After years of being a laborer in the landscape/construction industry have decided to make a jump to less manual labor and more of a work of joy, dealing cards. I have just finished my classes and audition for the floor manager and was wondering if any new dealers or floor people have advice or tips to someone new in the box. I'm very confident with keeping the game flow and fairly confident with my mechanics as well. Just seeing if there's anyone out there with some insight as to what to expect or tips to deal with certain scenarios. Thanks.

Just take it slow at first. Don't try to be the fastest ever right away. It will just lead to you making more mistakes

Never be afraid to call the floor. I have never heard of somebody being fired for calling the floor ......

As a player, I want to see good mechanics. If you can carry on a conversation AND deal, fine. If you can only do one thing, then DEAL. One of the dealers at my casino loves to talk but cannot talk AND deal. Between the two, dealing is far more important.

Regarding calling the floor, the dealers where I play call the floor for even very trivial things, just to cover themselves. A dual-rate working as a dealer that night will call the floor to make the call that he'd normally make himself AS the floor. For instance, burning and turning too early. The procedure is well-known, but the floor has to come over and tell the dealer what to do. It takes the decision-making off of the dealer and any arguments resulting from a decision can be taken away from the table quickly. Naturally, make sure that's what your room supervisor expects you to do, otherwise, act as he expects.

ETA: It is my understanding that Indian casinos are usually where dealers start. If you can find an entry point locally, great. If not, you may have to look in the southwest (Oklahoma is often referenced near me) for a year or so to get experience. You will have to start at the bottom even if locally. For instance, if you have 4 casinos, expect to start in the 3rd or 4th ranked, not the top ranked. There is very little "employer loyalty" (or employee loyalty either), so jumping from one casino brand to another is pretty much expected. The worst casinos have the worst tippers, the worst players (to have to put up with), etc. It's part of working your way up.

Take about 25 white chips home with you and practice cutting them in 5's (as well as getting the feel for a stack of 20) and practice shuffling and pitching a deck of cards. you can do these while your bored or just watching tv.

I am a former dealer and I learned to deal blackjack on my bed to my sister's stuffed animals, and when it was time to audition, I was light years ahead of the other people that just came out of dealing school, mainly because I was always shuffling, dealing, and cutting chips.

I said this a lot to a bunch of novice dealers, when I was one of them:

Don't expect or even try to never make a mistake. You just will; get used to the idea. But you should never make a mistake that MATTERS. If you learn good procedures and habits, every mistake should be quickly detected and be fixable without a lot of fuss.

Listen to the dealers and floors that know what they're doing (make sure you figure out which ones those are). There are a ton of nitty little micro habits that sound ridiculous to have a full conversation about, but really make a big difference in being a reliable dealer.

Also, players will vent at you, and you can't fight back. I consider this a service I'm offering, and it doesn't bother me. It's better for everyone than if they vent at each other.

Yeah word is New Hampshire I live is on verge of a casino but has several local poker rooms that spread 2/4limit and 4/4 limit (mix etc) several tourneys varying from 40$-250 two day tourneys. Hoping to put my time in here for as long as needed and then hopefully when ground break for new casino can transition there.

Forget it, Jake. It's New Hampshire.

Best advice I can give is to learn what the word "obsequious" means, then start acting that way towards Ed Callahan and the folks running his card rooms. When Rockingham Park gets the green light to open a real casino, the charity games in NH will all die, and you'll WANT to "know somebody" at The Rock. If you're not already employed at Seabrook or Rockingham, start hanging out in those rooms, chatting up the floor staff, and lobbying for a job in one of those rooms. The better dealers in those rooms are going to be at the head of the line for "real" casino jobs when the time comes, imo.

If you ARE working at Seabrook, then listen to everything that Jim G says about dealing poker. Very few people in NH poker have dealt in Las Vegas like he has--and most think Foxwoods is the ultimate authority on how to do things [shudder]. Whatever Jimmy tells you about this business, you can take it to the bank.

EDIT TO ADD: Where did you go to school? If you were taught by your employer, and you don't want to announce publicly exactly where you work (and I suggest that you DON'T want to do this, or else your posts here will reflect upon your employer, and could get you in trouble, or at the very least, force you into politically correct posting habits you may find restrictive), feel free to PM. I worked at Seabrook for a year not too long ago, I know a little about what's going on up there--and I'm hoping for one of those "real" jobs at Rockingham or Suffolk when the time comes.

Oh, one more thing: Don't imagine that passing an audition in NH means you're ready to pass an audition anywhere else. If all the poker dealers I've seen deal in NH auditioned for me in a real poker room, I'd consider about 10% of them, tops, as up to the task.

Listen to this. I have referred experienced dealers to a dealer's school I trusted because their experience was of little to no value in dealing for me.

Are you ready for an adventure?

Come out to the desert and deal in the series this summer. CET hires hundreds of (new -less experiecned) dealers every year for the cash games at the RIO and the Tournaments. Might be a nice change of pace and good way to get a foot-in-the-door.

....And its prety muchguaranteed job, anyone who shows up in Vegas w/ a heart beat that wants to deal can alway get a job for 4-6 weeks during the series.

You know, I think this is pretty solid advice. The WSOP is flooded with break in dealers so any mistakes you make will sort of blend in with the sea of mistakes being made every hour. Plus, you get the benefit of dealing all different stakes and levels of pressure.

As stated above, its almost a guaranteed job even if you can't deal pot limit or draw games, I've seen dealers get the job that couldn't do these things (although it wouldn't hurt to learn in the meantime if you do want to do this). The money used to be better but it is definitely worth the experience to deal it at least once. The lights, cameras, Pros, money, and thousands of people crammed into the Rio convention center is pretty cool the first year. Ironically, most of those things are a pain in the ass the second year but this is definitely something worth looking into since you are breaking in this time of year.

Don't forget to breathe. Your hands and brain need oxygen. Don't deprive them. If you're feeling tense, especially on the pitch, just breathe. If a player is getting angry, just breathe.

Try to make a routine of your habits. For example, I like to say "button moving" or "button moved" because it's easy to remember hearing myself say it. I saw posted here a tip to point the "R" on the button towards the player, so you know if someone's toyed it with it. I try to make a note of who's the BB each hand, and something distinctive about it. This is a job of much repetition and it leads to highway hypnosis; make it easy on yourself to remember what happened if you get distracted in the middle of it.

I like to count (in my head) as I pitch. If it's eight players, I count to eight twice. This alerts me to misdeals before it's a problem and also sets the dipswitches in my head to expect eight actions. Plus, it's like dancing to a beat, the counting is the rhythm. You instinctively know where "3" is going to be on your second pass, so you don't have to over-think it. This leads to faster dealing (but always, accuracy before speed).

Good luck and have fun!

Remember to breathe.

You are going to get abused in all sorts of ways. You must absolutely never respond in kind or even 'sideways' bec you CAN'T win. If it ever gets really bad, and it will every now and then, call a floor to deal w/ it.

Beale and Fap and everyone else. I thoroughly appreciate the advice.

dont know how afar you are from Maryland but we just got new table games at Maryland Live in Arundel MIlls.. nice upscale area

One other thing. You can't be a great dealer on day one. BUT you can be a great employee....

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Well said ^ had a little audition/session dealing for instructor and one of the floor managers last night doing 2/4LHE just have to find a good system to get rake/bbj done while keeping up w game flow.

Pick them up right after the flop. Tho' in FL, you can just pull them as you're dragging in the preflop bets, lay them next to the drop slot, deal the flop. Shouldn't take but half a second. Otherwise, initiate the flop action, get the rake (while paying attention to the action).

It gets easier with practice. You learn how to be efficient.

pfapfap where do you work at? always been curious about that.

Yeah fap, good point. It's a lil different then Foxwoods or Mohegan BBJ in effect @20$ pot and rake is 10% to $50. Capped pre at $10...

This sort of thing is frowned upon.

My house has changed the rules about taking the rake so many times it's hard for the dealers to keep up. Sometimes they want the dealers to take $1 on the flop and the rest on the turn, and sometimes they want them to take it all on the flop. I have now taken the official position that I don't personally care when they take it as long as there isn't $1 left on the slide after they push the pot.

I have never worked anywhere that they didn't want us to take the rake on each street as earned.

And I have never seen a procedure manual that said to drop the rake before pushing the pot.

Did you mean $50/10 or $5/1?