I saw an English dealer doing this once at the series, he delivered pots in nice stacks but he capped every one of them and never once cleared his hands. It bugged the crap out of me.

Dealers calling out every action and adding commentary would freak me out as well. Dealers should try to avoid interfering with a hand.

To all of you flamers about how he could palm chips etc., get a clue. NO dealer at the Borgata is going to be able to palm chips and get away with it for long. I would not remotely worry about this at one of the major card rooms. Too -EV in the end for these dealers that make pretty damn good money doing what they do and value their job. If it was a home game, a small rinky dink place, or something in a shady part of town, then you guys can cry 'chip palming' all you like. I am sure anyone else doing it this way would be watched closely as well, as he was at first I am sure. You also already had another reg as the Borgata comment on this guy as well. He is well known and has dealt in AC for quite a while.

To add, when he does this, his hand and palm never come close to the chips. he uses his thumb and middle finger only to bring the stacks up and push them to the players. If you have not seen it live, then don't comment about things you really have no valid info about.

And spare me the 'the pot should be in a pile so no one can count the chips' There are still several rows of chips and if you are the skill level of the player wanting to know exactly how much is in each pot to help make your decisions, then you already know how much is in the pot by the bets made up until that point, not by actually counting the chips themselves. If some amateur wants to try to count those chips, it will still take him too long and not really provide much useful info he can exploit properly anyway. I would rather get 5-6 more hands an hour in against those people rather than worry about someone counting the pot.

Jeez, some of the opinionated people around here. They want to pick one flaw about something and go nuts on it without thinking about whether it is really relevant to the situation. Yeah, A long time, well respected dealer at the Borgata is going to risk his 100K to 150K per year job to palm some chips . Whatever people.......

So you're fine just assuming stealing and cheating isn't happening. Great for you. I'm not. That's why they have procedures in place. Takes the guess work out of it.

Of course not. Obviously there are different varieties, severity, and situations, so I am as kin to cheating as anyone else. This is certainly not such a situation and you have another live eye that confirmed it, yet people still went on about it. Unnecessary imo.

But to your point, then you are never taking the guess work out of it regardless of the rules. You would then assume that everyone is cheating and the dealer is colluding with other players at the table other than 'chip palming'. You might as well not have anyone ever touch the cards, the chips, or the table and have a robot deal.

Dealers don't ever steal. Ever.
Nothing shady has ever happened in poker. Ever.
Everything is always as it seems. Always.

Next time you see a dealer 'clear their hands', ask them why they do that.

Also LOL at dealers making 150K a year.

But where do you draw the line then? Maybe it happens so infrequently because the procedures in place make it harder to get away with it? Or maybe it happens more than you know and you just don't hear about it because they ARE getting away with it (or get let go behind closed doors. No casino is going to announce to the world that they had a crooked dealer in their employment that has been skimming from pots for the last 18 months).

I'm not even talking about slippery slope stuff like "Why don't we just let the dealers shuffle the deck with the cards facing them? Why don't we let the dealers roll the stub? I mean, they're not going to risk their job to set the deck or show their friend in seat 1 cards all the time while splitting profits with them, right???"

Also it's not only about whether theft is actually happening but also the perception that it might be happening. You want to maximize customer confidence, and instructing dealers not to excessively touch chips is some really low hanging fruit. It's an easy instruction to follow.

Nobody is trying to hurt your feelings, Ace upmy Slv.

Got pretty far off track there, so please keep it on topic going forward. Thanks.

track and announce all action clearly and quickly

Anyone making $100-150K/yr dealing in any casino would really impress me....

There's a guy at M8trix that is great. Runs a fast game, players love to talk to him. Very funny and quick witted. Game moves, doesn't take any crap off players, very solid.

I had a player that I am friendly with that was sure I made at least $70 an hour. Dead serious

Well since I tip well I had a dealer cover up a bluff I showed thinking everyone folded but they didn't and he covered up my cards quickly I've never seen that but these are the little things as to why I tip good!!

So you were impressed when the dealer cheated another player out of a pot because you gave him a few extra bucks? I'd be keeping that to myself if I were you

I don't think anyone was cheated out of the pot. Nor do I think it has anything to do with tipping.

While I would not likely dive across the table, I certainly have reached out to cover cards in similar situations without regard to tipping.

+1
any decent dealer is covering up an accidentally exposed hand immediately, regardless of the holdings.