Subject: Building a Top Section: My Advice to the Hustler or any Struggling Cardroom, Part Two From: ValentinoRossi@yahoo.com (Valentino Rossi) Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Wed, Mar 5, 2003 8:29 AM Message-ID: <3e662331.668987390@mammoth.usenet-access.com> If after following the advice in Part One of " Building a Top Section--Advice for Struggling Cardrooms," (http://tinyurl.com/6wcn) a cardroom acquires some regular players how does the cardroom management go about keeping them and, hopefully, acquiring more? Most cardroom managers are under the misconception that their customers are a bunch of degenerate gambleholic junkies and the cardroom is the only drug dealer in town. Most cardroom managers suffer under the deadly delusion that their customers will accept anything--unbeatable collections, predatory collection policies, dirty bathrooms, bad service, filthy tables and chairs, getting robbed in the parking lot, putrid food, and insufferable attitudes from dealers, floormen, and brushes, and still keep patronizing the place. Maybe cardroom managers sleep better at night thinking that to keep the games healthy, the action going, and their jobs secure that it is sufficient to install a table and supply a dealer, chips, and cards-- that players will fall from the sky like manna from heaven and be attracted to the games likes moths to a flame---that no matter how crappy the games and casino are, the players will keep coming because they have to gamble and the cardroom has a monopoly on action. In a multiple venue market like L.A. this is a dangerous and often fatal misconception to fall prey to. One has only to look at the fate of the Hollywood Park Top Section when the Commerce opened, the Bicycle Top Section last year, and the Hustler Top Section this year to see what happens when cardroom management does not mind the store. At each of these cardrooms, the games were good and plentiful, but the cardroom management messed up, albeit in different ways, their regular players jumped ship, and their top sections imploded----with disastrous financial consequences not only for the cardroom owners but also for the employees who lost their jobs in the meltdown. So how does a cardroom keep and acquire it's regular players? The first crucial step is hiring the proper Top Section Host(s). This often overlooked and frequently undervalued employee is the single most important employee in acquiring and retaining regular players. Many cardrooms, to their ultimate detriment, do without a Top Section Host(s) or put little thought into the qualities and qualifications of this key employee. So what does the host do that is so important? The first function they perform is to act as a middleman between the casino and it's players. Playing in the bigger games can be extremely stressful. Lots of money can change hands in a single night, life savings can be lost over a period of weeks and months, and decisions are made by cardroom employees where hundreds or even thousands of dollars are at stake. Every night groups of barely literate, highly competitive, unethical, egomaniacal, sociopathic, narcissistic, emotionally unstable, sometimes violent personalities, play a game where significant amounts of money are won and lost on the turn of a card and the garbled interpretation of events relayed in broken English by someone who wasn't paying attention and has no stake in the outcome. Adrift in this emotional and financial cauldron, emotions inevitably become engaged, people get mad, rules are bent, broken, and trampled, and polite society's thin veneer is ruthlessly stripped away revealing the nasty, brutish, normally carefully concealed evil, and sometimes the gold hearts, inside the players and casino employees (BTW, this is part of the enjoyment of playing Top Section Poker). When the inevitable emotional imbroglios occur, hard feelings are generated. The hard feelings can be between players, between players and dealers, or between players and floormen. A good host intercedes, smoothes things over, makes whatever accommodations are possible, and tries to return peace to the "family." Some real world examples of when the host earned (or failed to earn) their money: 1) Commerce Casino last summer. A floorman makes a decision against Al, an older Caucasian gentleman. Al becomes so mad that he is yelling at the top of his voice that he has gotten a bum deal, that he has been screwed, and that he is never returning to the Commerce. Jack the brown chip floorman tries to calm him down but without success. Everyone who plays the Commerce brown chip HE games knows Al. Al is independently wealthy, parachuted behind the lines on D-Day, owns his own multi-engine turboprop, plays every hand pre-flop, loses every time he plays, and to top it all off is a genuinely nice guy. He never shoots any angles, never needles or harasses the other players, and never scams the collection--- a nice guy, an ethical player, a big loser--- any cardroom's dream customer. Al pays thousands in collection each year, but also dumps tens of thousands into the games thus attracting many other players to the Commerce who pay thousands of dollars more collection to the Commerce. Al has got to be worth at least $70,000+ per year in direct and indirect collections to the Commerce. What does a cardroom do when a customer like Al gets a bug up his ass? Do they just leave him mad, let him walk out the door, and say sayonara? If the cardroom likes making money, and they have a competent Top Section Host, it is time for him to earn his money. When episodes like this come down, the top section host earns his money by interceding, hopefully immediately, finding out what the problem is and making things right with the player. Good Top Section Hosts ask the regular players for their cell phone numbers and get to know their Top Section regulars. They are looking ahead, and want the ability to reach you if you are involved in one of these emotional meltdowns and when they do reach you they want some relational capital to trade on. They will listen to your side of the story, check out the details, and do whatever is necessary to keep your business. 2) Hustler Casino this spring. Ali, an Iranian United Airlines pilot comes to the Hustler and there is only one yellow chip HE game going. Ali is a big loser who not only plays way too many hands pre-flop, calls too much, but also plays for days at a time. Again, the perfect top section customer. Not only does he pay thousands in collection each year but also dumps thousands into the game, thus attracting thousands more in collection from other players attracted to the action. Ali's only drawback is that when he is getting buried, he curses the dealer and occasionally bends cards. The curses are nothing personal-just comments along the lines of "you haven't given me a hand in 10 years." When stuck he will sometimes also become hypercritical of the dealer, criticizing small errors that would normally go unmentioned. Ali, like Al from the Commerce is an excellent albeit not perfect customer. All Top Sections wish they had more of his ilk. One afternoon this spring, Ali walks into the Hustler, puts his name on the board, and waits an hour to get in the game. There is only one yellow chip game (the Hustler Top Section was already on the way down) and there are two names ahead of him. One is an off duty house player. During the hour Ali waits, he moves to the top of list. After waiting an hour and 15 minutes, he asks the top section floorman (Patty) if she can ask the off duty house player to give up his seat. Because the house player is off duty, he technically does not have to give up his seat. The situation is even more complicated because the house player has recently been busted, been forced to live in a rent by the week apartment, has no car, is barely surviving financially, and is stuck a couple of racks. He has been reduced to getting his monthly paycheck, starting in the low limit games, and trying to parlay himself back into action. The floorman is aware of the house player's precarious financial position, but Ali, of course, isn't. From a strictly business point of view, the house player should cede his seat. The Hustler Top Section, at that time, was struggling-with barely enough regular players to keep the games going. Ali has already waited over an hour to get into the game and is really not asking for anything extraordinary-just a seat in the game. The interests of the cardroom should come before the financial interests of the employees. If the Hustler had a good host, which they didn't at the time (Robert Turner had already left), the Host would have interceded---talked to the house player privately and made him give up his seat. Ali would have been happy that the Hustler was "treating him right," the Hustler would have retained its customer, the floorman would have probably gotten some juice for doing a "favor," and everything would have been copasetic. The house player would have had to give up his seat, but he would have gotten back in the game within the hour, and besides, if a player is going to take the house's dime they are no longer player/customers but employees and must accept the inherent limitations on their actions. Instead, the house player rejected the floorman's request because he was "stuck." Ali got mad and left the casino. Ali now plays mostly at the Commerce. Ali's only offense was to be a gambler who drove to the Hustler and wanted to put his money into action. Is that so unreasonable? In Ali's case, the Hustler's employees, the floorman and house player, put their interests ahead of the card rooms profits and the customers desires. With a good Top Section Host, this never would have happened. 3) Bicycle Top Section. About a year ago, a problem player infested the Bicycle Top Section-Big Fat Raymond (who was eventually barred). Big Fat Raymond was a big loser, but unlike Al from the Commerce and Ali formerly from the Hustler, drove away more action than he attracted action to the Bike Top Section. When Raymond used to play the Bike, he would sit in the games and verbally assault the other players. A typical verbal encounter with Raymond would come down after you beat him in hand. The verbal encounter would usually involve Raymond accusing you of homosexual tendencies and declaring to the world that he looked forward to and that you would enjoy being bent over and having Raymond's big tool shoved where the daylight doesn't shine (I'm giving the PG-13 version here). Simulated sound effects were provided free of charge. Women beating Raymond in a hand would be given a similar but tailored to female verbal lashing. I once watched a young good looking female Asian player check raise Raymond on the river with the nuts, watched Raymond pay off, and as she was stacking the chips, Raymond told her in a loud voice that if she wanted $40 from him next time she should come over, get down on her knees give him a BJ and he would pay her $40 plus if she did a good job he would give her an additional $20 tip. No complaints were lodged, no action was taken against Raymond, and the game proceeded as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened because the players knew that the floorman, if called, would probably do nothing. Besides the verbal harassment, playing with Raymond meant listening to an endless stream of foul language and crude jokes-these were primarily of a sexual nature directed at any women, dealers, players, chip runners, cocktail waitresses, etc. within listening range. Drinking and losing only exacerbated the situation. During the time when Raymond infested the Bike Top Section, there were very few women, except house players, in the game. It was because the atmosphere at the table was very hostile, in a sexually harassing way, when Raymond was in the house. If the Bike Top Section had a competent host when Raymond was playing, there would be someone the regular players could privately voice their complaints to. Instead of calling the floorman and confronting Raymond at the table after being verbally assaulted, having the floorman do nothing, or giving Raymond the usual "don't do that again" warning, and leaving the complaining player to play on in the face of Raymond's open hostility, the Top Section Host could call Raymond aside privately and talk with him. Notice this approach, means players avoid confronting the problem player directly, keeps the floorman out of situations where he has to choose between two regular customers (who both might be juicing him), and it allows the offending player to alter his behavior while saving face. This approach keeps "peace in the family" and keeps the collections flowing. The best Top Section Host ever, in terms of her peacekeeping ability, was Jackie Juan when she was the Bike Top Section Host (she is now an Asian Games floorman). Jackie looks, dresses, and carries herself like a high fashion runway model, and has the personality, disposition, and interpersonal skills of genetic cloning using the DNA of Mother Teresa and Henry Kissinger. Because many poker players are older men from male dominated societies (Middle Easterners, Koreans, etc.), the arrival of an attractive female has a natural calming effect and when a player has to be told some bad news, e.g. he is a foul mouthed asshole and would have to mend his ways or be barred, hearing it from a good looking woman softened the blow. Jackie was friendly, knew all the regular players personally, had their respect, and when there was a dispute or problem, she was always able to calm all parties down, return peace to the family, and keep the collections flowing smoothly down the slot and into the Bikes bank account. I never understand when a particular cardroom doesn't hire a good Top Section Host. If a the Top Section Host can retain a half dozen Top Section regular players whom they would otherwise lose, and can deal effectively with a half dozen problem players correctly, the cardroom could easily cover the host's salary in extra collections over the course of a year. Hiring a good Top Section Host is a no-lose proposition for most cardrooms with or aspiring to a viable Top Section. More on the role of the Top Section Host later.... -----------== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Uncensored Usenet News ==---------- http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----= Over 100,000 Newsgroups - Unlimited Fast Downloads - 19 Servers =-----