No, my least favorite people are the ones that, through copious trial and error, know exactly the line of insulting/abusing the dealer not to cross in order to keep themselves from being kicked out or had the floor called on them.

I started reading this thread a couple years ago when I got a side gig dealing a private OE game. I've learned a lot from you all, but I never wanted to post here since I wasn't a "real" dealer. Well, now that I just got hired as a dealer at an actual poker room (Tampa horse track), I feel comfortable posting a question or three.

So, what are a few words of advice that you wish you would have heard as a brand new dealer, looking back on all of your experience now? Thanks! (BTW, my room is just 1/2 and 1/3 NL, and NL tourneys-- that's it.)

If people are trying to run the game for you, and there are backseat dealers out there, calmly tell them that you appreciate they want to help but you’re running the game. Learning how to say that to people is really valuable, because as a new dealer sometimes players will try to push you around.

However if you are corrected on something tell them thank you and just try to get things back under control. The best thing to do as a dealer is to not make mistakes. The speed will come in time.

Take it slow at first. Try to pitch properly using just your fingers even if you have trouble with aim. Better to not pick up any bad habits early. Not making mistakes is more important than speed, so don't be afraid to double and triple check things as you get settled in.

When you do make a mistake, apologize even if it seems 90% their fault.

Thank players for every tip and mean it.

Ask lots of dumb questions to other dealers and floors between downs.

Everything I would have said is here. This is some really good advice.


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This is good life advice for any time you're in a new situation, especially because you won't be expected to know a lot.

Thanks for all the input; much appreciated.

It looks like this thread traffic isn't what it used to be, but I had a generic dealer question that I was curious about. Whenever there's a dealer change they always count the tray. It seems every dealer sets up the tray a little bit differently, and usually moves some stacks around pretty quickly when they sit down. At the change, the count always happens really fast. I know they keep $1K in the tray at least where I play. Is there a system for keeping it set up to make the count go fast? How often is it wrong, and what's the process if it's off? It feels like a lot of the times the dealers are just faking it. The guy sitting down just kind of waves at the tray, the guy standing up says yep looks good. For the most part they are divided in stacks of 20, but there's always some stacks with odd numbers, and I know I would need more time than they take to be able to tell if it's $5 or $10 off.

Room policy on counting the tray varies. In my room we're supposed to, but there's really no penalty if it's off and we missed it so a lot of dealers either skip this or half ass it. I'll try to do it at some point during the down when the action is stalled to see if it's way off.

In some rooms, you can get written up if the next dealer counts it and it's off. In a few, you have to actually pay out of pocket for the difference. In those rooms you're likely to see just about every dealer count the rack before dealing a single hand.

When you see dealers move chips around during the count is them trying to speed it up. It's situation dependent and each dealer has their own system. For example, say there are 375 in greens. A dealer might move 25 in red over to that stack to make it 400. The count can actually go very fast if it's all even numbers or has been filled recently. We do it so often sometimes we can just look down and know the exact number. Other times if it's a weird mix of $485 in cash, a bunch of $2.50 chips someone brought over from table games, and $10 chips from some limit game it might take a minute.

Just about every dealer does it differently, but ideally they should all be doing it the same. Also, tray composition varies from casino to casino. I've worked in rooms with banks of $400, $1250, and $2000 just off the top of my head, and I'm sure I'm missing some other amounts. I've played in rooms in Vegas that have $3 chips in the tray that are used only for the rake and that never get into the players' hands.

A couple of universal rules:

1. Always keep like chips in groups of 20, with a spacer separating that group from other chips.

2. When a group of 20 is opened up, use spacers to separate them into smaller groups of either 4 or 5 chips depending on the chip values. For example, $5 chips are grouped with 5 of them together, while $25 chips are grouped with 4 of them together.

3. Always keep larger chips on the inside and smaller chips on the outside. This is mainly for security. You'll notice that at table games they always follow this rule as well. The $25 chips are in the middle. Then the $5 chips. And the $1 chips are on the outside, closest to the players. At the blackjack table, you'll see the same thing, except they'll have $500 chips (or even bigger) in the middle.

4. Work from the outside to the inside. If you have 2 columns of $1 chips, use up the ones on the outside first. Then move to the next column in.

The last thing is that the count usually goes quickly. There are always certain dealers in every room that the other dealers hate to follow because they leave the bank in such disarray. Chips aren't in the right place and/or they aren't grouped together in 5's and 20's like they were trained to. It might usually take me 10 seconds to count a tray on a normal night, but whenever I'm following "Tim" from table to table, the count takes me so long that I'm 2-3 hands into the table before I have the bank sorted out well enough to even count it.

It's been brought to my attention that the anniversary of YTF's passing just occurred. Here's a random story of his from the archives.

YTF, I never knew you, but I miss you. This thread is definitely not the same without you.

If a rack is lammered off correctly it's pretty easy to count a rack by eyeballing it. Common Core math ideas come in handy (I'm an old man but I instinctively started using Common Core when I was learning math in elementary school before it was called that) but it can take a little longer if the rack is not set up properly or there's like 575 in green instead of a nice round number.

I miss YTF very much.

^ consider it at 600 and then subtract 25 at the end.

Yeah, that's Common Core. I didn't say it was a considerable handicap, just one more step.

Employment opportunities?

FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek MI is still looking to add poker room staff in an effort to get back to full speed with both cash and re-establishing their facility as Michigan's tournament leader .. when tournaments start back up. This site was the 'non-Vegas' prize pool leader for the MSPT pre CV.

Also in Michigan, Gun Lake Casino has contacted Dealers who didn't remain on staff indicating an effort to reopen the 8 table poker room in October. If you have table game skills you may want to consider an early hire since all staff members who are on board by October 1st will be entered into a drawing for a new car!

With Planet Hollywood's closing next Monday .. after the promo fund is depleted somehow .. there will be some folks out on the street. Not that opportunity doesn't exist in Vegas at other casinos and with WSOP coming Oct/Nov, there may be a few looking for a change of scenery (or climate). GL

PM me if you want a dealer job listing in the southwestern US. I have nothing to do with hiring, just passing on the listing - no idea how long it will be posted.

(Mods it was okay for me to do this in the past, if it's not anymore let me know and I'll remove)

My room is hiring too in the NE. Can't get into many details other than to say the overall pay is great with likely quick promotion to FT with benefits, houses here are dirt cheap, but we're in the boonies and there's nothing to do out here.

Fine with me as long as it’s dealers helping dealers, and not room reps shilling for their job boards.

Thanks Mr. d ...

.. Took 'Granny' to Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant MI last night (college town, 18+ facility, great concert venue) and they are also looking to staff their closed poker room. Already scratched an August timeline due to lack of staff, now looking at Sept. GL

If anyone is looking to deal in North Texas/Oklahoma, Winstar is looking for dealers.
They just interviewed and hired a class to go through training. I just checked and the position is still open on the Chickasaw job site.

I moderate a Facebook group that lists poker jobs. If anyone is on FB and wants to join, PM me and I will send you an invite.

First hand of a down, dealing a tournament with the blinds at 200/400. Player throws in a 1000 chip and I declare it is a call. Next player wearing oversized headphones takes them off and asks if that is a call or a raise. I tell him it is a call. He calls the $400 bet. Over the next 30 minutes this happens at least 10 more times where someone calls/raises with a $1000 chip and it is loudly declared my me. Each time the player with the headphones takes them off and asks me what the action is.

There has to be something in the TDA that allows me to kick him squarely in the nuts next time he asks right?

Same night, as we reach the level where players bag up their chips for day two. Despite the TC announcing of the microphone 3 times which colored copy goes on the bag and which colored copy the players keep, at least 3 of the 9 players get it backwards (50/50 shot just pure guessing). Also despite me telling the players three times to give me the silver foil strip that comes off of the bag when they seal it, I still find 6 foils strips under the tables when I am cleaning up afterwards. Next day, when starting day 2, the bags of chips are presented to each player, I clearly announce that they can pass their empty bags to me 3 times and having a floorman pass by multiple times with a garbage bag, I find three torn, empty chip bags under the table after it breaks 20 minutes later and I am cleaning up.

I used to think that good poker players were smart enough that they could find better paying jobs in the non-poker world if they wanted to. Now I realized that for many of them, that even though they are smart, they couldn't get real world jobs because they would probably show up to the interview with their underwear on the outside of their pants.

Dealing in a tournament, it is about 10 spots before the money bubble in a couple hundred person tournament. A place where medium stacks are mostly looking to survive and make the money, but are not yet going to completely shut down and pass up great opportunities to chip up. Blinds are 800/1600. A fairly large stack limps UTG, folds to the button who raises to 8,500. Not only is this an oversized raise, but it is for about 30% of his stack. Big blind (by far the biggest stack at the table), and the limper call. Both players have raiser covered by a decent amount.

Flop comes out 10 high rainbow. First two players clearly check to the pre-flop raiser. The pre-flop raiser thinks for a minute then proceeds to make a motion that can best be described as putting his chin close to his chest and then throwing his head forward and upward while violently raising his eyebrows upwards. He then does nothing else.

I ask him if he wants to go all in. He responds by repeating the same motion twice. I then tell him that I think he wants to go all in but I am unsure and he should do something different like move some chips forward to confirm. As I am saying this he repeats the motion two more times. As I finish my statement he then changes to putting both of his hands near his chest and throwing them forward. I think this confirms the all in so I announce the player as being all in and throw the "All-in" button towards him. Big blind (the big stack) immediately calls and the limper folds. Before I can even take another breath, the confusing player screams that he was checking.

I call over the floor.

I try and describe the situation to him just as I describe it here. Meanwhile the pre-flop raiser the whole time is screaming that he was checking and I am an idiot for saying he was all in. It was clear that English was not his first (or even 2nd) language. After listening to his rant, it was pretty clear that he meant his motions to be a check (like move on) and that he wasn't angling, however both of the other players in the hand (as well as most of the rest of the table) thought he was moving all in.

The floor rules it a check as no cards were yet exposed and warns the player to be more clear in his actions going forward.

After I tap out of the game, the floorman tells me that I need to better clarify players actions before making any declarations. I tell him that part of dealing is trying to interpret and make sense of players actions that oftentimes at best are really vague. I told him that I tried to confirm and that 8 of the 9 players at that table thought he was going all in. As a dealer if I waited until I had perfect clarification on every decision, there would be downs were I would deal 10 hands and the players would think I was a complete idiot for questioning their actions that are generally vague but clear only given given the context and my interpretation of them.

No way for me to win here.