I never suggested either game should expect to collect max rake. But dropping $2-3/hand will more than pay for the light bill.

you said that we would be surprised how profitable it is... in comparison to what? to not having a poker game yes. in comparison to having other staked games no. 5-10lo8 hits max rake almost every hand. 5-10lhe, 20-40lhe do as well. no limit - 1-2 and 2-5 always hit max rake unless chopped at my casino. 2-4, 1-3 stud, and 10-20 rarely ever do. 1-3 stud game has the same last dollar taken when the pot reaches $40, same thing as 1-5 stud. How do they expect to get that.

So yes, $40-60 an hour per table is decent money but not when compared to $80-$100/hour/table that the other games are making.

Our room really needs to get rid of 1-3 stud and make the ante for the 1-5 game be $1. this would eliminate the silver halfs and dealers and waitresses would at least get a dollar for tips. We have some 4-8lhe and 5-10lo8 players who will play one hand at 1-3 stud, ask the dealer for a $10 roll of silver, and then leave and use it to tip their normal game.

YES i am grateful for that .50 cents i'm not truly complaining i just hate dropping those stupid silvers into a toke box. we don't keep our own so you try to color up the chips to make them easier to count - well i'm not putting halves into a rack that doesn't have them so I drop them directly. its just annoying.

/rant

Ouch. Even the $4 max bet NH charity games don't have coins on the tables. Stud is $1-4, and they use a dealer button. In a full game, the button antes $3 for the entire table (it reduces in shorter games, but is always a whole-dollar amount).

If you like stud/8, they usually have A COUPLE $1-4 games running at Seabrook. Lately, they've had more stud/8 than hold'em in the cash area!

i hate seabrook. i also hate games with a low. Playing them - i don't mind dealing them at all i'm just not skilled enough to play them and when I take a pot I want to win the pot not share it i'm greedy

the 2/4 limit games deals more hands/hr and makes higher rake than 1/2. How many 1/2 hands get taken down on the flop. How many 1/2 hands take a player 1min to think about his/her action.

I was playing at a 10/25 nl game last night when two players were involved in a big pot. One player went all in and the other was trying to get a read on him, So he say's to the guy "let me ask you a question, have you ever seen a grown man naked?" Other player just sat there stoic with his hands on his chin. He called and ended up winning the pot. I thought that was one of the funniest things i've seen lately

i can get about 18-23 hands of 1/2 in 30 minutes. our 2/4lhe games i'll get in around 12-15. far MORE go all the way to the river with 4 or 5 players in taking 20 seconds each turn to realize that me sayin "Sir/Ma'am its your action" and tapping my hand in front of them means that its their turn. Then they have to take another 10 seconds to look at their cards again because they forgot. Then they ask the rest of the players what they would do if they have top two in this situation. then I have to tell them not to talk about the hand. Then the waitress comes and they forget all about playing poker. 1/2nl players may or may not be as skilled as 2/4 players but they're a whole lot more used to how the pace of the game goes

what? did someone say something?

didn't see your post until now, must have grunched part of the thread, an yes you are correct generally toke is not subtracted from the pot total to determine kill.

Dealers:
What is the most side pots you have had to make in a hand? Do you use any tricks to help remember which players are eligible for which pots? I have seen some dealers mark which seat went all in by stacking chips to indicate the seat number, for instance a stack of 4 chips to indicate that seat 4 went all in on the third side pot.

People tip less than $1 for drinks? Christ, they're already free.

edit -- also interested in ^^ question

I think 4 side pots is my record, but the last two were tiny and manageable.

For some reason, I've never needed to "mark" the pots to label whose all-in created them. When I try, it tends to confuse me, because I tend to think of side-pots as being contested by people who have money in them, and I associate the side-pot with the players who bet into it. Marking it for some other guy sets my brain haywire.

It's like the jars in your medicine chest are marked with what's NOT in the bottle, how does that help anyone?

Some people always seem to be up and away from the table when the drinks arrive.

I've seen dealers make an arrow out of the chips to point to the player associated with that side pot.

I have done this in rare circumstance 4+ side pot hands in O/8.

They aren't free in KC, San Diego, or Oklahoma.

6 side pots.

First down on my first week of my first job as a dealer.

O/8 tourney, last hand before the break (and thus, ending the rebuy period).

Lol, by the time the river hit, the room manager, the TD, both floors, 2 dealers, the owner of the dealer school I had just graduated from, and about 10 or so railbirds were all sweating my table, making sure I didn't completely melt down.

I was convinced that the players (all regs) had struck some kind of deal with the TD to "break in the new kid".

Needless to say I managed to keep my cool and not make any mistakes.

Anyways, that's how I learned how to deal with side pots!

The key is to get the players to help you by announcing who is eligible for each pot. After making the main pot, point to the eligible player who had the lowest chip count "Sir, you can win the main pot". Then build the second pot and point to the next player; "Sir, you can win this and this". Continue until the all the pots are made and assigned.

I've always found the repetition, along with the eye contact I made with the players as I was assigning the pots, made me remember who was eligible for each pot.

It's standard procedure, but doesn't always happen that way.

Incidently, my most tedious sidepot experience while dealing was a five way AI preflop where the players had A's, K's, Q's, J's and, you guessed it, 10's. The stack sizes were $55 to $1200, with 2 players having 1k+. Took me a minute.

Played in a 400+ runner $300+$40 NLHE tourney down to final 16, had a 5-way all in at my table, so 4 side pots, and no one was eliminated on the hand (and there was no "made hand" on the board).

AW

Don't you just leave all in pf stacks in front of the players when theres no further action and then just sort it out at the end? With 5 players all in, if the biggest stack wins he obv just scoops the lot and creating 4 side pots would be a massive waste of time

I recall the most i had was 5 players all-in in an 08 game that in which each pot got split in some form or fashion multiple ways with splits and quarters for the high and having to eventually split the low 4 ways with the A-2's at the end.

I dont normally use any method for tracking who is in for what other that memory, verbalizing who is in for what as it happens works for me. IF i get more than two pots going i may sometimes use the "stack chips for seat number" approach.
I.e 4 chips set in a particular manner indicate...seat for in IN for this pot.

Interestingly what is sometime more difficult is keeping the players who are not yet eligible to showdown from showing their cards.

never leave stacks in front of the players! This can create massive arguments and confusion. Player storms off away from table thinking he is eliminated when he is not (not a big deal in a cash game, just pick him up and bag his chips) I dont even look at the cards that the players are flipping over, I just tell them it is house policy to get all the pots correct b4 dealing out the board.

I once had an all-in player turn up his cards while I was sorting several side pots. I asked him to please wait, and turned his cards face down in front of him.

He turned them up again. Again, I asked him to wait, and turned them down.

He immediately turned them up a third time.

I mucked them.

i generally just turn the hands back over as well, but i like the feigning to the muck move, i may have to use that.

On occasion, when i know who is in the game and pots are pretty simple (not a 5 side pot hand) I will leave the chips in front of the players ...... but generally i like to make all my sidepots even though the players are all yelling at me to just deal the cards.

dealers at my room are required to square pots before dealing cards. it prevents anyone from not paying a bet. which is important b/c they also have a rule that they can't physically take chips from someone if they refuse to pay the pot. i've seen two guys get the boot b/c they refused to pay a pot after calling a bet. one guy did it for 500, another guy did it for 150. they get booted but are allowed to cash out their chips first.

it worries me sometimes. let's say a guy shoves for something really deep (at a 2/5 NL game) on the river like 2k and a guy calls. first guy is forced to show his hand, then the 2nd guy just decides he doesn't want to pay the money. he'd rather get kicked out than lose it.