Cell phones at the WSOP

Breaking news during the WSOP used to be about somebody getting arrested in the cardroom, or getting too drunk to stay in their chair, or Becky skimming from the dealer toke pool, or something like that.

More recently breaking news is about really bad floor decisions. Some recent news from the 2007 WSOP is more about a good floor decision but one where the WSOP staff made it a lot harder than it needed to be to get it right.

I haven't blogged about it but I did make some comments in an rgp thread when the topic turned to whether or not Singer was trying to shoot an angle. Read the OP in the thread if you don't know what happened.

To the suggestion from some numb nut that his hand should have been killed just for letting the phone ring because the phone ringing might have been a signal I said.

> The ringing [or buzzing,whatever] could have been a message in itself.
>

So could me walking behind a player and saying, "Hi Charlie". So could me
walking into the room wearing a red shirt.

What's the matter with you people? We have to ban red shirts, it might be a
signal.

Fucking idiots. Do all of y'all work for Homeland Security or something?

Cheating with signals from a telephone is not a reason that cell phone use is banned. It's simply because it's disruptive and rude. That's the reason for the rule. Not because he might be getting "information". Even Harrah's execs aren't that stupid. Players get information all the time. Hell, I can walk up to you and talk to you while you're in a hand and that's not against the rules.

What the guy did was turn his phone off, so that the ringing would not continue to disrupt. That's exactly in the spirit of the no cell phone rule, is what he's supposed to do. Here's how I said that in the rgp thread

What is this "gaining information" nonsense? That can't possibly be the reason
for the rule. If there had been a text message (that he had not looked at)
would the ruling be different.

The reason for the rule is to not delay or disrupt the game, it can't possibly
have anything to do with gaining information because they don't outlaw red
shirts also.

Idiots.

When someone quoted Nolan Dalla to demonstrate that I was mistaken about the reason for the rule I said

Nonsense is nonsense.

If Nolan is right, then the only conclusion to draw is that WSOP management is
incompetent. But, if that's true then you can't depend on anything Nolan says.

So which is it? He's either wrong, or he's right and that means he's wrong.

A lot of people don't seem to understand the concept of angle shooting. Angle shooting is not against the rules. When somebody suggested that what Singer did was within his rights, therefore it was okay, I said.

Being within your rights is part of the definition of angle shooting slime.

Angle shooting means using rules in ways that they are not intended to gain an
unfair advantage.

If it's not within your rights it's called cheating.

Some people think anything that doesn't violate a rule is acceptable. I don't
really want to spend much time around such people. They aren't nice and they
can't be trusted.

Angle shooting is legal but it's just wrong under my personal moral calculus. That's not the case for everybody. I understand that. But floor rulings should never be made which encourage angle shooting or reward it. It really isn't good for the room and the rooms reputation.

It called angle shooting, however you want to try to frame it.

Angle shooting is always within your rights, it's part of the definition. It
just depends on what kind kind of person you are whether you decide to shoot
angles are not. Some people, I guess you're one of them, think that angle
shooting is just fine, there's nothing wrong with it, that anyone who doesn't
shoot angles when they can is just a sucker. But it's still angle shooting.

The guy just seems to never stop looking for another angle to shoot. In an interview with pokerlistings.com he said

So not only do I feel like I got the wrong call, the floor person didn't do his job in letting me appeal to a higher authority before he made the ultimate decision. Anyway, I went on to lose the hand and get knocked out. I feel like I should get my money back from the tournament. I really feel like I should've been allowed to play it on another Day 1, but that didn't happen; I guess I didn't pursue it enough.

The more the guy talks the slimier I feel when I read what he has to say.

Here's what I said about Singer's incessant whining

Singer was not an injured party. He had nothing to do with the cell phone. HIs
claim to injury is simply that his attempt at shooting an angle failed.

Had the rule been misapplied, Singer would have benefited. But that doesn't
make him an injured party when the rule was not misapplied.

A lot of people are talking about it.

Ramblings of a mad man has some really strong thoughts. Singer made a bad play on a draw hand and wants a fucking do-over card?

Micheal Craig shows us why FullTilt hired him to pimp blog for them. David Singer, in addition to being a talented and experienced tournament poker player, is an attorney and nobodies fool. He immediately motioned to the dealer to declare the hand dead, which would have awarded him the pot. (David Singer is a paid prop player for Full Tilt)

Pokerhaus.com thinks angle shooting is always the right thing to do. I have to agree with Singer. Apparently you can’t take your phone out for any reason during a hand and if you do then your hand is declared dead. Singer and Bloch’s hands were declared dead in previous tournaments when they took out their phone. (I don't know the details but somehow I'm going to guess that Singer's hand was killed for some reason other than touching his phone, maybe like using it to make a call or to answer a call).

Knowing that Singer is a lawyer explains a lot.

Hell just froze over

Yep, I actually found something else I agree with Mason Malmuth about. Earlier I found myself in agreement with him about PPA (my feelings about Poker Players Alliance might be a little stronger than Mason's feelings about them.)

This time I'm in agreement with Mason about MGM's behavior in the Case of Nolan's 5k Chip. For those of y'all that haven't heard, Nolan Dalla tried to cash an MGM $5k chip that he'd gotten from a 3rd party. They wouldn't cash it. Nolan got upset about it. 2+2 magazine published an article by Nolan on the event. Mason commented that he agreed with MGM's behavior and thought Nolan should have known better.

Two Plus Two magazine only keeps it's stories online for a short time, so I'll quote liberally from it here.

To start with, Nolan was given the chip by someone he won't name in payment of a debt.

He went to the cage at the MGM Casino and handed them the chip. They asked what game he'd gotten the chip from.

He told them he did not get the chip from a gaming table, that he'd had it at home.

They asked why he had kept the chip at home.

He seems to have gotten really vague with them, avoiding telling them where he'd gotten the chip.

I do not come into the MGM very often. It’s been sitting there about a month or so, but I want to cash it since I’m here today.

Now, I don't know if he was intending to be vague. I'm guessing that he was thinking it was none of their business where he got the chips from. But such vagueness does tend to set off alarms among casino bosses, whether it's the pit or the cage. In the cage everyone is trained to be alert for signs of avoidance, not just the bosses. It's best to be straightforward with those critters.

The cashier asked if he was a player, he told them yes, but he didn't have his players card with him.

He gave them an id and they looked him up.

Mr. Dalla, I do not show that you have any recent table-game activity.

They still don't know where he got the chip. They're telling him that they don't think he got it from them and he's really not being responsive to that when he responds

Yes, that’s correct. But, I am an MGM customer. I play poker here, bet on sports, and play some video poker.

Well, he didn't get the chip at any of those places. The cashier gives up on Nolan and goes to consult with the cage boss.

The cashier comes back and they have a short exchange

Cage Manager: Sir, we have a problem. You say you did not get this from a gaming table here at the MGM?

Nolan Dalla: That’s correct. It’s been sitting at my home. I obtained the chip at the Bellagio Poker Room about a month ago from a friend.

He asks Nolan why they guy gave him the chip, and Nolan says it was a repayment for a debt and he thought such 3rd party chip tranfers were common and no big deal.

The cashier corrected on that thought -- telling him it was a big deal and asking him who the chip belonged to.

Now Nolan gets smart, not a good idea. "It belongs to me", he tells them.

They want to know where he got the chip. For example, did he get it from an MGM table games dealer? But Nolan isn't telling them. That's got to look bad from the cage point of view. What's Nolan trying to accomplish here?

They asked him again where he got the chip. Finally he tells them. They look up his friend and find that his friend hasn't been rated at an MGM table game in years.

Now things are looking bad for Nolan and his chip.

The cage confiscates the chip, refusing to cash it and refusing to return it. They give him a receipt for the chip.

Then Nolan says something which just isn't true. He says,

Let me be perfectly clear. I am an MGM customer. I produced a valid ID. I told you where I got the chip. In fact, I got it at another MGM property which has never refused to cash chips of this size. I have never heard of a licensed Nevada casino refusing to pay a customer.

He's being misleading when he says he got it at another MGM property (Belligio). Yes, he got it from there. But he didn't get it from them. They had nothing to do with the transaction between him and his friend and his mentioning the location is just a misdirection.

But that's not what just isn't true. The part about never having heard of refusing to pay is not true. There was a well publicized law suit against Becky Behnen and the Horseshoe that he's well aware of when they refused to cash a chip from some poker playing friends of her brother.

Maybe Nolan just forgot.

I'll finish this later.

Update: I fixed a typo, making an above clause read "he's really not being responsive" when I'd said he was responding.