It's a bit silly .. but we do have some 1/2 match tables in our area. It's just like a PLO table that's been open for hours .. the blinds mean nothing.

You'd think V would win or take down 1-2 pots per orbit to slow the fall unless these 'heroes' just weren't folding any pair and crossing fingers and everything fell into place. GL

The first week my previous room opened I sit down at a $1/2 table and seat 1 loses a couple hundred the first hand I dealt. He says "You F-ing piece of S- dealers should all be F-ing shot!"

I say something like you need to watch what you say, I didn't come in here to have someone threatening my life. I do this rather than calling the floor because I figure he'll either apologize and be fine or keep going and I can get him kicked out.

He does neither. He sits there silently with the ~800 he has left and spends the next 3 hands lighting it on fire. Then he continues to sit there for the next 15 minutes. Silently. Motionless. Staring straight ahead. It's the most afraid I've ever been of a player but I already laid out a path where I feel like I can't call the floor unless he starts talking again.

Finally, his friend comes over and says "Ready to go?" then they both leave together. I never saw him again and so far have not been shot.

Golden opportunity to deal around him and when he questions it that’s when you call the floor and advise “Seat 1 either said ‘You effing piece of s—- dealers need to be shot’ or ‘Deal around me’, so I dealt around him”

Nah. You get him straight 86ed for saying something like that in a room that is at all competent.

In that room he'd get a mild warning at most. There's a reason I'm not there any more.

Yeah that's sad, but I totally understand.

I had a funny one today.

I sat down at a table and my second or third hand, there was a flop, a bet and folds. As I was about to push the pot, two players who were not involved in the hand were discussing something and one of them openly asked me to rabbit hunt.

The policy of our room is no rabbit hunting.

Most rooms are like that for obvious reasons (slows the game down). Now I have practiced a technique where I can take the stub, while dropping it flip up the top few cards, push up the relevant cards up for a split second, then take the flipped up cards along with flop and flip them back face down. If done right, it takes no extra time and shows the cards that were going to come and is done in one motion. Plus, if push comes to shove, it can look like a fumble. Most players would not notice it unless they were looking for the rabbit hunt. I can play stupid if called out on it. It looks like some accidentally flipped over cards.

So these two guys not in the hand are talking and one asks to rabbit hunt. The player who asked is familiar. He is a semi-reg who I know his face, but I don't know him very well. Since the board had a straight flush draw on it and I know the face, I do my thing (straight flush never comes), and move on the next hand. The two players do nothing. No thank you or even acknowledgement.

Whatever.

In the ensuing few hands they continue to mumble and whisper among themselves.

Then the player who asked me to rabbit hunt wins a medium sized pot. Not large, but decent. Most dealers would expect a $1 tip. There is nothing. I am one of those dealers who never expects a tip. I always figure that I don't know their situation and that that one hand does not matter, I will make it up in the long run. So no biggie. Whatever.

A few hands later, the two players are whispering and not involved in the hand, and the one asks to rabbit hunt.

I look at him and say, I am sorry sir, it is the policy of this room that we do not allow rabbit hunting. I move on and start to shuffle.

He starts to get angry. He looks at me like I slapped him. He starts to say I am being unfair and I have already done it once. I repeat my speil that it is the policy of the room of no rabbit hunting.

He sputters, turns red, then gets up and walks away from the table. As I am dealing the next hand he comes back with the floorman in tow. As they get to the table, the floorman asks what is going on. The guy starts saying I wouldn't rabbit hunt for him. She immediately shuts him down and tells him that rabbit hunting is not allowed in the room.

The player says that I rabbit hunted for other players. I asked who I rabbit hunted for? He points to his friend and says I rabbit hunted when he asked (untrue, his friend never asked previously, he did).

To her credit, the floor quickly realized that this was stupid. She repeated that rabbit hunting was not allowed in the room.

A few hands later, there was a small hand, a reg I know wins the hand with a bet on the turn. He knows exactly what he is doing. 100%. There was a flush draw on the board and he bet his oppenent off it. As his oppenent folds, he smiles and asks to see the river.

It catches me completely off guard, but I quickly recover. I do my thing and show the river would have missed the flush. The player who went to the floor goes ballistic. He (correctly) accuses me of playing favorites. He asks why I showed the river to him.

I play dumb. It is one smooth move after all. No way to say otherwise.

The reg throws me a redbird while literally laughing his ass off.

It is rare, but when karma and life match up, life is beautiful.

Everything is room dependent... I recall many years ago, as a player, a dealer told another player who asked to see the river that the poker room manager was adamant about not rabbit hunting. Over the course of my many years playing there, I saw most dealers also deny such requests, but a few of them do a move (as described above) where the next card was "accidentally" shown. I thought then-- even as a player-- what a stupid thing that would be to potentially get in trouble for. So years later, when I got hired to deal in that same room, I didn't need to be told... In three years, I've never hunted a rabbit, and never will. I'm very flexible on many (cash game) rules in our small room that's 95% regular customers, but there are two hills that I will die on: 1) no phones/betting slips/significant clutter on the felt (on the rail is perfectly fine) and 2) rabbits are never in season. But again, everything is room dependent-- if it's not an egregious violation in your room, do your thing...

I've read through the rules for quite a few poker rooms as a traveling dealer and every single one stated rabbit hunting is not allowed, but most dealers in those rooms would still do it or in some other way allow it. The worst method IMHO is putting the stub where the player can reach it and look for themselves. Those players then start thinking they can do it at any time, and they rarely only expose what would have been the river. They flip the top 5 cards. I've had players try to do it without asking first during $10k buyin tournaments! Sorry bud, nobody touches my stub.

The only room I thought did it right was the Hard Rock in Las Vegas, when they had that cool room in the hallway. Players could buy a rabbit hunt for $2. 1 went to the house, 1 to the dealer.

I remember that and like it 100%.

More importantly, I think you are a million times correct that rabbit hunting should be rare (and at the discretion of the dealer, even though you did not state this).

I rarely rabbit hunt. There is no reason to. It takes either a really fun amateur game where everyone is having fun and tipping or a high end game where essentially the players run the game.

Generally it is not worth it as a dealer. No upside and only downside. I just hit upon the rare spot where I did it because I speculatively thought is was worth it. I was wrong.

I also wanted to point out that there are always ways around the strict rules of the room. I essentially rabbit hunted without being able to be caught at it.

Was that wrong in terms of the room rules. Of course. Absolutely. Was it wrong in terms of customer service? Maybe. It depends.

A good dealer knows when certain rules are able to be bent for the better good of the room and when they shouldn't be.

Was dealing at a $2/$5 game today. Late player raises to $20 ( standard for the table). Button calls, small blind calls. Big blind throws out a $100 black chip and does not say a thing for a really long time. He is a regular so I know he knows the rules. I hesitate, not because I am trying to give him time, but simply because I am confused. He has like $700+ in red in front of him. He normally would throw red to call. He threw a black which means he wanted to raise, but he did absolutely nothing to legally indicate that.

That is why I was confused.

So I declare call after a very long pause after the black chip hit the felt.

I do not have enough red in play to make change for the black chip so I grab it and look around to see if any player can reasonably change it. The reg who threw it in tells me to give it back to him and he throws 3 reds forward (added to his BB make it correct). It is clear he is absolutely pissed. He is steaming. He is a really nice reg and I have never seen him angry before so I am replaying everything in my mind to make sure I didn't screw anything up.

Flop comes out A J 3 rainbow.

Frustrated Reg immediately goes silent. The anger melts. Instantly. The best way to describe him is that he is trying to become invisible. This is a perfect description, you just had to see it in person.

Small blind checks, he checks, late player bets. Small blind calls. Action gets to the reg and he is literally vibrating. He clearly wants to raise, but he also clearly wants to slowplay.

He just calls.

A random 8 comes out on the turn. Small blind checks, Reg checks from the BB. Late position bets big. He overbets the pot. Small blind thinks a bit then shoves. BB reg doesn't even hesitate. He calls. Late position shoves for less. Hands are turned over. It is A3 in the small blind, 10,10 in the big blind, and A8 in late position.

Set of 10s fades the river.

I push the pot to the Reg. He throws me a green chip as a tip.

I obviously smile and nod to him.

Later on, I am at a different table and the Reg comes up to me. He actually apologizes. He said he fully intended to reraise with pocket 10s there, but for some strange reason he just brain locked. He said he wanted me to know that it wasn't my fault at all (I know...). He said that it was clear from my reaction that I was confused, and that I should have been.

He was initially pissed, but only at himself and not at me. He knows he effed up. I thanked him and appreciated the honesty. I told him that I am glad he Forrest Gumped his way into a set with an Ace on a fairly dry board.

Poker is weird sometimes.

Of course he tipped you a green bird when you somehow thought he had a set of Ts on an AJ38 board.

Ugh. I am guilty of posting while drinking.

I don't remember if it was an AJ3 flop and he had jacks or if it was a A103 flop and he had 10s. I really think it was JJ, but I doubted myself and changed it after typing up the post. The three could also have been a 2 or a 4.

Dealing 2-5 NL yesterday. We'll call Player 1 "Karen". Despised by most of the players and all of the staff, she is loud, obnoxious, and is quick to ask for the manager. She used to be a bad tipper but then I made a floor ruling one day that she disagreed with on a trivial situation (who has the button?) and now she never tips me.

Player 2 will be called "Hero". A polite and friendly Asian man who speaks little English but is always in a good mood and is an excessive tipper. He's been known to push me the entire pot (including his own bet) when he steals the blinds.

Hero raises preflop with KK. Karen 3-bets with 10 10. Hero smooth calls. Flop is KT8. Karen is predictably felted.

This is the highlight of my year as a dealer and ranks top 5 in my career.

hope you got a good toke

Fun times at the casino last week!

Some kid sat down at the $1/3 game in Philadelphia Eagles gear. Now, I live in Philly so this doesn't phase me, but it does set the mood for what is to some.

Second hand he gets his whole $200ish stack in on a flop of AT3 rainbow. The runout goes 5-5 and he disgustedly turns over A3 which, now counterfeited, loses to AK.

Immediately he is mumbling and grumbling and rebuys. Still in the same down he gets it all in on the flop against someone who turns over a flopped top set when the runout finishes. He doesn't show but mumbles about how many outs he missed.

He buys into the tournament and I don't see him there, though he was done before it went to the final table so he didn't cash.

I run into him again at another $1/3 game and the second I sit down he is bitching about me loud enough for me to hear. He then commences to fold every hand directly in front of him while in the seven-seat (we are 8-handed) meaning I have to lean all the way over to him to retrieve his cards. It was so obvious and petty that someone else at the table, when he stepped away, was incredulous, saying "He's really doing that to you?"

Whatever. It's a minor inconvenience and it slows me down but whatever.

Not long afterwards I push back into the same table and he is there and he is *still* doing this. Now I am irritated and two can play that game so I start short-arming him, putting his cards in the middle of the table and making him reach for them. After I do this a couple of times he seems to get the hint and starts folding like a normal person.

I was glad it ended there, but I had one more bullet in my chamber if he kept it up, and I was definitely going to fire it if I had to:

You know how when someone new to poker is at the table you will let the dealer pushing in know so they can treat them with kid gloves and not assume they are versed in things? Well, I was going to whisper loud enough that he could hear to the new dealer that the guy in the 7-seat had never played before and to be gentle with him.

I am very confident that, had I done this, he would have protested about how he has played the game before.

At which point I would, with mock sincerity, apologize profusely.

"I'm sorry," I would tell him. "When you went on monkey tilt for two hours because you took a bad beat I assumed you had to be new at this."

Did he look like Eric Andre? At my old job we had a guy who would do the card thing. Eventually he got banned and is still somewhere in the NE.

I wish more players would have the guts to speak out with the guy still at the table. I understand why they don't but it would really help out.

I had the best/worst day the other day.

I started late in the afternoon which is rare for me. Furthermore I had a crappy night sleep and was tired. Mostly due to the shift change, but whatever.

So knowing I am in trouble, I show up to my shift early to sign the EO before I ever clock on. The floor person in charge or the rotation asks me if I can clock in early and open a table. Not good for my EO, but sure, I am already here so why not. He tells me to open the 10-25-50 game, generally our biggest game. It is a time collection game. We generally waive time collection for the first down or even two to get the game going. It depends upon demand. The game also gets a moderate auto-toke at time collection. Not great but decent.

So I open the game and for the first 15 minutes I make nothing. Literally. I cannot blame the players because they are used to auto-toke, but since I am not taking time collection, I am not taking auto-toke either.

It sucks, but not the biggest deal in the world. Again, I don't blame the players, they are all very good to the dealers and will always bend over backwards to help them, but the timing sucked. Most of the players have been more than generous to me in the past so I cannot complain.

After a while I realize that I have been in for a while. Since I had clocked in early (probably 20 minutes to the hour), I had guessed that I was dealing the next down as well. I asked the floor if there was a forgotten tap out of me or not.

The floor comes over and tells me that the shift manager screwed up and forgot to put the table in the rotation. Sorry. To their credit, they announced to the table that since the table had just started up, there would be no time collection, but that they should take care of the dealer.

A couple of players tip me the minimum that would come with the auto toke. Fine.

I continue dealing and again it seems like a long time.

After a while I see other tables rotating, but no one comes to tap me out. So I call the floor over. I explain I haven't been tapped. They say ok and go the the shift manager. He comes over and I explain to him. He leaves and investigates. He comes back and explains that the person who was supposed to tap me out didn't read the updated board correctly and tapped out the game ahead of me.

Fine. So I am stuck here for another down.

To their credit, a couple of players see that I am stuck here again (and as a result they have yet to pay time) and tip me. It is a freeroll for them.

So I deal the rest of that down. I finally get tapped out. I had dealt an hour and 20 minutes at the table. I made barely over the minimum of the auto-toke for two downs. Fine. Again, no big deal. They players have no idea that there have been two screw ups. Not their fault.

The thing is, dealing at the high limit game is stressful. For thr most part, the players are great, but the game is tough. They play all sorts of games and things in the game are taken for granted (for example, since the BB is $50 it would be assumed just throwing in a $100 chip is a call, they all consider this a raise, unless verbalized). Furthermore there are a few players who are very peculiar about stuff. They may be in the big blind, but do not want the dealer to remind them. They will throw out the blind after the cards are out.

Nothing major, but stressful as a dealer nonetheless. Especually considering the looseness of the game. Compound it with the fact that they they are playing for a ton of money and it can be very stressful. I don't want that to sound harsh. It is a great game to deal. I love it. I really like dealing it, but that doesn't mean it isn't stressful. A dealer always has to be on. At his best or he will suffer.

So I then I (finally) go tap into the rest of my rotation of three tournament tables. I tap out the dealer who effed up and should have tapped me, but skipped me.

I immediately understand. This dealer is probably the nicest guy in the world. I am sure he saves puppies and orphans on his days off. No doubt. Unfortunately he is the worst dealer in the world. He literally does not have a clue. I would rather follow a brand new dealer out of school than him. He is brutal. The rack is always a disaster, and it is a 50/50 proposition that the button is in the right place. He is terrible. I understand why he effed up and I had to deal over an hour at the high limit game.

Fine. Whatever.

The first down goes smoothly. They players are all complementing me about how I am such a good dealer. I am being compared to the worst dealer in the world, so I take it with a grain of salt, but still. Good ego boost.

The 2nd tournament table is the same. Lots of compliments, but context matters. I am literally being compared to one of the worst dealers in the world. Great ego boost.

However, I see that I am not sharp. I am tired. An hour an 20 on the stressful high limit game plus an hour at tournaments has gotten to me after not getting good sleep. I am off. My mistakes are minor. Misreading bets, or missing action. Easily recovering from and the players do not even notice. I do though.

I get to the third tournament table and the players are ecstatic that there is a dealer there with an IQ over 80. They are loving me compared to the dealer ahead of me. I am faster, more efficient, more accurate, everything. Ego boost but whatever. I know I am struggling. I am making minor mistakes that are not seen by the players.

One of the players decides to engage me in conversation. He compliments me compared to the previous dealer. Great. He then asks me about dealer stuff. What makes a good dealer? Does skill matter to the casino? Etc.

I try and engage him, but I know I am dealing terrible. I am dying.

Half way through the down, the shift comes by and notifies me that I am out when I get tapped. My EO. Great. I am so tired and not 100% that I cannot wait to leave.

The player keeps asking me stuff about dealer quality that I am forced to respond. I acknowledge that the dealer in front of me is terrible, but I recognize that most of the dealers at our place are good. He keeps talking to me and pumping me up.

I get tapped and told it is my last hand. 4 players to the flop. Then the turn comes. First player bets, next two fold. I immediately drop the stub, flip the board and push the pot to the first player who bet.

There is still another player to act. Oops.

Fuc$%^=_@. I really messed up. Furthermore, while pushing the pot, I had mixed the board into the muck.

Eff me. I am a dumbass. Kill me now.

I have just been receiving accolades on how I was such a better dealer than the previous guy (true, but still), then I totally eff it up. Worst mistake I could make.

I call the floor over. I explain what happened.

Luckily, I remembered enough of the board that with unanimous consent from the players we are able to properly reconstruct the board to everyone's satisfaction. I pull what I think is the board out of the muck, everyone agrees. I deal the river and the action goes check check.

Calling player had a flush draw and missed. He was fine with it. Turns out that his biggest worry was that we would get the board wrong (i.e. no flush draw and he would have to argue for the board, thereby giving away his hand). He was just ecstatic we got it right without his input.

Everyone at the table was fine.

I dodged a bullet.

It's not you, it's universal-- players complimenting our dealing ensures that we're about to make a mistake. It's the same energy force that gives your opponent his two-outer on the river after he stands up and tells you nice hand.

This is the best understanding of poker I have seen on this site.

Players generally don't gas up my dealing, but if they do, it's pretty likely they're about to suffer an absurd cooler/suckout in the next orbit or 2 I'm dealing to them.

I've got a really nice, pixel-perfect flop but it's like a trauma victim in a psychologist's office: it breaks down if you talk about it.

I'm going back to dealing after several years off. I have heard in my market players are much better behaved in general, especially regulars (maybe because we have staff with backbones now?) is this your feeling for anyone who has been in the industry 25+ years? Or is it market dependant...or do they just want me back in the box because they don't want to be there as often and want someone who knows what they're doing?

And with different cards and fewer people at each table how hard is it goto be to adjust the pitch? We were 11 handed for hold'em when I was at my peak but I think they've switched to 9 handed for hold'em and Omaha. I adjusted to 10 handed okay for the last little while but these hands want to do what they want to do. We were only limit except tournaments when I dealt last and now mostly NL; I know how to deal it and what reopens betting and everything but it just seems so overwhelming change in thinking. Maybe I'm lucky they don't know I'm the last dealer they had who knew how to deal stud and should feel lucky they don't advertise they can spread it and try to keep me in the box for hours until the table agrees to a break again? Anyway! Someone assure me I'm not making a terrible decision.

Player perspective here (and a less frequent one at that), but I don't think anything has changed really. I'm sure things are regional, but management still cares about the same things, players still act the same way, only the tiny details have changed. Pitching to 9 vs 11 seats doesn't matter. Learning NL rules and minutia will happen quickly.

You just need to know why you left the first time, because if it wasn't some externality that has changed (had to take care of a relative, kids were in school and you needed different hours, etc.), then more than likely it will all be the same again, and you'll wonder why you thought things would be any different this time around.

JMO.

In our market the Players are just older (and wiser?) and also having gone through Covid calmed them down quite a bit IMO. There's still the few that 'show' they take it personally that you 'never' deal them a winner (or 'always' let the V suck out).

The issue in our market is the Player Pool is getting older and we need to figure out how to get an influx of younger Players into the live scene. Of course there's no tipping online, so the younger crowd doesn't know what to do about that while some of the older crowd can be seen as 'wonderfully' generous in pots that net them 2x or so. I just saw a $25 tip on a $400 pot just because the Player hit a 2-outer.

I wouldn't think pitching would be a big deal except the initial 8-12 days on your body to adjust muscle use.

I think you're in a great spot the first few weeks as you can always claim ignorance and or make the Players feel they are helping you get readjusted. "Oh really? I'll have to check that out with the Boss .. or would you like me to call the Floor over right now to make sure?"

Players wont forget how you were the last time around that's for sure, so just pretend you were on extended vacation. GL