Be Careful In Casinos that are out in the middle of nowhere

I just recently went to one of the new casinos that opened up out in the mountains of PA. I showed up and there was only 1 table with players out of over 10 tables that were empty.

I sat down with $200. I folded every hand but 2 out of 45 dealt hands. The only other one was pocket queens and i just called $2 and folded as soon as an ace was on the flop.

On the 46th hand I got pocket queens again. This time I raised to $20 and got one caller. Flop came Number, Number, Jack, the other player bet $15 and I raised $165.

The other player had Jack, Queen and I had Pocket Queens.

The other player took a very long time to call and was looking all over the room and even started asking the dealer questions that had nothing to do with the hand.

After talking to the dealer for about a minute about questions that didn't have to do with poker he finally called.

This is where something really weird happened,

After the dealer dealt the turn, everyone at the table started talking and the dealer paused before dealing the river.

After a few moment pause he then dealt the only other Jack in the deck on the river.


When he went to flip all of the cards over and combine them with the rest of the deck the bottom card was upside down and there were no mistakes or other burned cards.


When I said something about it the pit boss practically just started laughing in my face and other people started to threaten me.



I asked for video footage of the entire occurrence but they completely denied my request.



All I am saying is that with all these new casinos opening up in the middle of nowhere and out in the mountains just because they are licensed casinos do not expect them to be what you are used to if you go to Vegas Casinos or Licensed casinos that have Billions to risk, where as that Poker Room didn't even pull in a few thousand dollars for that week and are willing to risk more.


Good Luck everyone hope you don't get rangled out there.

First of all,your 3-bet to 165$ was a blunder.(obviously he was a weak player to call you with TPMK),but with what worse hands you expect him to call in that flop...
I suppose he got lucky and you started searching someyone to blame...
Think about that...

I make a point never to go into a "empty" casino or one with just a few peeps in. If I do I never bet/ gamble until the place picks up, if it doesnt after 1/2 hour I leave. As with all casinos you need to be totally aware of who is watching you and how the place feels. Any uncertainty then just walk away. You was unlucky to find this place and I suppose you heard it had just opened and thought you would check it out. Follow my rules and you wont get taken again. Gl in the future

I'm not sure I follow... what was the turn card? Assuming it wasn't a jack, how do you know that the river was the "only other jack" in the deck? Shouldn't there have been two left (one on the board, on in villain's hand, two unaccounted for).

As for the face-up card, do you mean that one of the cards in the deck stub (that was still being held by the dealer during the hand) was face-up?

That's irregular, but not that big of a deal according to the rules:


If I'm reading this right, the face-up card didn't even make it to the top of the deck or affect the outcome?

I'm having a hard time following this. The bottom card of the deck was upside down? Not sure how that would impact play. Just because the player was talking to the dealer while he was trying to decide whether to call or not is irrelevant, but not weird. He may have just been stalling to give himself some time to think. As long as he wasn't asking for advice on the hand, what does it matter? Bad beats are bad beats. Getting upset afterwards that an irrelevant card was upside down and asking to see the video probably didn't win you any friends at the table.

you just got beat by the luck of poker and the farmers at the table on a rainy day.

So a brand new Casino is trying to steal $200 from an average joe seems like a bit of stretch.. I'm sure their risking their casino license to make that kind of money lol

its not the casino that got the $200 pot was 400 + the blinds an any other preflop callers. Casino gets its posted rake an thats it, farmer went fishing an caught a hand sorry to hear bout your luck.

Ya but reading his post it seemed as if he was claiming the player was working for the Casino or something lol

I took it more as dealer was in cahoots but don't see why anyone would jeopardize their job an casino licence for sorry to say pennies

Are you sure you weren't looking at the cut card on the bottom of the deck utilized to keep the bottom card from flashing?

IntenseHeat said:

Are you sure you weren't looking at the cut card on the bottom of the deck utilized to keep the bottom card from flashing?

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Good point.

IntenseHeat said:

Are you sure you weren't looking at the cut card on the bottom of the deck utilized to keep the bottom card from flashing?

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This is the first thing that went through my mind as well. They're (usually) well marked though, and obviously not cards.

I have to agree. They usually are. In fact, they are usually one solid, bright color, like orange or yellow, and not easily mistaken for a playing card.

Does this mean that casinos are "rigged"... just like online poker???



Sorry, couldn't help myself. I'm not a big believer in the "rigged" theory. LOL

BobGrayling said:

Does this mean that casinos are "rigged"... just like online poker???

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Ooo, you beat me to this comment. Dang it!

BiliousBetil said:

Ooo, you beat me to this comment. Dang it!

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Hey, us fly fishermen need to stick together! (I remembered seeing that in a previous thread. LOL)

wow this guy is just warning us to be carfull in unfamilar places and felt something iffy was going on, why cant people on this forum just take things for what is said withought pulling posts apart jeez..

johnny2shoes said:

wow this guy is just warning us to be carfull in unfamilar places and felt something iffy was going on, why cant people on this forum just take things for what is said withought pulling posts apart jeez..

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It's a forum. People are going to respond to your comments with their own comments, observations and opinions. That's the nature of it.

johnny2shoes said:

wow this guy is just warning us to be carfull in unfamilar places and felt something iffy was going on, why cant people on this forum just take things for what is said withought pulling posts apart jeez..

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Call it education.

OP has a valid point, wherever you're playing live (even in a big poker room in Vegas) it pays to look out for anything shady, on the part of the casino or (more likely) the other players.

But it also helps to understand the difference between something that's shady and something that's just an ordinary bad beat that you're reading too much into.

We don't have enough information to know exactly which category OP's case falls into. But going on the information provided, I'd lean towards ordinary bad beat.

Here's a breakdown of all the things mentioned, and whether players should be worried about them or not:

- Players chatting with the dealer during the hand: maybe not the most professional thing in the world, but also not uncommon, and as long as they're not talking about the actual hand in play, it's usually not something to be worried about. OP has specified that the player and dealer weren't talking about the hand in play.

- The pause for a few moments before dealing the river: seems a little odd on the face of it, but I think it all depends what is meant by "a few moments" - do we mean literally two minutes, or more like 10 seconds? If two minutes, then I dunno WTF the dealer was doing other than wasting time that he could have used to deal more hands and make more tips. If it was more like 10 seconds, that might feel like a long time while you're in the hand, but it's pretty standard and not something to be worried about. Dealers will often take a second or two extra to make sure that everything is correct before proceeding to the next stage of the hand. He may have been mentally calculating rake or double checking there was nobody else to act or something.

- Having a face-up card in the deck stub: I'm still not 100% on what happened here and where exactly the face up card was. If it was face up in the deck though then the rule I cited above applies, it's treated as a 'meaningless scrap of paper' and the hand is effectively played with a 51-card deck. Face up (or "boxed") cards are uncommon but not unheard of, so the fact there was one isn't proof of any wrongdoing or conspiracy.

I'm assuming the face up card wasn't one that would have affected the hand (the fourth jack, or the fourth queen, for example), otherwise OP would have mentioned it.

- Casino denying player access to the video footage: this is standard. As discussed in the above points, there's no clear suggestion of any wrongdoing, which makes this an ordinary bad beat. No casino in the world will go to the cameras just because you copped a bad beat.

Hmm...how to break this to the wishful thinking people. Anytime you sit at a poker table live or online you are dealing with enchantment. Actual predetermination influencing your fortune. Thankfully for table card tarrot games such as NLH we can quickly figure the unknown influences of the world. Hence, the real reason why there is a Hellmuth and a Moneymaker. As the saying goes...maybe it's not in the cards for you.