Shoving over a neatly-stacked pot: normal practice or bad etiquette?

[Roma Norgy]

I've seen instances where a player requests to move seats and the dealer moves up to 6 neatly stacked stacks of chips across the table for them as a courtesy.

Granted the dealer waited till after the cards for the next hand were dealt to do it...

[lippy]

If a dealer ships me stacks, I knock them over just so that I can stack them back up :-D.

[pokerswami]

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When a dealer ships me stacks, I knock them over just so I can stack them back up :-D.

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FYP
Actually I don't.... I just wanted to do a FYP.

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The only time a dealer will stack a pot and give it to you stacked is in a split pot game.

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Sometimes the chips will come into the middle already stacked such as when a player announces all-in and is called by an opponent, then the stacks are matched up as that is the quickest and best way to make them equal.

[LasVegasMichael]

I also prefer the dealer shipping the pot in messy form. One of the little joys of poker is stacking chips you just won.

[RR]

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then the stacks are matched up as that is the quickest and best way to make them equal.

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Just a quick note on this. I know about 80% of the dealers out there are going to disagree with me, but stacks should not be matched. The dealer should count one and then count the other (well some spots counting one and t hen matching aginst it is ok). The reason these stacks should not be matched is if you knock one over it is a big mess if it gets mixed with the pot or if the two stacks get mixed.

[bav]

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then the stacks are matched up as that is the quickest and best way to make them equal.

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Just a quick note on this. I know about 80% of the dealers out there are going to disagree with me, but stacks should not be matched.

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That is an excellent point. I've seen some mighty awful messes created by matching stacks.

I've seen the dealer and players get TOTALLY confused as to which stacks were which. Dealer has shoved 'em all around and started matching a few and then got the already matched ones confused with the not-yet-matched ones and BOOM...total cluster f that took 15 minutes to deal with because the players didn't know or disagreed as to how much they started with.

And there are the times the dealer is matching things, then jumbles everything together with the main and starts to push forgetting about the side pot, which was actually the one the stacks should have been mixed with. Now you have to try to recreate the betting to figure out how big the main pot was and sort it out.

At the same time, it DOES speed things up if all goes well. So as long as you're a dealer that doesn't make mistakes, go ahead and match. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[redfisher]

I am continuously amazed at the consistent points of excellence of the Harrah's NO dealers amidst some serious individual flaws. I have never seen a HNO dealer match opposing players stacks unless he had complete control of one stack (ie, his/her hand encompasses the stack). They almost always count them out individually and then match up any remaining stacks from the individual players bet against the counted one. They also frequently leave the stacks intact and at least you get your stacks back stacked if you win.

I suppose if you really enjoy stacking chips, you can knock them over on your own.

[pokerswami]

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then the stacks are matched up as that is the quickest and best way to make them equal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just a quick note on this. I know about 80% of the dealers out there are going to disagree with me, but stacks should not be matched. The dealer should count one and then count the other (well some spots counting one and t hen matching aginst it is ok). The reason these stacks should not be matched is if you knock one over it is a big mess if it gets mixed with the pot or if the two stacks get mixed.

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In principal, I agree with you and bav (in his reply to your post). I've seen things get screwed up before, including when it was my fault.

However, when I'm at my wits end with a table half or more full of loud, yelling, yuck it up rowdies, feeling pressed for time, trying to remember the pot size, and trying to stop player etiquette violations, trying to count a stack of chips, remembering that figure and all the above, then trying to count the 2nd stack seems a bit daunting compared to just sliding them over to the other stack.

Something that does make it easier is if the table padding is uniform and the cloth is in great condition.