Rants & Raves: Poker Promotions

A few weeks ago, I went up to Grand Sierra on a Wednesday night for their 6:30 tournament. Only two of us showed up, so I sat down to play some $1/$2. The game only had a couple of players, so the Floor named Jason was playing in the game as a Prop. The hand before I started, the Floor hit a Royal Flush and collected a High Hand Bonus of around $230.

Last week, the Peppermill had a promotion going for the 1-year anniversary of their new poker room. They did a drawing every two hours for $500 or $1000, and you earn tickets with hours played in Live Games. I rarely play Live Games, so I didn't even know about the promotion. I busted out of the tournament early, so I sat down in the $4/$8 Limit game that just opened. Naturally, my name didn't get called, but a Peppermill Dealer named Iva got called twice in a row, and won $1500.

In both of these stories, an employee of the poker room won a promotion bonus. And I have a problem with this.

Don't get me wrong, this is nothing personal with either person. I don't think there was any funny business, or any attempt to rig the outcome. I understand that it is perfectly legal in Nevada poker rooms for employees to play in their own room, as a Prop or as a player when they're off the clock. I also understand that the $1 Promo Drop is taken out of the pots that they win, and they should be entitled to win that Promo Drop back.

But...

Poker Promotions are run by rooms to get customers to play in their rooms. It looks bad to the customer when employees win promo money that should be there for the customers to win.

I've brought this up at the table various times since I moved out here, including at the $4/$8 table last week. Every time I have mentioned this to other players, nobody agreed with me. They didn't understand what I was talking about, or why anyone would mind an employee winning the promo money.

Maybe I'm completely off base on this topic. Or maybe this is just another example of Reno being in its own Bizzaro Bubble, as things are done differently in Reno than anywhere else in the poker world.

Either way, I wanted to get this off my chest, and put it out there. And isn't that the point of having a blog?