How a Fallsview Poker dealer cost me $750(sick story)

Ah yes, it's always nice to read a heartwarming fairy tale.

Unfortunately, this isn't it. This made me want to commit murder. Something I'm normally very opposed to(murder).

So, let's start at the beginning shall we?

A few friends of mine from Toronto have been staying at Fallsview for a few days now and playing, I went down once earlier this week but nothing really came of it as the session was just a real boring grind. Yesterday and today I was busy moving(packing more specifically), so I didn't go out to meet them again, but after today's trips to look for new places to reside, I got a call inviting me down and I decided to take them up on it.

So I went down and sat at the 2/5 NL game at Fallsview. It's actually a nice game...the buyin is up, although still not where it should be, 300 isnt a TERRIBLE buyin, and the play is relatively tight, I never saw an open raise of more than 4x the BB($20) all night.

So let's get to a few fun hands before the real big one happens.

The first fairly big pot I play is after I've chipped up to around $430, and there are a couple limps to me on the button with JJ. I decide to raise over a bit to try and deny the "mass call" effect you find from raising a standard raise here, so I go to $35, and get 2 callers.

The flop comes Qc/6s/4d. They both check check to me. These are the spots where I really hate c-betting. I know I have position and I know that's not a too terrible flop for my hand, but I still don't like it because any Q will gladly call and inflate the pot. So instead I try and control pot size and check behind. The turn is an interesting enough card. Qh. Now the first of my 2 callers decides he's gonna take a stab, and he bets $20 at the $120 pot. There is also a precisely 0% chance he has me beat. However, the other player flats also, which makes things slightly trickier. I decide to play along and flat also here...hoping to just get to a showdown relatively cheaply. Side note, or maybe something worth clarifying, the player who flatted the turn bet has left himself only $35 more.

River peels a 5. Not a scare card at all since 78 is deffinitely not a range here, at least IMO. The first position player checks, and short stack shoves his last $35. I'm still unsure of what I'm supposed to do here, I mean, the pot odds alone are fairly fantastic with nearly 7 to 1 on my money, but also I just legitimately could not see how he would have a Q and have played it like this. Maybe a boat after flopping a set...but I just couldn't see how a Q checks the flop. So I call and he shows Q/10 of course. I still think this is a must-call, his range is fairly wide I beleive, any 88, 99, 10/10 type hand would surely think he's best. I could see A/6 playing this that way, although the call pre would be suspect it wouldn't be unexpected in this game.

Anyway...

Next hand I play is my big one for the session before rediculous ensues. It folds all the way around to me in the cut-off, this is after a few hours at the table, I had a fairly TAG image, and the table was playing very tight for the most part, so I decided to move in a raise with Ks/6s to 20. I got a caller from the SB. The flop was pretty super-fantastic, 10s/8s/3s. Okay, flopped the 2nd nuts, nice. SB checks and I lead for $25. He check raises me straight, to $50 total. I "tank" at this point, and then 3-bet him to $175 total. He now tanks for a long time, asks how much I have back, which I inform him is around $225, and he sets me all in. I snap call and he, without turning his cards over, goes "I have a 10". I'm still unsure if he had the As to go with it, but it's irrelevant, turn and river bricked and I got shipped up to just over $800 total for the session now.

A while later, basically the same stack, comes the one hand of the session I really regret my play on, and I'll explain why in some detail. 2 limpers including "Chris Ferguson" as me and my buddy started calling him(not because he looked like Chris, anything but actually, we dubbed him this because he took FOREVER to do ANYTHING, at any time at all) from fairly EP, and I peak in the hijack at AA. Yay. I've lost 11 straight pots with AA online or live, gotta win this one! So I bump it up to $30 total, and get 2 callers again. The flop is Qs/Qd/4d. They both check, and I bet $50. Here is where good cash game players are immediately finding why I hate the way I played this hand. I HATE my bet on this flop. There are 0h-so many reasons I hate this bet. My hand has significant showdown value, there are alot of hands I'm still beating, anything without a Q or 44 is still beaten. There are, however, ALOT of hands that like that flop, that also don't contain a Q. Any diamond draw, any pair 55 through KK or AA are fans of that flop, as well as obviously any hand containing a Q enjoying the flop.

If I had it back, I'd check behind. Not intending to fold necessarily, but intending to try and navigate the cheapest way possible to a showdown which is where my hand still contains significant value.

Instead, I fire out a bet. What's worse, it really feels like a c-bet to someone whose alert, which Jesus was for the most part(he should be considering it takes him 9 minutes to do anything). After I fire, I almost immediately regret it, realizing that now what I've done is opened the door for any of those previously mentioned hands, a flush draw, or ESPECIALLY 55 through KK to raise me here and find out where they're at. I literally start to wonder what I'm going to do when he straight raises me to $100 total before he even does it...which he no doubt does do.

Eventually I decide that the reason I hate my play there so much is now I'm handcuffed, and my hand no longer has any real value. I can't call because he'll shove 99% of turns. And raising isn't really an option either, although I suppose a super LAG player could try and explain it, it's just not a solid option to shove here knowing you're now only getting called by 44 and a Q which both crush you badly. So I end up mucking obviously, but not without regretting trapping myself into that.

And now we get to all the real fun. Around this time a table breaks into us, and a few real big stacks come strolling over to our table. This is where a dealer decides she'd like to completely fuck me.

Little backstory for any who don't know me, I am a poker dealer. I understand that mistakes happen and it sucks, but the way this all went down is inexcusible(for one thing she did).

Anyway, she starts dealing the cards, and my first card kind of catches my hand that's just resting on the table, and rides up my arm and flips face up on the table, exposed Kd(that'll be really significant in a minute so keep that card in mind for fun). This is no problem, this happens, it's certainly not her fault, I can deffinitely deal with it. She finishes dealing the hand obeying proper rules when dealing with an exposed card. Then, for some absolutely GODLY unknown reason, she literally reaches across the table to my cards, and like, tries to push them from an inch infront of me, where I currently have ahold of them for gods sakes...the extra inch to me, I guess. I really, for the life of me, do not know what she was doing, but whatever it was. It was bad. Real bad. And it got alot worse when that motion she somehow managed to while PUSHING a card across a table, FLIP it over also exposing it now too. The card? The Ad. Great, I just had my Ad/Kd killed. But it wouldn't actually have been by Ad/Kd because the King was already gone.

The hand is at this point dead, two exposed cards during a deal means it's a misdeal. So I can't help myself because I'm sick. I take a look at the other card that I would have had to go with the Ad.

Wanna guess?

Ac.

At this point, I become, obviously, a little angry. I can stomach any natural mistakes the a dealer makes, because a) I make them too from time to time, and b) I understand they're not always going to be perfect.

But this was rediculous. She had NO business putting her hands on my cards in the situation she did(kind of hard for me to describe) and what's more, it would take someone of extreme talent to actually flip a card over while pushing it flat across a table.

But oh wait. I know what you're saying. How did this mistake cost you $750 dollars Kevin? And how is the Kd really relevent after it flips up? Those alert readers will now have peiced it together. My chipstack for the hand was right around $750. The guy beside me when I flip the other Ace up frustrated at the situation, exposes KK. With a dead Kd on the top of the deck.

Thank you Madame dealer at Fallsview. You suck.

Anyway, the session I ended up around $350. Still, so, so sick about that situation. As I said, if it was at all a natural mistake that'd be fine, but just the way she dealt me both my cards, I HAD MY HANDS ON THEM and then she like, reached out and tried to "help me" push them over towards me and somehow in that process managed to flip a card, is just rediculous and that's not an excusable natural dealer error. That's just flagrant stupidity.