I'm going to have the opportunity pretty soon to hopefully be a dealer at one of the charitable games in the area and I'm thinking I should go for it. I would love to be around the game and get paid to do so, but has anybody been a dealer before and would have some advice/warnings/other stuff like that?

i love dealing/inspecting poker,i get to watch how people bet ,what they bet,why they bet
I love hearing all the bad beat stories.the best part is my live game has improved a lot as i am more poker aware now than when i started to deal it.
But there are bad side to being a dealer they include
people just treating you like crap
abusing you because you made them not hit there gut shot for all the chips
long hours that are boring when people are just checking every hand to the river
probably a few more that i missed. all in all is a good job but i wouldn't like to be doing it for 10-15 years

Dealing is a very intense profession. You are constantly in motion. While the players are complaining about the cold room, dealers are sweating.

Multi tasking is the key word. Doing 3 to 4 things at one time is common and you are expected to do them all perfectly.

You are blamed for bad cards and bad luck. You are seldom complimented.

Some shifts you work less time than you spend on breaks which affects your income. (if you are working for tips)

You are watching the game and seeing a lot of hands but you are an impartial observer with no input to how the game is played.

You cannot compliment a player on his nice play or congratulate anyone of a big win.

You cannot wish a player good luck when he is all in.

You have to treat everyone equally well since customer service is vital. You may wish to run over certain players in the parking lot but they may be the ones who bring in the good players so you have to just accept that you cannot change anything and just do your job.

It's aggravatiing, stressful, exciting, boring, fun, and my favorite job of all time.

I would not give it up for anything short of winning the lottery. (Need to buy a ticket for that sometime)

Not going to discuss tipping except to say some people will tip you, others will not. It's a personal choice, no one HAS to tip you, just accept that.

EDIT: If they DO tip you, look them in the eye and tell them THANK YOU in the same way everytime. Do not make a production of a big tip, do not blow off a small one. You will get many more small tips than big ones, they really tend to add up.

* Don't try to be creative. Accuracy is more important than speed.

* For multi-way all-in's, do the side pots before running the cards out.

* Never release the stub in the middle of a hand, keep it palmed the entire time.

* Players will try to help you. Politely ask them to stfu and let you focus.

Dealing is epic.

You are involved with the proper application of the odds of success and failure.

You alone determine which hands are mucked and which are live.

You are uber powerful.

You get to be a spewtard when you are not on duty.. cause that is what dealers do

And yes I just put the smiley face out there because I know there are a lot of dealers in this forum

I chopped a tourney the other week, 4 way chop. The dealer shook each of our hands and congratulated each of us on our win.

Also @ the same poker room every time a player is all in the dealer says "good luck all in"

Not saying you're wrong, just thought I'd bring this up.

EDIT: If they DO tip you, look them in the eye and tell them THANK YOU in the same way everytime. Do not make a production of a big tip, do not blow off a small one. You will get many more small tips than big ones, they really tend to add up.[/QUOTE]

I would just like to complement this post, common manners like saying thank you IMO are lacking in our society. Everybody has to be Tommy Tough Guy and it is refreshing to hear a dealer ( I assume you are a dealer) preaching about saying thank you. As a player, and I am not a big timer, but to me it says a lot about a person / dealer who looks me in the face and says "hey thanks" when I tip $1 in an $1-2 NL game. Sorry to get on my soapbox.

I'd be paid entirely on tips and I have no problem thanking people for paying me to do my job. I realize that there are plenty of people that won't tip me and obviously I have to try and avoid letting that bother me. I do look forward to being around the game and hopefully my live game will improve because of it.

The one thing I'm just kinda nervous about is making mistakes. I realize they do happen, and there can be some very rare confusing spots that I don't want to screw up and cost somebody an $800 pot.

That's a little different than doing it in a live game.
That's just like wishing bad luck to the player who isn't all in.

I'll say "good luck everyone" when I'm leaving the table.
Yep, Dealer Guy covered it all in his post.

You give the same thanks for 50 cents as you do for 50 dollars.

He's not wrong. A dealer needs to be impartial at all times and wishing an all-in player good luck while saying nothing to the other player(s) is not impartial IMO

damn, i really look forward to go to vegas.

here in brazil 90% of the dealers suck. theyre slow, if they try to be faster they mess up, they BEG TIPS too much (i always give in the end of the night, but when a dealer asks for tip after u won a big pot makes me feel like not giving it anymore: ITS NOT MY OBLIGATION!).

i think is rare a night here where i dont see a confuse hand and unsatisfied players cuz the dealer messed up somewhere.

Congratulating the winners in a chop as described seems harmless. No one is being slighted in that instance.

The problem with saying "good luck all in" and "Nice pot" or "Nice hand" is it is insulting to the other player(s).

I have no doubt it happens but in our room, it will get you in trouble.

Mistakes will happen, the idea is to learn from them.

I have (to date) mucked one hand from seat 10 that was not a dead hand until I took it and buried it. I got very careful after that one time in 4 years. (Knock wood)

You will flip cards, everybody flips cards.

You will misdeal, everyone does.

Big mistakes usually come from going too fast.

"Fast is fine but accuracy is everything!"

Wyatt Earp, lawman, gunfighter and dealer.

The one nice thing about being the dealer is you are the only one at the table guaranteed to make money

pro: you just climbed out of the wheel well of a 747 from the phillipines and someone is offering you a job during the worst recession in american history

con: everything else

Is this the true reason is like a freezer in the poker room?
Its like a freezer in my local Poker room.

*reminds me to pack a hoodie tomorrow.

avoid dealing omaha8 at all costs =]

does anyone know an accurate estimate of how much dealers make off tips? (ie. dealer at venitian or wynn?) and does all the tips from players go straight to each dealer or is it split evenly among all dealers?

You shouldn't become a dealer just because you like poker and enjoy dealing, because you will probably hate your job in a week.

Because your pay is primarily tips . . .

You can not effectively be given a meaningful raise.

Your income is subject to variance.

There is no meaningful vacation pay or sick pay.

Yes someone does know an accurate estimate of how much dealers make. No I will not discuss my actual income on a public forum, as I will not ask you to discuss yours. That being said I make a reasonable living dealing poker. That being said most poker dealers in vegas are relegated to less than full time positions, with no medical benefits. Many work multiple jobs to get by. Right now I work 3 days a week and get by. If I could work full time I would be very comfortable.

I am single with no dependents. If I was supporting a family on what I make it would be a lot tighter, we could survive but it wouldn't be an easy life.

Aslo don't assume dealers at the bigger rooms make more than dealers in small rooms. I have worked in rooms of all different sizes, some on the strip some off the strip. The best job I had money wise was a 10 table off strip room with a primarily local base of players, with a few tourists mixed in.

Dealer-Guy, I doubt you have ever dealt to me but I am 100% sure you do an excellent job and should keep up the good work

"What the difference between a proctologist and a poker dealer?"

"A proctologist only has to look as one ***hole at a time."

Same thing where I used to work.. I would see people with heavy sweatshirts/jackets on, and I would be trying not to get beads of sweat in my eyes.. lol It really is a workout, especially if you are not tall or do not have long arms. To reach some people's bets it becomes like an exercise routine. You figure, an average of 15 hands/down, up to 4 betting rounds per hand, and if you actually work an 8 hour shift (12 or so downs plus breaks,) that's a lot of exercise!