BORGATA SUCKS

About four years ago I was playing 5-10 no limit hold ‘em at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City when I found myself in a heads-up preflop all-in with one of the Borgata regulars (a guy who played there every day and was dating one of the cocktail waitresses so that made him about as regular as anyone can be). I turned up pocket aces and he had pocket kings. The board ran out and I won and had him covered but the dealer immediately grabbed chips from both of us and started matching stacks of colors. For some reason we had yellow chips at the table which I believe were $20 chips as well as the standard reds, greens and blacks. I yelled for the dealer to just count the other player’s stack but he didn’t do that and pushed all the chips to me except the yellows (which totaled $600) which he pushed to the other guy. Three Chinese players began to animatedly talk in Chinese as I called for the floor supervisor. As he approached, Kevin who was one of the Chinese players pointed at me and said “they just cheated him out of $600.” I explained the problem and the supervisor said that they would review the surveillance tape. Twenty minutes later he came back to the table and said they could not differentiate colors and the tape was inconclusive. I knew that I had been cheated but what could I do except cash out and avoid going back. (As an addendum, that dealer now deals at the Parx Casino and recently apologized and admitted to me that he had screwed up on that day). I very rarely returned to the Borgata, especially after the Parx Casino opened. But during the past couple of months I have really been in a zone in tournament play (having won a $500 entry WPT regional event for $14,000 and then only days later finishing second in the WPT regional main event cashing for more than $45,000). This being the case I decided to play in the Borgata $500+60+200 double black chip bounty tournament. I was pretty card dead for most of the day but scratched and clawed to the 90k chip mark (average stack about 70k) with about 80 of the original 276 players remaining. We had played from 11 A.M. and now at about 6:15 P.M. we were on our last ten minute break before the dinner break. From the loudspeaker the tournament director informed us that we could not stay in our seats but had to take a ten minute break from the private tournament room. I wandered into the main poker room to say hello to a few acquaintances and returned to the tournament room with about a minute left in the break. As I walked into the room I saw another player IN MY SEAT, HOLDING MY CHIPS as he spoke to the dealer and a floor supervisor. As I approached the table the other player stood up quickly and went to his seat. I angrily asked the floor supervisor why the other player was in my seat playing with my chips and he smiled and responded that the player was hitting on the young female dealer. I told him that this was totally wrong and that the Borgata was responsible for protecting my chips and I wanted to complain. He responded that he would talk to the tournament director and at that very moment play began for the next level. Since blinds and antes were high I had no choice but to sit at my seat and play. I counted my stack and instead of approximately 90,000 in chips I had about 75,000. I was distracted and for about ten minutes looked towards the front desk but saw no action. When the same floor supervisor passed my table again I asked him what was going on and he responded “Oh I will go talk to the tournament director now.” I saw him go to the front desk and speak to the tournament director who then sent a replacement dealer to my table and summoned the young female dealer to the front desk where they spoke. In the meantime I was seriously distracted and lost a great deal of chips in one hand that I would not ordinarily have played. Play continued and nobody approached me to explain anything. After about another 30 minutes and severely shortstacked I played a hand and was knocked out of the tournament. I rushed to the front desk and asked the tournament director why nothing had been done about the egregious situation. Frankly his response stunned me. He said that had I reported the problem to him initially he could have delayed the new round and examined the surveillance tape but now it was too late. I pointed out that I HAD IMMEDIATELY told his floor supervisor who was actually at the table when it happened and it was not my fault if the supervisor delayed notifying him. Another supervisor who was seated at the front table then said “We run the best tournaments in Atlantic City,” as if that would assuage me. I argued that we players were ordered out of the room for a break and it was incumbent upon the Borgata employees to insure the integrity of the game by not allowing players to handle other players chips, and I stated that I believed that some of my chips were missing. But as I had learned once before, the Borgata doesn’t really care about the integrity of the game. In days gone by the Casino Control Commission maintained an office in every casino. Now there is no Casino Control Commission. The other supervisor who was seated at the front table arrogantly told me “If you have a complaint you can go to the Gaming Commission on Tennessee Avenue. But it’s Saturday evening so good luck with that.” I didn’t even know where Tennessee Avenue was (Okay I do know it’s orange and between St. James Place and New York Avenue but that doesn’t really help). This latest Borgata lesson cost me at least $760 and perhaps as much as $37,000 which was the prize for finishing first. There’s an old saying which I will paraphrase. Fool me in a cash game once, shame on you. Fool me in a tournament once shame on you too. But Borgata you will never have the chance to fool me in either again.