That makes me sad. I had a hard time with that my first year. Then I became dead inside.

I know I'm not an employee, but I was just walking by and it struck me that this ultimately sums up why poker can't be your life.

Pit vs Poker dealers

I had a choice to make when I decided to get into gaming.

Pit or poker.

I chose poker for several reasons.

1. Smoke free room. Big issue for me.

2. Standing all day instead of sitting.

3. Dealing poker did not require that I win money from players and send them home broke.

Lots of poker players go home broke every day and i do facilitate the outcome to some extent but I don't take their money and put it in the tray with the money that belongs to the casino. The pots go to another player who came in to casino with the same idea, play poker win money.

Then there is the fact that I cannot count to 21 unless I'm naked. This seems to be an issue for management here.

Here's the webpage for the school:

http://www.sheltonspokerdealingschoollv.com/

I would start out just about anywhere in the country, except I would have to think hard about the east coast or california. Would probably eventually apply to deal at the WSOP or somewhere in Vegas. One of the selling points of the school is that it is preminent in training WSOP dealers. As far as I can tell they aren't hiring here in Colorado and the economy in Vegas is one of the worst in the country. I'm not sure I'd be a good dealer anyway, a little blind in one eye.

What's the wash out rate for dealers? How many fair to good dealers with experience are also waiting for the economy to pick up. I'm fresh out of time machine tokens. I've heard they are almost always waiting for Blackjack dealers, that is if the economy is good. Craps too.... Dunno if I'm that excited about working the pit, see Dealer-guys post about taking players money for the casino as opposed to money going between two adults in poker (above this post). Also. is the computerized poker table on the rise and going to put a lot of human dealers outta work?

Whats the issue .... that you can't count or your being naked?

I just wanted to give a big thank you to all the dual rates and supervisors out there who back up your dealers. This may or may not have anything to do with my shift today.

You get a lot more money when you don't send them home broke.

They're real big on being in uniform.

Well, sort of, but let's not forget that the house is a player too, and he always runs like god!

First dealing the WSOP is no longer an indication of anything great. It used to be when the main event drew just a few hundred players and they only hired 50 or 60 dealers. Now they hire anyone who can hold a deck of cards.

Very few if any dealers will lose their jobs to E-Tables.

Let me say also that I have nothing bad to say about pit dealers. My reluctance to deal pit games is simply a personal choice.

No player ever went home saying "Damn that rake sure sucked out on me!" The rake is invisible to most players consciouses.

Funny how those E-Tables spammers from a couple years back sure don't post here anymore.

ANyone else ever get people who love to subtley put you down for being a dealer?

About a year ago this guy at my work was hired in the marketing department and sat down with me in the lunch room and started asking me how long ive been dealing. When i said 2 years he was like my god how much longer can you do it? Dont you want to "do something else" with your life? He was going on and on about his degree and his past jobs

Guess who i just saw on the floor fresh out of the new dealer class?

Not only tht but after talking to him he starts telling me how he wants to move to socal and he hopes he can audition at borona in a year. So even though dealing isnt a "real" job hes now planning on making a career out of it. And i get to share my tips with this jackhole

im 99% sure this is made up...no way it can be true.

Okay, here's a tip story.

Qualifier: I'm not a dealer, and don't play one on t.v.

I'm at the WSOP the year Moneymaker won it. I've been bounced out of the Main Event 'cause I played like a little girl (no offense to the little girls in the audience).

So I jump into a 10-20 PLO game and get stuck 'bout $10,000. Not by playing like a little gir, but playing like an unlucky spew monkey.

Anyway, this post concerns tipping, doesn't it. On with that part of the story. A young dealer sits in the box. I welcome him with the following "You get me even, you get half the profit". He thinks that's a fine idea and off we go! At this point, I'm stuck 'bout $5,000

Now, considering I'm still playing like a spew monkey AND drinking, I'm sure he appreciates the offer, but isn't counting on anything.

But lo and behold, he starts pushing some nice pots my way. In my alcohol fueled state, this eggs me on to crank up the game a notch. With five minutes left in his down, I'm winning $1,200. I ask him if he'll settle for $375. He says no. Fine with me, but I remind him I am still drinking and gambling for the next five minutes of his down. He says "I'll take the $375". Nothing much happens in the remaining minutes, he gets paid.

A few hours later as I'm quitting the game, he and I chat. He thanks me for the tip. I ask if that's the largest tip he's gotten all week. He replies it's the largest he's ever gotten. I tell him to do something useful with it. He thanks me again and says it will enable him to get an apartment that week.

@blackjackpro

Not really putdowns, but on multiple occasions I have seen players become dealers and it is quite amusing how their demeanors change!

@iftn
I wish it wasn't true. I still can't believe it to this day.

@nolimitfiend
That was a very nice thing for you to do. I'm sure you really made that guys week if not month. I only hope your tipping story doesn't draw out the trolls, as there are people on this forum who just wait for someone to talk about tipping so they can pounce and tell everyone what they should do.

Eff the trolls.

It's my money. Whether I choose to eff it off to dealer, dice pit, or flush it down the toilet, it's my business.

No question.

Cool tipping story: Rich business man guy sits down on a friday night, says to everyone how about a round of cocktails? Surprisingly everyone agrees (UK cocktails cost like £5 a pop, bare in mind were playing 1/2) he says ok everyone throw the dealer a £1 and these are on me, he did it twice and ended up winning just under 200 when i left, dealer karma right there!

Back when daily tourneys were "loss leader" promotions to get folks into the room at noontime to start the cash games, I played in a very small (like $20 buy-in) that drew about 50 players, paying 5-6 spots. In this room, not only was deal-making common at the final table, but very often the tourney would end at this point when everyone agreed to an even 10-way chop, regardless of chip counts. Another, less common agreement was to set aside 10% for the dealers (remember, it's a VERY small tourney, we're talking about 10% of very little, so keep it down, TipTrolls).

One last part of the story's set-up: I worked in this room at the time, and was playing on my day off.

We all take our seats at the final table, and immediately all the short stacks ask if we're going to chop it ten ways. I've got about 80% of the chips at this point (literally; half the players came to the final table with 1-2 chips, just trying to stay alive and hoping for the probable 10-way even chop), so all eyes are on me as the likely veto.

"Are you guys crazy? How can you expect me to chop this evenly? You're not even going to offer me a little extra to chop with you?"

No, they weren't, because they knew I depended on their tips to make my living, so they expected me to cow-tow to them. Nobody suggested a single dollar extra for me. Instead, I heard grumbles from folks who threatened to "never tip a dealer again in this joint." Of course, most of those grumblers were already on the stiff list, so hearing them swearing off tipping was like hearing a vampire swearing off Holy Water.

"OK, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. If we set aside 10% for the dealers, I'll agree to chop it."

No fewer than five people declined immediately. Most of them had 1-2 chips in front of them.

Did you at least win the tournament?

People are so oblivious when they gamble...

A woman yesterday was playing blackjack and smoking a cigarette... well, she has the lit cigarette in her left hand and is resting her head on her hand as well... might be hard to picture.... so allow this altered picture of Lance Ito to illustrate the story...



Anyway, she is smoking and playing, and her hair catches fire. Not a blaze... but more of a gray/blue old lady brush fire.

She never notices it. The fire goes out. She continues to play.

Yeah, you're right and that's incredible. To me it feels like a big lead weight that I'm carrying around.

Am I the only one who thinks there should be physical job rquirements for a poker dealer?

Alot of times in Vegas, I'll get a dealer who is so fat, they take up space of seat 1 and 10, at the table, and sometimes the dealer belly covers half of the chip tray. Im seen dealers flopping chips with the almost ready to bust buttons on the uniform.

This excessively out of shape dealer, can almost never scoop or properly push a pot to seat 3 or 8. And is the profuse sweating beast with a usually damp shirt, also not a fan of the out of shape panting dealer.

I think a 4'11' dealer who is 400+ pounds, should not be allowed to deal.

Just a mini rant, if anyone cares?

Also are any of you this fat dealer? Or do you have a fat dealer story? Im curious about this.

Kirk

I'm huge in Japan. And I also beat the **** outta anorexia!