As a player, being the only one to fold pre-flop, I’ve used that line about being the black sheep myself.
And, you’re right, it never gets a laugh.

----------------------

Best line yet from departing dealer to incoming dealer: “It’s all good………………..don’t screw it up!”

My standard line when the big winner is racking up: "Sir, you can't leave! You've still got money left!"

There are a few players who I know well enough to say this to but I do it very seldom.

Usually it's when a regular has just gone all in PF with a very few chips left.

"You are aware that if you took those to the cashier they would give you real money for them, right?"

My favorite reply was the guy who gave me the best dead pan look and said "When did this start? I thought I had to use them all up bnefore I could leave. I've been doing it that way for 4 years? **** man, I thought we were friends!"

Years ago I was dealing and a player asked "where can I cash out?" Another player answers, "I don't know, I have never had any left." I am not sure the second guy was kidding.

I'm gonna steal this one for use in the pit. Brilliant.

so what works well is for you to say all the stupid **** we hear at a table all day every day.... No thank you. I don't get all out of whack because a dealer tells a joke ... but the least you could do is try something that is actually amusing and original.

I make people laugh and I am tipped quite well. I also run a fast and professional game which is never sacrificed by my schtick.

Obviously I am doing something right. Maybe you're just a curmudgeon...

This is awful

If it works for you, great, I find many players prefer to have their own conversations. I tend to speak less than I used to, I find I get more hands out that way.

Maybe, if you spoke less, your game would be even faster and more professional?

But what would I know, or Psand for that matter or YTF or steamraise or well anyone with 5 to 10 times as much experience as the < 1 year you have?

I like my job, I am enthusiastic and I have a lot of fun. I try and let the players have fun too. The percentage of ultra-serious players who hate all human contact other than being shipped pots is pretty small in my room. And those guys live at higher games where I don't do schtick (though I am not above cracking a joke if it seems appropriate).

One of my supervisors who made my review said that he wasn't sure the poker room manager would approve it but he wrote in it that I was a "role model" for other dealers. Admittedly I work at a casino that values personable dealers, but he told me it wasn't just my personality.

I appreciate the wisdom from dealers who have done this longer, but I also go to Atlantic city and see dealers with years of experience who are dead inside, show no personality, just seem like they would rather be elsewhere while in the box (and a lot of them will confirm this by telling you as much).

I am not one of those guys yet. I hope to never be one of those guys. I hope none of you are either.

Not in the industry, and enjoying reading all of the "insider" posts. Thanks for making the guy chucking cards seem human. For the argument raging about a dealer with "extra" personality, I have been playing recreationally for almost 20 years, and the two best dealers that i can remember are vastly different in this area.

One was at PHo in LV, cant remember his name but he looked like "the rock" from WWE, and really said nothing but "thanks!" or called the action and he was FAST AS HELL. The other was in Tunica years ago, and that guy was funny without over doing it, but it seemed to work for him. I played a ton of hands during his sessions, because like the other guy he was fast and accurate. As long as it doesn't slow you down, a little personality is fine, but I bet this is a personal topic that is split pretty even down the middle.

Thanks for the laughs guys!

NYCGuy : I just know if I were playing on your table and you were doing your described routine, I would only be thinking to myself over and over "SHUT THE **** UP!!!!!" But gl if it works for you.

I am very surprised with your location that you would only be thinking it, most people in part of the world just tell the dealer to STFU (or at least they used to). I am probably the most anti-abuse management type around, but somethings the players can police much better than management. When I tell a dealer to talk less in the box, they might blow it off as being old fashioned, when the players say it, they realize that the players want to be left along to play, not listen to someone trying to hustle tips from the casual players.

"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious."
Sun Tzu

"A dealer who knows when he can talk and when he cannot, will be well paid."
Quadstriker

Sometimes it isn't clear. Something I did when I was dealer that I relate to some dealers about the way things were. I have an MA in economics. One day I am dealing a top section game and they are talking for quite a while trying to think of an econ term. Finally I can't hold it in any more, while shuffling the cards, I told them the term they were trying to think of. Their conversation shifted from economics to "nobody was talking to the ****ing dealer" "the dealer should STFU and deal" and "who asked you anything dealer? nobody wants to hear a ****ing dealer talk"

I said one word, that provided them information they wanted, and they swore at me for 20 minutes about it.

I am very non confrontational, if a dealer was doing an act like he describes, I would just put on some headphones and turn the volume up. But when I'm dealing or at work, I have learned over the years that it's best to keep my mouth shut and wait to be spoken to before I speak.

There is a dealer that talks non stop at my place, often with very inappropriate comments. I hear about this dealer more than any of the other dealers put together, and it is almost completely universally negative. Every once in a while I will hear though someone say "oh I love that dealer!" and I am shocked...it's usually 1 positive out of every 15 negative comments, but it lets me see that to some people, a dealer like this appeals to them and they think it's a good thing.

Top sections gonna Top section I guess.

The rooms in my area all started with the simple drop slots in the table for rake and tips (no trapdoor or anything, just an open slot.) One night while getting brutalized at a $1/$2 game dealt by a good friend of mine I was sitting in the 1 seat. This particular room used the right box for rake and the left box for dealer tokes so I had the toke slot just to the right of my stack. Between boredom from lack of hands and tilt from beats when I did catch hands, I was looking for something to distract myself so I started trying to spin singles off the top of my stack and into the drop slot. The first shot I made (after a dozen tries) one of the other players in seat 5 freaked out about how amazing the shot was and blah blah blah. Of course I had to show that it wasn't a fluke after that and I went on to do it again about a dozen times or more at a success rate of about 20-30% overall.

My buddy who was dealing turned to me at one point and said something along the lines of "dude, you're tipping me like a nut without even scooping a pot" at which point I loudly announced that I got more enjoyment out of my dunk game than getting 3-outtered in the actual game and I'd rather give him my money than the bastards I was playing with (all of whom I was actually on good terms with so nobody took that comment badly).

Eventually it became an ongoing game whenever I played there. When scooping bigger pots I would often grab a red-bird and offer him the choice of a standard tip guaranteed or a chance at the red-bird which he only got if I was able to dunk it within 3 attempts. He always went for the gamble and I think he probably came out ahead in the long term because I got pretty good at that spin shot...

You work at a place that rhymes with "zhester"?????

You guys that hate smart-mouthed dealers, are gonna hate this post:

Last night, I got off two funnies. The first one nobody laughed at, but I thought it was funny. Maybe the picture in my mind wasn't sufficiently conveyed by my choice of words. The second one cracked the table up. It's been a long time since I've seen a table laugh that loud.

1. The room I work in has over 30 tables. It's a very long rectangle, about three tables wide and 11 or 12 tables deep. The entrance/podium is at one end, and if you're assigned to table thirty-something, you've got a bit of a walk to get there.

I show up for work mid-afternoon, and I draw the furthest table away. There are only about 10 games going, so it's kind of odd that there would be one all the way back, but being in this business for a while, I could imagine a few reasons why it would be back there: maybe the room was full the night before, and this particular game ran all night and never broke; maybe there was tournament this morning that took up most of the tables, and this was the only available one to start a game, etc.

I get to this table, and see it's a $2-4 limit game. I'm immediately making "second-class citizens" and "back of the bus" jokes...in my head! I didn't say a word.

It's not long before someone asks me, "Why did they put this game way back here?" I had hoped that someone else would answer, but nobody did, they all seemed to be waiting for my opinion.

So I replied, "You ever see that movie Titanic?"



2. That was the first table of the shift. This one is from the last table, a $3-6 limit game.

A few limpers, then the CO, having posted behind the button and seeing his first hand, raises. A few callers. Flop comes something like 986r. BB bets out, one caller (who we'll call "CS" from now on, for "Calling Station"), CO raises again. BB 3-bets, CS keeps calling, CO 4-bets, BB and CS call. Three players will go to the river.

Turn is a J. BB bets out again, CS calls again, CO raises again, BB 3-bets again, CS calls again, CO just calls. A huge pot right now.

River a T, board shows 689JT. BB bets out again. CS doesn't call this time, he raises. CO folds (later says he had KK).

Now it gets strange: BB 3-bets. CS's shoulders slump.

It's the end of my shift, and I'm exhausted, so I guess my poker face fell off and I didn't realize it, because I'm puzzled. CS obviously has a straight, probably the 2nd-nut Q-high, and there's no way BB could have been doing all that raising with KQ, the only hand that beats him. Is CS scared of KQ here?

You know how people lift their cards up and wave around before they fold? You see those cards waving, and all you can think is, "OK, you're clearly folding, will you just let go of the cards so we can get on with the next hand?" It's like the logical part of their brain has decided to fold, but the emotional part of their brain is still dealing with it. Well, CS is making that move, except he's waving a Queen around! Only one hand can beat him, KQ, a hand that BB couldn't possibly have, and he's gonna fold???

CS finally calms himself. He doesn't fold. He doesn't do anything. He just sits there, like a statue.

"WTF is there to think about?", I'm thinking. "There's a million dollars out there, you pay off this last bet without a thought."

By now, way too much time is being taken, esp for such a no-brainer decision. It's time for me to nudge this player to choose an action.

"Maybe he's all-in," I thought, "and didn't mention it." I ask him if he's all-in. He moves his arms to show he has plenty of chips.

I guess my face was saying, "Then WTF are we waiting for?", and he finally called.

BB had QJ, chop it up.

While I'm stacking this huge pot, CS tells the table, "Wow! I almost folded!"

"I almost sh*t," I said under my breath. But when everybody burst out laughing incredulously, I realized that it may have been a little louder than "under my breath." One little curse word from the guy who is never supposed to curse, really sparked some laughter. Everybody howled, and the smiles lingered for the reminder of my down.

Then it got worse. Then he said the reason he called was because the dealer told him he should. Of course, I never said any such thing, but I guess my face was speaking volumes.

Now the razzing starts. "Oh, coaching from the box, eh?"

"I never said a word! Don't buy this 'Oh, the dealer told me to call' speech!"

"No man, it was that LOOK you gave me!"

Luckily, nobody took this seriously, probably because nobody in their right minds would fold in that spot. But the players all took great joy in razzing me for the final minutes of my shift. "You know, you shouldn't be coaching the players from the box during the hand. (Manager's name) would probably frown on that!"

(Heh, as I typed the word "Manager", I remembered that he reads 2+2, or at least the thread devoted to his room. I hope he doesn't read this thread.)

Nothing? Really?







<---Now you understand my Location.

Meh...neither one struck me as the least bit funny. Try again tomorrow I guess.

I'd laugh YTF but I'm too busy laughing at the d-bags currently being 86'd here today for being jerks.

(and lol @ "how much less do you get tipped on average". Take it to the cesspool thread. No Nitting it up here! There's 21846 other B+M threads used for that.)

So enough of boring rake and tipping talk.

I'm heading to Orlando for a week! Anybody here working in that area?

I've played at the Kennel Club/Poker Room in Daytona - 45 mins away - a handful of times. Decent action, and I love that location(deep down, I'm a redneck. But a classy one with a dental plan)