The Showboat in AC The good, the bad and the UGLY!

[Jan]

The Good: Small tournament in a small poker room, start with T10000,20 minute rounds, no antes, so plenty of play time. Went with my son and brother-in-law who were both 1st time B&M tournament players, so the $65 fee was perfect for them. Only drawback was only $53 went to the prize pool and $12 to the house.

The Bad:The staff completely ignored us when we entered the poker room. They saw us standing by the desk looking like we needed help for over 5 minutes and still ignored us. Finally, we had to ask for help, we applied for a poker card and despite us telling them we wanted to register for the tournament (and we were OBVIOUSLY new to the Showboat),they never once directed us to where to register, which was right at the cage. AGAIN,we had to ask them, they NEVER offered help.

The UGLY: At the 2nd break, I counted my chips 3 TIMES and got a count of T33000. I specifically asked the dealer what the next blind level was so I would know what type of shape I was in.

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.

How should this have been 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.

Anyway, despite the nice tournament structure I will NEVER play at the Showboat again. their staff is horrible and they don't care if you get ripped off!

Jan