There's a dealer where I play that halts the entire game once she collects preflop bets to take the rake and the jackpot. Tilts me sooo hard. She must have been misraking a lot when she first started to get in that habit

Does she drop it?

That uber nit tilts me when I'm playing too. Even more when after the flop they just sit there with nothing to do.

Where I work, most of the dealers wait until they're pushing the pot to take rake, including making change for it. Conversely, I was taught to take rake as early as possible because at that point it doesn't "belong" to anybody yet, so nobody is cheesed that the house is taking a cut. But once you grab into a pot that a player is already visualizing in his stack, there goes your tip.

For that matter, since we're a house where poker and blackjack dealers are all the same, and tips are shared between everybody, we're supposed to collect tokes and color up to reds before dropping them. Some dealers leave a pile of whites and reds next to them for their entire hour-long down. There are few quicker way to lower your toke rate than this. Ugh.

I don't think its about tips. I think you take the rake as you go to help keep the rake invisible. People just don't notice the rake as you pull during the action.

I was on a cruise once and watched the dealers dealing poker on the cruise. The way they handled the rake was ridiculous. At the end of the hand they would stack up and count the pot and then take the rake (which was 10% to $25).

Heh, and you thought the stacking/counting was the ridiculous part?

Yeah, invisibility as well. Toking is just a bonus.

It's ironic, everything about my dealing is promoting transparency, clarity, and efficiency... yet I take the rake at a time when players are least likely to be paying attention to me.

Where I was trained in the smaller card rooms in Seattle, we immediately dropped PSJ(bonus) rake, and often even the house rake once it maxed out. I like it that way because it gets it out of sight out of mind. I have continued doing the immediate PSJ drop for over a year where I work now in a different state. None of my coworkers or managers have said anything about it and had no issues with it, so hoping it never becomes an issue!

Also unless I get toked when it's a fluid motion to drop in my box without breaking my routine to get the next hand out, I pull my toke beside my tray and drop it after I get cards out.

Dropping during the hand can lead to raking twice, especially for new dealers.

Also, as a player, I want the option to see what you're dropping when the hand is complete. Doing it in the middle of the action, when I may not be paying attention, is a good way to rake extra. I would be especially mindful playing in a card club, such as in Seattle.

Ya I never got on board with dropping house rake early, but the PSJ annoys me for some reason sitting there on the hole with nothing holding it, and I can't remember the last time I misraked, and I do notice when I do. I realize that's probably nonsensical because I wouldn't know if I didn't notice, but I'm confident I mistake close to zero.

Try to break those habits, Wiz. They might cost you an audition some day.

In an audition I wouldn't do it.

Had an audition about a year ago where I had a solid down didn't make any mistakes ran the game well and was feeling good about it. One girl forgets to rake 4 hands on her down. Guess who they hired.

I've taken to occasionally saying, "Star of the show has already folded," when the action reaches a habitual out-of-turn mucker. It amuses me, and nobody's listening anyway. One of our repeat offenders once told me, "I don't care that I'm out of turn."

Speaking of that dude, he's a regular, and last night he was whining at the table. Okay, that's nothing new, he's a bit young to be an old grumpy nit, and he's not very good at poker, but he's there all the time and seems to have some sense about the game. At least I thought so.

He was whining about how he never wins when I'm dealing, and he wants the other dealer back. I assume he's joking, so I agree in a light-hearted way and keep dealing. He tells me he's friends with "Henry" (one of the floor managers), and that he could get me fired for not letting him win. I laugh, because WTF. He says, "No, really, we're good friends."

I laugh and say, "Well, I'm leaving after next week, so you're rid of me anyway. But you would not be able to get me fired." In his disdain of me he didn't hear the first part, because he went off a bit on how he wants me out of there, and he's going to talk to Henry. So I laugh and say, "I dare you to try." I figure we're just having a joke, and I move on with my night.

He was spotted a while later roaming the casino floor looking for Henry.

In his search, he told another dealer he was trying to get me fired. I'm still not sure how serious he was. I'm leaving next week, and the managers are begging me to stay. But keep trying, buddy. I guess you'll get your victory soon enough. Haha.

Lol. The best part is when you do quit, that guy is going to be all proud of himself.

Reminds of the incident i had back in January ... after I gave my two weeks notice, I had a problem with a player (I posted this incident). When the stupid and/or spineless dual rate floorguy didn;t have my back and told me to apologize to the player (The issue was that the player had softplayed in a tournament checking the nuts on the river as last to act and I had done the unthinkable in calling the floor). I refused to apologize and the floor was really upset. So I told him, Ive only got a few more days working here ..... tell him your going to talk to the manager, and then next week you can tell him you had me fired ..... He'll be happy because his "honor" will be restored and you'll be happy because he will think you took care of it.

Hah!

Maybe on my last shift, I should go to him, hat in hand, looking all dejected.

"Henry had a talk with me and said that he heard you didn't like me, so he's letting me go. At least now I'll have more time to spend with my sick grandmother, although I don't know how I'm going to feed her or pay our rent. But since I have to pull my late sister's special needs child out of his expensive school, maybe we can get him a job in the mines.

"Anyway, I hope your Aces never get cracked again. Goodbye."

So whachoo gonna do if something really crazy happens (two identical cards show up on the table, say) and the floor comes over and declares "MISDEAL! Give 'em all back their bets"?

It's actually a regulation in Nevada that you cannot drop the rake early. They spell out to the letter how the rake works: I thought of this topic last night when the hand had gone very quickly or the dealer had forgotten to rake as the bets went in, so just before he pushed the pot he pulled out the rake. The player receiving the pot just stares dumbfounded, then starts ranting about the dealer taking money out of his pot. It has to be explained that this is normal, and necessary, and it's been going on every hand for the two hours he's been sitting there but he only just noticed. He starts calculating and figures out that for this $30 pot, he put out $15 of it, got back $26, and the dealer gets a tip, so he's making $10 profit instead of $15. "You keep a third of my profit every hand?!?!?!"

It's amazing how long people can play without ever seeing the alligator gobbling up chips.

Its also the law in Colorado

Doesn't surprise me. If a crazy misdeal happens where players need to be refunded bets I just tell the floor that I dropped the jackpot, and he likely says "take $2 out of your tray" and then take care of it afterwards.

So wait....you're in Colorado....psandy cites for you the statute that says what you're doing is illegal....and your answer is, "Oh, no problem, I'll keep disobeying the regulation because it's not a big deal"???

My first poker manager used to say, "Doing it the right way is no harder than doing it the wrong way." You don't save ANYTHING by dropping it early. You don't save time, you don't save effort. It's a shortcut that's absolutely no shorter! You're violating a procedure that has been put into place for a very good reason, and a Gaming Regulation, and you get absolutely no benefit from it. So why would you stubbornly insist on continuing to do it?

I'm not stubbornly insisting on anything. I'm sharing what I do and why. If my boss asked me to do it differently I'd do that too. Plenty of procedure things I've had to change, and maybe this will be one of them. But for now I am yet to have it be an issue.

Whenever I see a dealer drop it early, I get twitchy. I don't say anything, because I don't want to be That Guy, but clearly there are many here who also get twitchy. So who knows how many players you're subtly irritating throughout your down. This could affect tokes.

The players are entitled to see how much is being raked, and to feel confident they're not being double raked. It's not on them to watch you all the time during the hand, it's on you to be transparent and clear to them.

Push the pot, move the dot, pull the slot.

This horse has been lead to the water. We might be able to drown him, but we can't make him drink.

Before I rake the first pot of my down I'm now declaring...

"It is now my intention to extricate from this pot an amount of chips not exceeding three dollars in value for the purpose of paying the rake in this 3/6 limit texas hold them hand. At the conclusion of this hand of texas hold them, I shall drop said chips into a container for retention until a designated member of the security force withdraws the container at which time it shall be counted and verified. I make this declaration of my own free will without being coerced."

Not obvious enough for the headphones guy waiting for a NL seat to open up. Maybe if you made a little plastic sign and placed it right next to you on the table...