Over the last couple of years, those times that I've played live, I tend to play in the high limit area. I don't play in Bobby's room, or Phil's room, but in the next highest areas. Of course, much of what makes a good floor, also makes a good high limit floor, but there are some extras.

1. Be nice to our fish
High limit players make a concerted effort to create a fun, light atmosphere for the players that come to give us their money. Unlike other limits where everyone who sits think they can win, high limit fish frequently KNOW that they are donators, but prefer this donating to the pit. So, learn their names, greet them, and make sure they are happy. The games wouldn't exist without them, and your jobs are as dependent on these fish as our jobs.

2. Quick game creation
Fish can be fickle and can frequently want to change the game or the stakes. HU challenges may be accepted. So, if we want to start the same game, double the stakes at a new table, help us do so quickly. Don't worry about the game we are leaving breaking - it may break anyway if the fish leaves, and the fish is unhappy.

3. Keep the fish in line
In our efforts to keep the fish at the table, us players may be overly forgiving certain etiquettes and rules. For instance, I was recently in a game where the fish kept saying, "I'm playing behind." He was good to his word, when he lost more than he had in front of him, he secured a loan, and paid off before the next hand. However, it made all of us uncomfortable as we were not sure when his credit would run out. The floor put a stop to this. Thank you.

4. Respect the rules the players create
I play a lot of mixed games. In some of them, the players at a certain game or casino HAVE to determine some of the rules. Other times, we just like to do it a certain way. For instance, at the Rio during WSOP, the Rio had a policy that rake in timed games must be taken before the first hand. We had a procedure of playing time pots. It would have been so helpful if the dealers in this game had been told, "hey, they play time pots. Its ok."

5. Game notification
Get phone numbers and let players know if a special game is taking place. Is "Jumbo Jerry" in town? We need to know. Jumbo can get you full rake all weekend if you just let us know.

That is all that comes to mind right now, other qualities like making firm decisions, being present, being responsive to complaints, etc are true to all floormen.

This is an excellent post, and a great topic. I hope more high stakes players participate. My only experience dealing nosebleed stakes was at a poker convention this summer, and it was interesting and educational seeing all the differences.

As someone who understands and respects poker, yet works on the service side with mostly people who don't understand it to the level the high stakes players do, it can be frustrating seeing both sides butt heads with each other. By and large I'm on the side of the players, although I'm sympathetic to the concerns of staff and dealers who don't quite fit in. High stakes players are understandably looking for a much higher level of service, but the learning curve is steep, and one needs to be really great before one can be better compensated than one gets for less work in the low stakes areas. (I love the high stakes area, tho' it took me a while to find the right balance.)

Something that is very difficult for dealers is knowing when the players want us to step in and when they don't. Granted, your post is aimed at floor, but the dealers are there seeing all the out of line stuff happen, and by and large my attitude is that it's your game, I'm just there to run it how you want it. So it's hard to know when a technical rules infraction is something you want me to let slide (ie, #4: respect the rules you create), or something for which you need a helping hand. So please don't hesitate to let us know when you need an assist, although I acknowledge that it takes a while before a dealer can pick up on and interpret the subtle clues.

I actually have thought a lot about this subject, at least as it applies to large temporary high profile events (and how to improve them in the future), but as you know it's a delicate area and difficult to pull off seemingly effortlessly. Just sticking my toe in the thread right now, I hope we can keep this dialogue open for a while.

Yeah, it is a very different game for dealers than floors. With dealers, I don't even think I could write such a post. For the most part, the request is, "shut up and deal," but there is also a balance with "RUN THE GAME, DEALER!!!" As I said, I play a lot of mixed games, and we frequently get dealers that sasy, "uhhh... I've never dealt this game before....." And the response is, "It is a draw game. Deal 5 cards to each player. Replace the draws. We'll tell you who wins." And, hell, these become the second best dealers at these games. The best being those that know what they are doing. The worst being those that try to correct us!! and the more common worst is those dealers that try to read winners, but don't see it as quickly as us. In theses cases, reading body language is important. If some guy looks like he just lost a pot and isn't collecting his last bet, its probably not a chop. "effing push the pot!" is a common complaint.

But this is all tangent to the topic. Love to do a thread in which both high stakes players and dealers talk about their experiences.

the best advice I can give a high stakes dealer is that if two players say that a thing is "ok" and no one objects, let it go.

I've recently been venturing into high stakes* live mixed games, and the last post is so very accurate. There are usually 2-3 people who the good dealers basically default to when they are unsure how to read a hand etc.

*40/80

With the advent of things like Twitter, why aren't more places pro-active about advertising their games?

Every freaking cardroom needs this IMO:

http://www.wynnpoker.com/realtime.cfm

Although it will likely work against some high stakes players who are very good at game starting.

I agree. Poker management is ver old school, while new school folks don't always understand the rich history and nuance of poker.

If someone wants to put me in charge of a room, I'll be all over that stuff.

Actually, every freaking cardroom needs this:

http://bravopokerlive.com

or the better smartphone app (they really need to nuke the idiotic signin nonsense on the web page). One-stop shopping. It'd be miserable to try to pop up many separate realtime lists at 7am to try to find who still has a game going I want to play. Bravo puts 'em all in one spot. Now, if MGMResorts, Wynn, and Venetian would just join the entire rest of Las Vegas in sharing their game lists this way...

Wow, did not know about that. Awesome, thanks.

Unfortunately Casino AZ is not on that list, but Fort McDowell and Harrah's Ak-Chin are. But what I like about the Wynn list is the layout is much more friendly to the eyes, and the # on the waiting list gives you an idea of if you can just show up and get in a game, or if you will have a wait.

I've always been treated well by all the high limit floormen in Vegas even though I used to get treated like **** at Wynn by this one floorman in the lower limit games and then great once I moved up; so I guess another quality is to not treat your lower limit players like **** because they might become high limit players one day & take their business elsewhere.

I knew The Fort was on that system. I did not know that Harrah's was on it. Thanks.

I'll check out the app before I say any more...

EDIT: Cliff Castle is on that list as well -- if 100 miles away is your thing.

Had no idea about that bravolive system. I think I'll suggest it to another local casino.

+1 to that bravo live system is real cool
to continue with this derail (oh noez OT delete me), imo every cardroom should have this: http://phil.ly (the iphone version of the site is better too)
but maybe its just that i love graphs

I have learned from my "mentor" that building a rolodex of numbers of people that inhabit the room's highest-limit and specialty games is a very vital part of a room. 5/10NL and up? Get their numbers. PLO players? Get their numbers. That group of guys that want to start a mid-high O/8 game twice a week? Get their numbers. Want a mix game? Let me get your number.

Then don't just let that plethora of numbers sit and collect dust on the phone. Network. "When do you guys want to get Game X going? I got 6 guys interested." Some games will go almost daily. Others will go strong twice a week. Others will materialize out of nowhere as stated when a fish with deep pockets shows up.

This goes beyond what a high limit floorman should do, its what floor/managers of rooms that wish to have games beyond the 1/2NL 2/4-3/6LHE fare should do.

And I'm guessing it isn't CAZ