What is Harrah's Thinking?

[Blair Rodman]

I think it’s safe to say that the poker boom of the past few years took everyone by surprise. What’s even more surprising to me is that there hasn’t been a 60 Minutes-type piece on the dark side of poker, or an industry-shaking cheating scandal. In my opinion, poker rooms leave themselves exposed to this by not taking extensive precautions to protect the industry. I think much more could be done on the part of management to preserve the integrity of their games. Instead we seem to going in the other direction.

At the Caesars circuit event a dealer made us aware that during the WSOP dealers will be instructed to not do a mini-scramble after every hand. A player will be allowed to ask for a scramble only once with each dealer. This alters a basic dealing procedure that has been in use for many years. These procedures were instituted to standardize dealing rituals and to reduce as much as possible the possibilities of cheating by dealers. Most card rooms instruct dealers to do a mini-scramble after each hand. It can be done in less than 3 seconds. It’s fairly simple for a cheating dealer who can keep a slug of cards that are known to him intact to run up a hand for a compatriot. A proper mini-scramble reduces the possibility of keeping a slug of cards intact for all but the best dealer/mechanics. Harrahs’ procedure just about guarantees that slugs and hands from the previous hand will be intact as the dealers squares the deck for the shuffle. A few false shuffles and a false cut and the con is on, not to mention the advantage for shuffle trackers. If anyone thinks that among the hundreds of dealers at the WSOP there aren’t more than a few capable of making these moves they are very naïve.

What is going on here? Is Harrah’s so short-sighted that they think the few seconds saved by prohibiting the mini-scramble is worth whatever profits that policy might eke out that they’re willing to expose players to even more risks of being cheated than they already are? Do they simply not care? It’s virtually impossible for floor management to police cheating during the zoo that the WSOP has become. The only hope players have is that adherence to long-established dealing procedures will provide some modicum of protection. For Harrah’s to bypass these procedures in the name of profit is typical of their attitude of profit above all else.

BTW, an email expressing this concern was sent to the appropriate person at Harrah’s last week but remains unanswered.

[Dominic]

I'd be very interested in hearing a follow-up to this...

[SossMan]

totally agree.

[52s]

[censored] morons.

OTOH, I predict this stupid, asinine rule to hold intact for all of 10 minutes, if that, before dealers go back to their own routine.

It's a pain in the balls to change dealer routines that you are custom to doing and/or adding new ones that make no sense. For one the "one riffle before putting the cards in the shufflemaster" deal some Harrah's rooms in LV took on. I know dealers that don't bother doing it, because it's useless since the shufflemaster will do the shuffling and only pans to the nits to annoy the dealer about another stupid thing.

Or the 2-7 method TT's been privy of and told me about of putting the discards against the pot in the direction of the players - asinine and ripe for mistakes and a waste of time.

Hell, just right there... the 2-7 will ADD time to the hand, but they want to institute something else even dumber to SUBTRACT time between hands.

No one there's putting 2 and 2 together.

[johnnyrocket]

wow this is amazing to hear this news, thanks for informing everyone, i hope it changes

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
[censored] morons.

OTOH, I predict this stupid, asinine rule to hold intact for all of 10 minutes, if that, before dealers go back to their own routine.

It's a pain in the balls to change dealer routines that you are custom to doing and/or adding new ones that make no sense. For one the "one riffle before putting the cards in the shufflemaster" deal some Harrah's rooms in LV took on. I know dealers that don't bother doing it, because it's useless since the shufflemaster will do the shuffling and only pans to the nits to annoy the dealer about another stupid thing.

Or the 2-7 method TT's been privy of and told me about of putting the discards against the pot in the direction of the players - asinine and ripe for mistakes and a waste of time.

Hell, just right there... the 2-7 will ADD time to the hand, but they want to institute something else even dumber to SUBTRACT time between hands.

No one there's putting 2 and 2 together.

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually believe the new draw dealing procedures we learned about last month will be tossed out within the first week once the high limit players start complaining. If there are enough non-stop complaints about the mini-scramble procedures I hope that Blair's concerns will be addressed.

[Alan Goehring]

Requiring a scramble is a no brainer. I am the last person that wants to slow down the game (I want speed poker), but having a scramble is critical.

I too would like to know what Harrahs was thinking.

[Jack Bando]

[ QUOTE ]
Requiring a scramble is a no brainer. I am the last person that wants to slow down the game (I want speed poker), but having a scramble is critical.

I too would like to know what Harrahs was thinking.

[/ QUOTE ]

My guess is...



>>>>

[shaniac]

How does Harrah's make more money by dealing more hands during a tournament?

Anyway, I recall that skipping the scramble has been a policy at other tournaments, maybe even last year's WSOP. I didn't realize how much of a security risk it was.

[rageotones]

[ QUOTE ]
How does Harrah's make more money by dealing more hands during a tournament?

Anyway, I recall that skipping the scramble has been a policy at other tournaments, maybe even last year's WSOP. I didn't realize how much of a security risk it was.

[/ QUOTE ]

this may seem a simple, but couldn't they just have each new dealer scramble the deck once before their first deal? isn't everyone happy this way?