# Poker - complaining to the dealer **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 1, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271 "2013-05-01T23:45:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/1 "2013-05-01T23:45:46Z")
I see this occasionally in videos of top-level poker (WSOP, High Stakes Poker, etc.): player doesn’t like the result of a hand and bitches at the dealer. I’d have said that only someone who knows nothing about the game could act as if he believes the dealer has any influence on the cards. But these are clearly top-level players. So what’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![GreenHell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@GreenHell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenHell)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/2 "2013-05-01T23:55:16Z")
Top players know it isn’t the dealer’s fault. But, they are still human. Their cognitive knowledge that chance dictated the cards that fell doesn’t dispell their emotional need to blame . . . someone! (And not their own strategic decision making either. Don’t be silly.) At most stakes, outright abuse is not tollerated. But, tollerating some degree of whinging is part and parcel of being a dealer. Though, at most stakes, persistent dealing may elicit a response from the dealer. “I just deliver the mail. I don’t write the letters, sir.” “I can only give you the rope, you have to hang yourself.” Are two of my favorites. IAAProfessional Poker Dealer. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/3 "2013-05-01T23:55:21Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > But these are clearly top-level players. So what’s up with that? Top level players are just as superstitious as anybody else. They know the math mostly, and they play to it, but that doesn’t mean they don’t believe in luck. That, and they’re just blowing off steam. If they were really blaming the dealer, you’d see more requests for dealer or deck changes. ---
**Author:** ![GreenHell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@GreenHell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenHell)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/4 "2013-05-02T00:00:21Z")
Johnny Moss was infamous for dealer abuse. Playing in the room he owned once, he fired a dealer. As the dealer was walking for the door, he yelled at him, asking what the Hell he was doing. “Get back here and deal!”. Not all the subsequent hands were to his liking and he ended up firing that dealer a total of four more times that night. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/5 "2013-05-02T00:14:51Z")
If there wasn’t luck involved they’d win every one. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/6 "2013-05-03T05:57:23Z")
It’s not all that way. Sometimes they think you are lucky for them. I once had Puggy Pearson, a notorious skinflint pay me $50 to deal to him and Bob Stupak for a half an hour in a heads up game because he thought I gave him horrible cards. They were playing razz, a variation of 6 card stud where the worst hand wins. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/7 "2013-05-05T01:41:52Z")
**den** -Razz uses 7 cards. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-complaining-to-the-dealer/657271/8 "2013-05-05T02:44:05Z")
As easy as it is to assume top level players are less superstitious, bear in mind they’re also playing for a hell of a lot more money, so their emotions will get the better of them sometimes. I can understand someone being a bit irrational after a bad beat costs them a million clams. The shit I see people pull at $1/$2 NL, though, just pisses me off. I find it hard not to abuse the idiots who blame dealers, or angrily demand BOTH decks at the table be changed, and that sort of silly shit.