Poker Room Rules Casino
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Oct 16, 2017 Most casinos allow at least some forms of cash to be used in poker games. The most common rule is that $100 bills, but no other currency, can be in play. However, a few casinos allow other. The poker room will offer hand sanitizer throughout the poker room, as well as on each table. All high traffic touch points will be sanitized hourly, and poker table rails will be sanitized prior to each new player arriving. Additionally, playing cards and chips will be sanitized regularly. The Poker Room's 24/7 high stakes poker allows players to go “all in, all the time” and includes more than 40 tables offering various games and tournaments of Limit and No Limit Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo and 7-Card Stud. Drinks: The poker bar is opened daily, 24 hours a day. Food: Temporarily closed. The Poker Room's 24/7 high stakes poker allows players to go “all in, all the time” and includes more than 40 tables offering various games and tournaments of Limit and No Limit Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo and 7-Card Stud. Drinks: The poker bar is opened. In a casino, you don't just walk up to a table and sit down. When you enter the poker room you must sign in at the desk. You tell the host what game you are interested in playing. If there is an opening you will be seated immediately.
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Poker rooms around the U.S. are starting to reopen, and many are open already. None of them are business as usual, and we probably won’t see the old normal for quite a while.
All the poker rooms are doing enhanced cleaning of the tables, cards, and chips to reduce the risk of surface transmission. Most are also screening employees and customers for symptoms such as fever and coughs. Most are limiting the number of players at the table, some to 8, 6, 5, and even 4. Some are modifying the poker tables to include physical barriers between players and dealers (usually plexiglass, like the sneeze guards at buffets). Many are requiring staff and players to wear masks, and to engage in regular hand washing or hand sanitizing regimens. And there’s much, much more.
As we move through this process, it is important that we all do our best to keep one another safe. If you want, you can even be selfish, as even selfishness will guide you to the best behavior for everyone. The thing is, if you don’t follow these procedures, for whatever reason, you are increasing the chances of spreading this virus. And if these newly opened poker rooms become hotspots for virus transmission, they will be shut down.
While casinos are an important source of tax revenue for many states and local governments, poker rooms are not as important. If poker rooms are thought to cause spreading of the virus, you can say goodbye to your newly reopened poker room, and goodbye to live poker for a long time. If you selfishly want live poker to be available, then do what you have to do to help make it happen, and to keep it happening.
There have been some changes these last few months. We had been very concerned about surface transmission. In the last week or so, new research suggests surface transmission is actually not that common. As I write this, the leading cause of spread seems to be the microscopic water droplets we all expel when we breath, talk, shout, and sing; and especially when we sneeze or cough. Wearing a mask only appears to help a little in keeping you safe from catching the virus. However, if you happen to be a carrier of the virus, wearing a mask significantly decreases the chance you will infect somebody else. Wearing a mask dramatically decreases the amount of microscopic water droplets that you expel into the room. And with so many of the people who catch this virus being asymptomatic, you can never be sure you are clear. Even if you get tested, and are negative, you could be a contagious carrier just a few days later.
If you’re like me, you hate wearing a mask. It tends to be hot, humid, and uncomfortable. However, when I need to go out, such as to the grocery store, I wear it. Even though it is unlikely I have the virus, I can’t be sure. More importantly, when I’m out in public, I have no idea about anyone else, and the chance that one of them has this virus. Therefore, we all need to behave as if we have it, at least in public. It’s fine to not wear a mask outdoors, as long as you stay apart from others. All this mask-shaming in the media, and by individuals, of someone not wearing a mask outdoors, is stupid. If we don’t stand near one another for more than a brief period while outside, there is no real risk.
But indoors, even with social distancing, it is critical we all wear masks. There is a plethora of good research indicating that social distancing really isn’t enough when inside. If the room is small enough, compared to the number of people, then the microscopic water droplets we are all creating will tend to fill the space, and potentially infect others. In addition to size of space, air flow is also a big factor. In any indoor public space, you should take the new-normal precautions. Wash your hands regularly, and don’t touch your face. Most importantly, wear a mask, and avoid places with other people if they’re not wearing a mask.
There is nothing political about this. You are not on one side of the political spectrum, or the other, because you wear a mask, or refuse to. Yes, your political beliefs might be behind your decision, but that doesn’t mean the same is true for anyone else. The science of this disease indicates that mask-wearing is the best thing we can all do to reduce transmission. Sure, a vaccine would be better. But I can’t do anything about that. Nor can you. But you can do your part by following the current best practice guidelines from the CDC or other scientific and health organizations.
If you want your poker room to stay open, do your part, wear your mask, and follow their safety rules. This will make it more likely that you, the staff, and the other players don’t catch this virus. It will also make it more likely your poker room will remain open. Hard to have fun playing poker if the poker room gets closed. So, do it to be good, do it to be safe, or do it to be selfish, but wear your mask indoors (especially at the poker room)!
Good Luck, Be Safe, and Play Smart!
Greg Raymer is the 2004 World Series of Poker main event champion, winner of numerous major titles, and has more than $7 million in earnings. He recently authored FossilMan’s Winning Tournament Strategies, available from D&B Publishing, Amazon, and other retailers. He is sponsored by Blue Shark Optics, YouStake, and ShareMyPair. To contact Greg please tweet @FossilMan or visit his website.
The current lockdown of society due to the COVID-19 outbreak has brought everything to a screeching halt. This has been particularly hard on the casino industry and, by extension, the poker world. At no other point in history has the gaming industry faced such travails, but it may be even more problematic looking towards the future.
There are going to be changes in our world once lockdowns are ended and people are allowed to attempt to resume their lives. For example, grocery and department stores (which have already been battered by the advent of online shopping) will probably have to have even less stock on hand as they have to expand aisles to allow for people to walk with distance between each other. With this in mind, what will be the future of casinos and, in particular, poker once the coronavirus alerts have lifted.
Eight to a Table
One of the biggest things that will beseen in the future in a poker room are table maxes. From the timeframe of the “pokerboom” in 2003, many poker room managers wanted to jam as many people onto atable as was possible, especially for tournaments. Nine and ten handed tablesbecame the norm as poker room managers looked to maximize the numbers and takeadvantage of the popularity of the game.
After COVID-19, however, this is going to change, whether the poker rooms like it or not. There is going to be more room put between tables – don’t expect to see tables on top of each other, like at the World Series of Poker (whenever that may be this year) in the past. See the photo that accompanies this essay? That is going to be something that disappears. These tables will have probably between 15-20 feet at the minimum between each other in the future, to make sure that people aren’t in close contact with other competitors and, as far as those at their table, that they can maintain a bit more distance than previously.
The number of people at the table will also change. Instead of nine- or ten-handed tables (be it cash games or tournaments), poker rooms will most likely make eight-handed tables the norm. Eight handed tables still allow for strategic play but it will also move the action. It is the perfect balance between the (too many) ten-handed tables and the (too few) six-handed tables, both from the playing aspects of poker and from the health concerns of the players.
One of the side effects of this is thattournament participation may either be reduced or the multiple Day Ones willbecome a staple of tournament poker (not like they weren’t already prevalent).But that’s a discussion for another time…and let’s not even get into EATING atthe table!
More Attention to Cleanliness?
The poker rooms haven’t necessarily been a bastion of cleanliness in the past. Everyone talks about the Rio “crud” that will often be circulated amongst the players, staff and other personnel at the WSOP, and it is a real thing. But poker players themselves aren’t exactly persnickety regarding how clean something is, so it was often overlooked as one of the hazards of going to the poker room.
In the future, poker rooms are going to be much more mindful of cleanliness. Chips, handled by all of the players, will be cleaned more frequently (in fact, it may become a selling point of poker rooms – “chips cleaned weekly using (insert industrial strength disinfectant cleaner) for your protection!”), and the poker rooms themselves may be shut down for short periods of time during a work day to allow for custodial personnel to perform their magic on the rails and other common areas. If you want to go to the extremes, we may also see poker room personnel – table runners, managers, cashiers at the cage – wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) such as rubber gloves, maybe even facial masks, to provide another level of protection to not only the employees but also to the customers.
Yes, Some Poker Rooms May Be Closed
The stark reality is that some poker rooms may be closed once this epidemic ends. Especially if the rooms are made to put more distance between their tables and have fewer players on the felt, this means that smaller rooms – let’s say those with 15 tables or less – aren’t going to be able to put through the traffic that they might have had previously. With fewer tables also could come fewer personnel, pushing some very talented people who work in poker rooms out through no fault of their own.
Then there’s always the scourge of thatabomination called “slot machines.” It has always been a delicate dance in acasino between the slot machines – the automatons that don’t take days off,constantly crank out profit and don’t need to have “breaks” or “vacations” –and the poker rooms, and this will become even more apparent in the very nearfuture. In the past, this dance hasn’t ended well for poker rooms.
Especially after almost two months of closure, many casino operations are going to be looking to maximize their revenues after having the spigot shut off for so long. If it comes down between putting in a few banks of slot machines that takes a skeletal staff to man and maintain versus a poker rooms relatively wide open spaces and personnel that require a pesky paycheck, which one do you think that casinos are going to go for? It has happened before, as anyone who has been around the game for any length of time will tell you.
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There are definitely going to be changes to what is “normal” in everyday life once the coronavirus pandemic has run its course (and just how long that will be is anyone’s guess). This will be even more evident when it comes to casinos and poker rooms in the future. Hopefully all will come out on the other side unaffected, but there is little in the face of reality that would show that everyone will emerge unscathed.