It's hard to believe that it happened to me. But it did. I figure, at the very least, it will be an interesting and cautionary tale for the rest of you. I was visiting Las Vegas on what has become bi-annual poker playing jaunt. My mission was to research the state of 7-Card Stud in the city - something I reported on in two earlier Stud Sense articles. It was also a good excuse to tour many of the more popular poker rooms.
My poker playing buddy Jim and I decided to stop by a South LV Strip Casino, after playing at a couple of other rooms briefly. We had heard some interesting reports and wanted to check out the action for ourselves. We arrived at about 1:00 AM, early Monday morning.
As was my habit, as soon as I was seated in a game (no limit hold 'em as it turned out), I started asking the dealer questions about the room - policies, rules, rake and time charges, etc.
I covered the same territory that I covered with the dozens of dealers in the many other rooms I had visited during my last couple of stays in Las Vegas. Unlike every single one of the fifty or so casinos that I had visited, my questions were not welcomed by the dealer - or, as it turned out, by the shift manager. Perhaps this was because of my reaction to what seemed like a rules against everything. The more questions I asked the more absurd seemed the policies.
There was no reading at the table. This rule was strictly enforced - even poker magazines were forbidden - and even if reading didn't slow the game at all. Similarly, there was no listening to IPODs, no cell phone use, and, just for good measure, no electronic devices of any kind were allowed.
Oh, and just to be thorough, I must mention that the shift manager told me that there was no writing at the table. The dealer got defensive and angry when I asked about the rake and directed me to the shift manager if I wanted to know anything further. I left the table, hoping for a warmer reception. I was out of luck. When I asked about all of the rules and whether I could read them in a manual or rule book I was told that this too was against the rules - no reading the rule book - not even away from the poker table and under the direct supervision of the shift manager! Oh, and making any disparaging remarks about the poker room was also verboten.
I found the policies to be absurd. I cashed out and took an empty seat next to my friend who was still playing. When I told him about my question and answer session he told me that he wasn't surprised because the guy sitting next to him had just been kicked out for "not looking right". He and I agreed that we had never seen a place like this.
Not more than ten seconds later, the shift manager came over to me and asked, sternly, if I would like to speak to him away from the table. Perhaps I should have been more accommodating, but I declined his invitation.
The next thing I knew, two security officers told me that I was to leave the premises. Everyone at the table told them that they had the wrong person - which the person who "didn't look right" had already left as requested. I was just sitting in the same seat.
The security guards looked at the floor manager to see if there had been some mistake. The shift manager made it clear that I was to go - that there had been no mistake. And so I was escorted out - forced to leave for asking too many questions in a room that took its rule book seriously - but wouldn't share it with any of its customers.
I went back in the following day, having made an appointment to speak to the poker room manager about being kicked out of her room. I explained what happened. She said that she and the casino believed in running a tight ship - that customers preferred it that way. She explained away my experience of being kicked out as a misunderstanding - but never apologized for it. She also told me that I was forbidden to report the incident or use her name. I agreed not to use her name. But I refused to follow the one rule that the First Amendment allows me to break.
