Question of the Day - 13 December 2008

We posed the question to Arnie, who responded below. (We'd also like to note that Arnie goes in for a serious medical procedure on Monday, so we take this opportunity to wish him a positive outcome and a speedy recovery.)

With pleasure. Back in the day (and sometimes still today), the dealers attempted to irritate the stiffs. Then, on break in the employee dining room, they bragged about it, which is where I heard these stories. Here are a few of my favorites.

A dealer might:

• make disparaging comments about how the stiff played his hand to embarrass him
• tell the other players that had the stiff played his hand correctly, the dealer would have busted and everyone would have won
• pitch a stiff's card off the table, so he had to get up and retrieve the card(s) from the floor, or actually hit the stiff with the cards, or skip over the him by "forgetting" to deal to him
• knock a stiff's drink, so it spilled onto his lap. This is an advanced move; it takes a lot of finesse to make it look like an accident
• whack a stiff on a crap table with the stick -- again, by "accident"
• take one of the checks from the stiff's winning payoff and asking, "One for the boys, sir?"
• create a misdeal if the stiff gets a good hand. (This is done by purposely dealing the house too many cards, dropping the deck, knocking the shoe off the table, etc. Such actions render all hands and wagers dead.)
• warn the cocktail waitress that a player doesn't tip, so she avoids him or "forgets" his drink if he orders one
• run over the stiff by pressuring him to hurry up and make a decision as to hit, double, or stand. (This is highly unnerving and makes a player feel like there's a spotlight on him.)
• tell disgusting jokes that semi-refer to the stiff's name, tie, shirt, hair style, etc.
• drop-cut payoffs and short the player
• make calls such as, "Another natural for the non-tipper."
• place the table's one ashtray in front of the stiff so that he was bombarded with smoke
• request a "color change," which is code for the floor to replace the cards in play. (This slows the game down to a crawl.)
• (and finally, for my favorite), tell the stiff how to play each and every hand (incorrectly, of course)

More feedback: "When I was working as a 'change guy' in Lake Tahoe (back when coins were still used, obviously) I used to get really annoyed when I was surrounded by patrons, yet others would yell and waive their money in the air so I could take them change without them leaving their machine. So I would drag my feet on the carpet on the way over to them and give them a pretty good jolt of electricity when they handed me their money :)" Thanks to the reader who sent in the following: "Just an add-on for stiffs. A crap dealer friend called it 'whip and chill' -- moving the game so fast to rattle the stiff so that he can't make a bet."