to finish after a quick blind steal. Dealers that do this really slow down shorthanded games.

[/ QUOTE ]

Funny you should mention this. I was playing a wonderful short 4/8 game this weekend. (And for once, the players weren’t screaming to be moved to full tables.)

Unfortunately, this one particular dealer was constantly staring at the shufflemaster after the conclusion of a hand, waiting for it to finish shuffling the other deck. I eventually got frustrated and asked, “why don’t you just shuffle this one by hand?”

He looked at me with a blank expression for a moment, glanced at the machine, then looked back at me and said, “I’m waiting for the machine. It’s faster.”

And to think that I’d resolved to only say nice things about the poor souls who are trapped in the purgatory that is the life of a dealer in the Foxwoods poker room…

[Quadstriker]

[ QUOTE ]
staring at the shuffler waiting for it to finish after a quick blind steal.

[/ QUOTE ]

I absolutely cannot stand this. My gut feeling is that it happens in my room more than I'd like due to the questions I get occasionally when hand shuffling after a blind steal.
"Why are you doing that?" etc.