A handful of times in my career, a boss has sat down at our table while my BP and I were playing a target game. Many players have never experienced that scenario, and completely panic when it happens for the first time. They’re not even sure what to make of it, but I’ll tell you.
First of all, determine whether the boss is sitting down because of your play or for some other reason. For instance, in early 2000, I was playing Three Card Poker at the Lady Luck. I was betting the table max, $100, from the center seat. One of the regulars, an older guy betting green, was sitting in the cutoff when the shift boss sat down in the third base seat right next to him. I don’t recall her name, but this shift boss was a middle-aged woman with long brown hair. She just chatted up the old dude, and even picked up his cards and played a hand or two. Her sitting down had nothing to do with me, so I played on without adjusting my bet or strategy at all. I even told her to call with the guy’s Jack-high hand against a dealer non-qualifier, but she folded on his behalf. Oh well, I tried to help.
You’ll also sometimes see, especially in a small casino or card room that’s really slow, a boss who wants to talk to a dealer on a deadspread that might sit at first base or third base, the two seats accessible from inside the pit, and chat for a while, or do paperwork to close out the rack.
Those are routine scenarios that are of no concern to the AP. We’re talking about when the boss sits right next to your BP and chats him up, especially when you’re actually winning on a target game. Prevention by keeping the accessible seats filled is a good idea, because bosses who sit tend to make a habit of it.
Here’s what I’ve learned about the bosses who sit. First, they’re cocky. They’re trying to project that they can and will sit where they want, when they want, and cannot be kept inside a pit. They get chatty with big players thinking that this behavior will make them look like bigshots, too. They think this sitting move makes them cool. Being that cocky does take a certain status, and I’ve never seen a floorperson pull the sitting move. Every sitter I’ve encountered was a pit boss or shift boss.
In terms of the game protection, some rookies think that the guy sits down to try to see the hole card. We’ve never found that to be the case. He sits down because he has no clue. If he thought you were getting the hole card, he’d probably just whisper something to the dealer to fix her, or he’d come around the table to stand behind you while the dealer deals. That’s a lot more dangerous than a boss sitting at the table. If he sits at the table next to the BP, he probably doesn’t have a good vantage point on the hole card anyway.
For the most part, the boss sits to bluff you and unnerve you. It’s an intimidation tactic, and he’s trying to see how you react. He doesn’t really know what’s going on with the game, but he’s desperately hoping that something obvious will appear to him once he sits down. Of course, nothing obvious does.
Your goal is to get the boss to leave, so just give him what he wants. Go ahead and take his advice on how to play the hands, or try to put him in a compromising position: encourage him to touch your cards and play your hand. That could give you a bit of leverage later. If you think he hasn’t put the BP with the spotter, then you might want the spotter to take a break so that the sitting boss doesn’t get too good a look at the spotter’s appearance and mannerisms. Ideally, I prefer that the shift boss not even be aware that I exist.
If you want the boss to depart quickly, have a spare teammate go buy in big on another table. A $2,600 buy-in should do it. Or, have a spare teammate call the pit and ask for the boss. Ask the boss for a comp.
Your BP just has to socialize for a bit, and not panic, and the boss will leave empty-handed. Remember, if he really knew what he was looking for, he wouldn’t have to sit down. You might have to cease signaling, or switch to a more subtle system, but the boss’ slick move is nothing more than a bit of downtime.
Only a really clumsy or inept boss would sit down as a way of applying heat to a BP or a spotter. Quite the contrary–they’ll want to watch you as surreptitiously as possible. Therefore, when a boss sits down next to a player, it’s because he is bored and/or wants to socialize, not because he is applying heat. So such an event is actually an opportunity for the BP. I would hope that the BP can convincingly wear his “drunk, rich tourist” disguise all the time. So he can feign near-indifference to the results of his $500 bets (while catching the play prompts from the spotter, who has no reason to leave the table and in fact, definitely should remain when the boss sits down, to avoid suspicion) and talk sports or whatever with the bored boss. If the count drops or goes negative, the BP can act so engrossed in the conversation that he tells the dealer to “deal me out for a few hands.” Appearing much more interested in flirting with the dealer, chatting with fellow players or that boss who just sat down, ordering a drink, etc. than the results of individual hand is ideal cover, and the situation you describe is the ideal time to apply it.
In other words, it’s a rare opportunity when a boss sits down next to you. And even if he IS suspicious and is trying to size you up, what better time to throw him off?
Do you feel the same way when the boss is standing inside the pit but positioned right over the spotter’s left shoulder (3rd base)?
This seems a bit more dangerous to me and would classify it together with stepping out of pit and standing behind the spotter.
Thoughts?
This is a good time for a good teammate/BP at the other end of the table to chat up the boss/ask for a comp/etc. It will pull the boss away from your spotter and take some of the pressure off of them.
Like he said in the article, if they had any idea what was going on, they wouldn’t be where they are. When forced to as the spotter in 3rd base I’ll just start asking all kinds of crazy questions, for comps, etc, and the boss will usually ‘want’ to get away from me within a hand or two…
Sitting down at the table, while it can be effective, is an old fashioned intimidation tactic. The pit boss could stand wherever and be equally effective in his/her intimidation ploy. It seems to me that if a pit boss uses this tactic, he/she wants something to immediately happen by his/her tactic. If nothing immediately happens, most likely the pit boss will go away. The much better method is to use the eye in the sky and react after evidence is identified that something needs to be done and react accordingly.