Venetian Injustice

For years before online poker, I played cash games in Las Vegas at Bellagio. Since Black Friday, I have added several other cash spots. Aria has now captured a lot of the high stake mixed-game action. The Wynn and the Venetian are both excellent spots for medium to big no-limit hold’em. $2-$5 blind no-limit often has a minimum and maximum buy-in. For those who like to play very deep stack poker, Wynn sets its max at $1500 and Venetian at $1000. Most of the other places in town cap their buy-ins at $500. Both the Wynn and Venetian often have more tourists than pros in their games. All four venues are clean, spacious well run poker rooms, and I recommend them highly both for locals and for visitors. The Station Casinos, especially Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock also offer some good, smaller no-limit games. While it may take longer to get a seat, they do have movie theaters on site. This makes them excellent choices for a poker plus movie evening.

I have always felt that for players in head-up pots it is acceptable to talk and show cards. These are important skills for cash games, and enable expert players to read and even manipulate their opponents. It also entertains those players not in the hand, and when televised it entertains the viewers. Many tournaments partially or completely forbid it, which I think is wrong. There are certain limits on what can be said. Obviously any direct attacks on another player including racial, ethnic, or gender slurs are not permitted and should be punished. In a showdown, you must either remain silent or announce your actual holding. You are not permitted to state flush, when you actually hold four diamonds and a heart. If your mis-declaration of strength causes another player to muck his hand, he should be awarded the pot. A situation recently occurred in a cash game at the Venetian in which a player exceeded the boundary of proper conduct. The floor was called, and made what may have been the technically correct ruling, although a different equally correct ruling could have been made. The ruling produced a gross miscarriage of justice. This was the situation:

On my right was an Asian man, who was clearly an amateur player, call him AA for Asian Amateur. He didn’t understand what a string bet was and was generally passive-loose. An experienced local, EL, sat opposite us in the ten seat, and limped under the gun. AA made a small raise in late position. The flop was A Q 7. EL checked and AA bet about half the pot, and EL called. The turn brought the Q. EL checked, AA bet and EL now raised. AA called. The river was the A. EL looked unhappy and checked. AA bet approximately $100 into a nearly $300. EL said, “You have an ace don’t you?” and exposed his hand, which was K-Q.

So far his behavior has been perfectly allowable and acceptable cash game behavior. Then the volume of his statements increased drastically, and his tone got nastier. Finally he released his hand face up toward the dealer, but not into the muck, and practically shouted, “Three queens are no good now.” The dealer should now have clarified the situation by starting to muck the K-Q. This would have given EL a chance to say he hadn’t actually folded yet. Nothing happened and AA, who clearly thought his opponent had folded, exposed his hand, which was the 7 and another low club. At which point EL snatched his cards back and said, “I’m all-in.” Several of us thought the floor should be called.

The floorman ruled, not necessarily incorrectly, that since EL’s hand was never mucked he was entitled to the pot. Another equally correct ruling would have been that since, EL released his hand toward the dealer, while making a statement that could be construed as a concession, his hand was dead. The actual ruling, technically correct or not, is one of those that give Las Vegas cardrooms a bad name. EL had taken a free shot at AA, and been rewarded for it. Justice was certainly not done. I’m not sure what the WSOP or TDA ruling would have been. It might have depended on which particular director made the ruling. I, however, am quite sure that in most tournaments, even if EL was awarded the pot, he would have been penalized for improper conduct. I have always felt that any set of rules should include some general provisions designed to punish shot-taking and prevent injustice as much as possible. These provisions could and should be invoked by the floorman, whenever it is clear that an injustice was about to occur. ♠

Steve “Zee” Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A — Nice Guy Eddie’s at Houston and Doc Holliday’s at 9th Street — in New York City.