A player at the Rio alleges that an employee demanded a bribe in order to run a single table satellite tournament.

Here is a post from "PSUMike1999" from 2p2:

Quote Originally Posted by PSUMike1999
Just an fyi I was at the Rio single table satellite area the other day mid-afternoon wanting to play a couple of satellites. The guy at the podium(older guy in his 60's most likely)wouldn't initially call the request from myself and 3 others for a $525 satellite. We asked him why and he gave some incoherent answer. About 2 minutes later he looks at me and starts singing "Grease is my friend, grease is my friend". I asked him why he was singing that and he told me he made $200 the other night and if I want the $525 to go sooner I need to take care of him.

Someone else told the supervisor but they didn't seem to care. Just giving people a heads up on what to expect at the Rio satellite area - just amazing.
PSUMike1999 has had his account on 2+2 since January 2012, and has 944 posts. I find it highly unlikely that he's lying, as he has never been accused of making up stories in the past.

Can you believe this shit?

Later, PSUMike went back there and tried to find the guy so he could post more information about him. He didn't find him, but spoke to another employee and got more information:

Spoke to woman named Tesa right before the $1500 was starting who was at the Satellite podium and she told me she was getting tons of complaints about that guy. His name is Lou and he was off today but according to her, he probably won't be coming in tomorrow. Again, she wasn't definitive on that but all the higher ups have been notified by a lot of unhappy players Lou was basically trying to extort just to run a satellite table.

So it looks like Lou was fired, if Tesa is correct. From what I have seen, nobody at the WSOP such as Seth Palansky or Jack Effel has commented on this.

I will actually e-mail Seth and see if he has any comment.

Unbelievably, the some of the idiot brigade on 2+2 came out and defended this guy's actions. Among some of the sentiments expressed there:

- Tipping for service is a long-accepted practice in Vegas, and you are just a dumb n00b if you don't understand that.

- This guy only has once a year to make decent money, so he needs to hustle more strongly for tips during that time of year.

- Even though this was wrong to do, firing this guy would be bad because many floor people likely do the same thing, and it would be unfairly singling him out.

- The guy just wanted a few bucks. If you can afford to play a $525 sit n go, you can afford to give the guy a few dollars to set it up. Poker players are so cheap!


Obviously all of the above statements are ridiculous.

This guy wasn't asking for tips. He was refusing to do his job unless players gave him extra money. As former 2+2 podcast host Mike Johnson brought up in the thread, it would be like paying to see a movie in the theater, and the projectionist refusing to start the film until people tip him. That's not tip hustling -- it's extortion.

Even worse, apparently there is a "no tip policy" at the Rio this year for floormen in the cash section -- a policy I agree with. In many poker rooms, floormen move people up on the waiting list based upon tips, which is highly unfair. I'm glad the Rio put a stop to that, but not if this sort of behavior was going unchecked after many complaints.

I hope that "Lou" is gone. If anyone know who he is (or has a picture of him), please post it here. Someone described him as looking like the dad from Fraser.



Indeed, any Rio employee demanding tips to do their job should be immediately fired.

Here is the 2+2 thread, btw: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...icker-1449670/