Harrah's CHEATS at Poker
Dateline: Sat. Sept. 22, 2007 1:45 p.m.
Locale: Harrah's New Orleans
Game: 1-2 No Limit Texas Hold Em
10 players. Stacks $100 - $3,000 Median stack $450
All numbers approx.
Player A is All IN on the flop with a stone cold bluff.
Player B calls with a SET of Queens and turns them up.
Player A does not face his cards.
Pot size is over $2,700
Turn and River cards are random rags that are mutual blanks.
Player A mucks his cards, stating (sic) "Didn't make my flush."
Player C (seated besides Player B) shouts "He has a flush."
(How he knows this is unknown.)
Note: by this time the mucked cards had been added to the discards by the dealer.
The dealer then (unbelievably) TURNS OVER the top two cards and notes that there is NO flush.
The Poker Room Supervisor weighs in, turns the discards over (!) rummages through and pulls out a seemingly random card to complete the flush, and announces "FLUSH."
At this point some of the players have "dummied up". Player B appears confused and (understandably) chooses to be silent. Some players are now actually yelling about the situation (as the player and the dealer both had mucked the cards.) "The Hand is Dead" is being echoed by more than one player (kibitzers too) as all action in the cavernous, poorly lit, noisy, (32 table) Poker Room freezes solid - all eyes and ears are on the bizarre situation.
The Supervisor responds to the semi-riotous scene by agreeing to call the "State Police" and "Check the video." He uses a cell phone. NO Gaming Agent appears and in a twinkling the claim is made that "Player A's cards were not mucked because they did not both actually go into the muck as one of them was not quite touching the muck." The indisputable FACT that the dealer had further completed the mucking process was NOT addressed!
The unanimous consensus of the witnesses was that Player A is a local / daily player. Player B is a tourist who had approx. 15 mins. to leave for the airport (She was on my flight.) As such, what had transpired was what is known in prizefighting circles as a "Hometown Decision."
The victimized player felt that racism and sexism were also "stinkin' up the joint."
Ironically, earlier in the day I was in a French Quarter bookstore that displayed an impressive stack of "All the Kings Men", (twice a motion picture), about the endemic corruption (in extremis) in Louisiana.
"The moral of this story. The moral of this song. Is simply that one should never be where one does not belong." (Bob Dylan")
My spouse quipped "With a Trooper in your pocket the Joker Plays"
I responded - Huey Long grins from the grave."
FOOTNOTE: Harrah's New Orleans' dealers are the slowest and sloppiest that I have ever experienced in a legal cardroom. The time charges were $6 per 30 mins. plus $1 jackpot rakes. Draw your own conclusions. There are many reasons that Harrahs Entertainment has been branded "The Evil Empire" by advantage players. Yesterday one more was added.
