Greg Raymer told me he has no idea who coined the phrase "hijack seat" but it wasn't him.

He does have some pretty nest T Shirts for sale though.

I was sitting in a small game at BARGE earlier this month it was like 3:30 am on a wednesday morning at binions in downtown LV. The guy in the 1 seat was obliviously drunk but had been hitting a fair amount of the double jackpots and whittling it away by playing hand after hand. after one hand he announces to the table I have to P and gets up and staggers off for the john.

I mention to the others that the game is probably over because as drunk as this guy is he will never make it back. but soon he returns loudly grouseing about the room closing and someone stealing his chips. the floor quickly comes over and says to the guy "here are your chips sir right here in seat one where you left them".

the drunk then says oh ok sorry and sits down in the only open seat on the only table in the place still dealing.

Or there is the other scenario where drunk doesn't tip not because he isn't willing to but because his attention is elsewhere.

And the even worse scenario where player losing to drunk gets frustrated blows up gets the drunk mad, game comes to a halt multiple players throiwn out and dealer makes no $.

Yeah, I think in the long run drunks are bad for business. The majority of problems I encounter involve impaired individuals, which is no surprise I guess.

There is a collection of nomadic dealers who go from town to town, hired temporarily to deal big events.

I know that sounds like sarcasm/humor, but it's the truth. It's not just players who go "on the tour", there are dealers who do it, too. Why? I don't know. Maybe they like the adventurous aspect of it. Maybe they want to see the country. Maybe they can't pass a drug test and hold a "real" job.

Fallsview and Casino Niagara are twinned casinos, employees occasionally work at the other site depending on need.

One day the $1/2 NL game is blowing up at Casino Niagara and 4 dealers get pulled from Fallsview to come and help out. Unfortunately all the games at Fallsview are timed and the $1/2 game is raked. Myself and another player (an ex-dealer) spend our time correcting the dealers as they proceeded to under-rake, over-rake, not rake.. It was pretty funny, and we were only doing it to prevent a visit from the Suits when the rake was really short on that table.

Side question, what's the worst that could happen to a dealer in that spot? They aren't working typically with rake so it's an honest mistake.

I suggested to the floor that they should have brought a few BJ dealers from Fallsview over and then sent the people with poker qualifications to the poker room. At least BJ is played the same in both sites

I was once fired for allegedly under-raking by $3 in a 30-minute down (I say "allegedly" because I'm not confident the person who made that determination is familiar with concepts such as "no flop, no drop" or "you don't rake uncalled bets", and I was never given a chance to see the tape, if one exists).

The casino made it clear that they didn't care whether or not it was an honest mistake.

(Nor did they care that this was at 5 AM, at the end of an 8-table push, when my brain was absolute mush.)

We had a massacre one night at a room I worked in. I walked in and could tell something was wrong. Apparently they had been bringing dealers out of the poker room all evening down to watch the tapes. 2 dealers lost there jobs that night. Among the dealers who were called down and survived I generally heard that surveillance was unfamiliar with no flop no drop, uncalled bets not a part of the pot, and surveillance miscounted pots, and apparently the issue of the rake reductions for shorthanded tables was a problem.

After that incident the when a rake reduction was granted a button that said reduced rake had to be displayed on the table.

Same here. Idiots.

How important is pitch as far as you guys are concerned?

I personally love it as a player when a dealer is able to barely more their arms and send out neatly spinning cards directly to each player... I lack this skill as a novice dealer. In fact, while I know how to use the trigger finger and know that I should, I find myself not doing it out of fear of exposing cards and/or slowing the game down so instead I toss/slide them in a way which is somewhat fast, almost never flips over, but lacks grace.

However, maybe I am being too hard on myself since I have seen many dealers at established rooms in AC who also lack "perfect pitch," so to speak.

I am quick (and getting faster every day) with all other facets of running a game and I have a good "dealer personality" (I am friendly and personable, I can talk too much but am getting better at knowing what tables want me to shut up and deal and what tables appreciate a dealer who is personable and I don't let my own talking slow the game) and I am pretty solid with the rules. I just hate my pitch.

I want to be really good at anything I do, especially this since I am making more money than I ever had in my life and I enjoy it very much (the next best thing to playing cards is watching people play cards). How much concern should I have about my pitch holding me back?

They did you a favor (clowns).

wow...

I take a lot of pride in my pitch. But the best dealer in our room pushes cards like a lumber jack. The best dealer I've ever met has the smoothest pitch in the world. Hellacopter every card right to you, never exposes a card. I asked him how did you get so smooth. He goes "listen when I started I weighed 350lbs. I got good at pitching so I didn't have to move."

L O L !!!

I have never seen any evidence that one surveillance person in the world has the slightest clue about the rules and procedures for poker.

Is there enough money in this???? Sounds insanely expensive. Do the casinos hiring them put them up in the hotels?

It's important for me in terms of not sustaining repetitive strain injury (carpal tunnel). I also don't use my trigger finger as much as I should. I hold my arms out a bit, though, so the cards don't have that far to travel. When I get in the rhythm, I'm pretty fast and accurate. Remember, keep your torso and arms solid: rotate the chair!

I see a lot of dealers who hold their hands close to the chest, and don't have a good trigger either. That just looks painful, and is incredibly slow t'boot.

Also, it helps if you count (in your head) the number of players (same number twice). Much like counting in music, it establishes the "rhythm" in your head, and is helpful for realizing when you've misdealt. I can tell the dealers who don't count, because they have a slight pause between each card dealt on the second round, since they don't know where the next dance step is. It also subtly helps the entire game, since your brain has been "set" to expect a certain number of actions.

The hotels will get them a cut-rate. I had a friend out in Vegas for the series paying $20 a night for hotel room on the strip. True, it was the IP, but it was $20 a night. But cheap hotel plus a meal or two a day in the EDR... you make your days living expensive in the first hour of dealing.

Just keep working on it. I think you'll find that, with time, the cards will become more comfortable in your hand. For me, it just clicked one day about 6 months into it and from there, it didn't take long to get to that perfectly smooth spiral you're looking for.

Whatever you do though, don't do the "underhand slide" to seat 2. That's a pet peeve of mine, and clearly shows that a dealer lacks confidence in his/her pitch. Anyone else?

The underhand slide tilts me almost as much as the stub-hand slide.

Its been getting more difficult from what I am told. Several times I have known dealers to come back from tournament complaining that they made very little (usually because the turnout was low) and the expenses of getting there and staying there was as mmuch or more than they made. Obviously some people can live cheaper than others....

I know someone who does it, and he also has been saying how much worse it's been lately.

My floor told me the best dealer he has employed can pitch his card to seat 1 and pitch to the other players and will be pitching the second card to seat 1 before the 1st has finished arriving

unpossible

It was a heads up match.

Or pit games for that matter. Surveillance at one of the casinos I've dealt at once called down to the pit and asked why the dealer paid the "BIG 9" when a six rolled on the craps table.