This story is straight outta something that would happen at Commerce.
I was in a 20-40 limit holdem game (a limit I rarely play live, as it's too low for me), because the 20-40 with 1/2 kill O8 game broke, and I was on the list for 40-80 limit holdem.
I was in seat 4. Seats 2 and 3 were fans of PFA Radio, and it was great meeting them. They weren't involved in this, except as LOL observers to the whole thing.
Seat 5 was a retired Chicago cop in a wheelchair, who appeared 60-65. Had a gruff demeanor, was kind of an asshole, and we already got into an argument earlier when he literally called the clock on me because I took 20 seconds to decide what to do (not exaggerating.)
Seat 6 was a loose-aggro 30s Asian guy who clearly wasn't a winning player. Played too many trash hands and bluffed way too much, even though everyone knew he bluffed a lot. We had a friendly rivalry at the table and seemingly got along well.
Seat 7 was a white guy around 50 who didn't talk much.
It was 7:30pm and they were about to do the half-hourly "time collection" of $6 each. I was under-the-gun, and I noticed a 40-80 seat was open, and I was next up on the list.
I didn't want to pay $6 time to simply play one hand under the gun (likely fold it), and then leave.
Bellagio seemingly keeps changing their rules on when you do or don't have to pay the time charge. In this spot at Commerce, by the way, they always let you play to your blind and not pay the time. Here I just asked for one hand.
The dealer just shrugged his shoulders, like he didn't care.
Just as he was about to deal, Seat 7 said, "He can't do that. He has to pay."
I asked Seat 7 why he cared. "This is between me and Bellagio," I told him. "I don't see why this matters to you if I do or don't pay rake to them for one final hand."
Before he could answer, Seat 5 (wheelchair cop) and Seat 6 (seemingly friendly Asian guy) started yelling at me. Wheelchair guy kept saying, "These are the house rules! Why do you think you're anyone special?"
I told him that I didn't think I was special, and that if it were reversed, I would totally be fine with him getting one final hand before leaving if time collection had just come up.
At that point, the dealer oddly started dealing anyway, and dealt me in the hand.
Wheelchair cop yelled, "Dumbass!", and then Asian guy also called the dealer a dumbass, and the two started berating the dealer viciously for dealing me in. Only one card had been dealt, and the dealer stopped and told them they were out of line.
No matter. They started arguing and insulting him even more viciously.
I then took the dealer's side and said that these guys were being unnecessarily abusive to him. The two of them started yelling at me again, telling me I was "wasting time" by all of this. I told them that they were the ones wasting time, and if they had simply stayed out of the whole thing, the hand would be over already.
Then wheelchair cop said that I had better shut up, or he would smack me down. LOL!!!
I responded, "Are you kidding me?"
The arguing continued. At one point shortly after that, I got more aggressive with wheelchair guy, asking him, "Do you have a problem with me or something? Because you've been a dick to me for awhile before this. Looks to me like you have a problem."
He seemed to drop the tough guy act a little bit, replying, "I don't have a problem with you. I never said I have a problem."
Huh??
The poker room manager Craig was called over.
When Craig arrived, the dealer explained what was happening. Amazingly, Seat 5 and Seat 6 admitted they were being abusive to the dealer, and in fact continued insulting him in front of the manager!
The manager first said that indeed I wasn't entitled to a hand, something I quickly accepted, and left the game.
He then kicked out Seat 5 and Seat 6 from the game for 30 minutes, until that dealer's shift was done.
These two then proceeded to argue with the manager for at least 20 minutes about the whole thing.
I went back over to the game to ask the two PFA listeners what they thought of all this. They laughed, and one of them said, "The ironic thing is that these guys were so concerned about paying time and not getting their money's worth, yet they just paid $6 for time and got suspended for 30 minutes, so they got to play zero hands!"
Ridiculous.