Kicked Out of Mandalay Bay: Part I

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

I am a very well behaved poker player. I don't abuse the dealer; I never throw cards nor berate other players after a loss. I rarely drink, rarely get into arguments of any kind, and though I tend to be garrulous, I keep a relatively low profile. I even try to make friends with the poker room managers, dealers and other personnel. I'm a good poker customer. Really, I am!

Even so, during my recent trip to Las Vegas, the shift manager of the Mandalay Bay poker room called security and had me forcibly ejected from the premises.

It was late Tuesday night in Las Vegas - actually about 1:30 AM on Wednesday morning. My friend Jim and I, who had arrived together in Las Vegas for a week of poker play, decided to visit Mandalay Bay after playing at a few other rooms that night. We had heard nice things about the place and decided to check it out personally.

They had two hold 'em games going: a $4/8 limit and a $1/2 blind, $300 maximum buy-in no limit game. There were no seats in the no limit game so we took the two open $4/8 seats.

We bought in and were dealt our hands. My friend picked up and started to read the latest issue of one of the complementary poker magazines stacked up in the poker room. The dealer immediately told him that no reading was allowed at the table. "Not even poker literature" I queried. "Nope. Nothing" said the dealer. "But he's not slowing down the game at all" I added. "It doesn't matter" said the dealer. "We don't allow any reading at the table by anyone of anything".

Jim then hooked up his IPOD - inserting his ear pods. "You can't do that sir" said the dealer. "It's against the rules". "What about a cell phone" I asked. "Can you use a cell phone" "No, no cell phone. In fact, you can't use any electronic devices in the poker room of any kind. It's against the rules" he added.

This all struck me as absurd. Since our arrival in Las Vegas a few days earlier we had played in nearly a dozen poker rooms. Many had players happily sitting at the table listening to music with their IPODS. My friend was one of them. I had read poker magazines, books, and newspapers at all of the rooms I had visited. I had also seen many poker players in many rooms either chatting on the phone right at the table or carrying on their phone conversations slightly away from the table but still in the poker room. I had visited no room with strict enforcement of any of these prohibitions.

Just then, a seat opened up at the no limit table. I took it. I picked up a brochure labeled "Poker Rules" on my way. I wanted to see if they mentioned these petty prohibitions in their written material.

I began leafing through it, hoping that I wouldn't be accused of breaking their rules against reading at the table. There was nothing about reading at the table, listening to an IPOD or using a cell phone. There was, however, something about the rake that I found confusing. So when I sa

t down I asked the dealer some questions about it. The rule brochure said that the rake was 10% to a maximum of $5.00. I asked her about this, since I thought the rake was a maximum of $4.00. She said that it was a maximum of $4.00 but with the jackpot of $1.00 that made it a $5.00 rake. I told her that this didn't make sense to me for a few reasons. For one, I noted that a bad beat or high hand jackpot is not a rake.

I then pointed out, "But this game, this no limit game doesn't have a bad beat jackpot does it" I asked.

"No" she said.

"Then this rule book is incorrect?" I queried.

"No, it's not incorrect" she said. She then said that the rake was the same as in all of the other casinos in Las Vegas.

"That's not correct" I pointed out. "I just played at the Orleans and a few other rooms where the rake is only $3.00".

She got upset at this and told me that if I had any more questions I should talk with the shift manager standing at the podium. So that's what I did.

End of Part I

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