If you play many tournaments, you quickly learn that you shouldn't trust the "official" countdown conducted a few hands before the end of a round. Dealers and floorpeople are notoriously bad about miscounting bankrolls. I always count them myself. Last night I played the mini-tournament at Hard Rock Biloxi. The dealer at one of my tables broke the incompetence record in my experience. With five players left at the table, he miscounted FOUR of the bankrolls. Amazing. Be safe. Count 'em yourself.
Learned the hard way. Ken is correct, I mention about this situation before on an experience I had several years back. This one tournament we were in the semifinals and we had three floor personal come over to the table at our count and breakdown the chips and call total out to us. I had been counting the right side of the table from first base around to me at 6th position and due to time (I had to make the first bet for the final hand) I used the floor's count for of all players seat 7 just to my left. All I had to do was win the hand which I did but to my surprise player 7 and I were tied, (this after he DD on hard 16 and caught a 5). What happen, did I figure wrong? No the floorman just rounded down his total, he didn't think a thing about it. Instead of calling $25,500 he just called out $25,000 for the player in seat #7. So now we have to play a one hand sudden death playoff. I go first and players cannot match the same bet so I take low betting one chip $1,000 while he bets $1,500 (loved that bet, he gives me a chance to DD or split to bet him as well). I catch a hard 12 vs. dealers 6, the other player has hard 18. I DD and catch a 6 (card down so he doesn't know what I hit). all the other player knows is if the dealer bust and I don't that I win, so he DD'd on his hard 18 (I'm loving this as well). Dealer draws to 17, I have 18 and to my shook the other player catches a 3 to beat me. Why? All because I took the floormans count as gospel and that mistake cost me anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000. I can promise you it is a mistake that I'll never let happen again.
This brings up an ethics question. I discussed this with another BJT member in person one time and would like the forum's opinion: If you know of a miscount, do you mention it so all other players at the table know or do you keep your mouth shut thereby gaining a slight advantage over the players that are relying on the casino count?
Gained advantage Why say anything? I don't feel this is taking advantage of others, but we are all playing in the tournament and all have the same chance to count the chips, as should we. Just like my above post, I didn't fault the player for not telling me of the wrong count, that was my fault for not double checking it myself. Now if a player is purposely trying to hide or be deceptive with their chip then yes, I feel something should be said. But if a player gains an advantage over others because of their own fault by not paying attention then I feel more power to the one gaining the advantage. This game isn't just catching cards and making hands, all the time, sometimes we can actually get to use strategy and we should always be paying attention to all that is happening at the table so that when we get that chance we can use it to our advantage.
I never mention a miscount unless I think it is a player attempting to mislead other players. Two reasons: 1) It gives me an advantage, and a fair one I think. 2) Pointing out their mistakes tends to make the floor and dealers mad and they often retaliate by enforcing time limits more strictly. Still I couldn't help but laugh last night when 80% of the counts were wrong. I said something like "One out of five isn't bad I guess."
