Looking back at my dealing experience having recently retired (just 5 years it was my third "career") there was one aspect of the job I found interesting. Of course, when a dealer screws up, everyone is quick to jump on them and let them know they ****ed up. But when was the last time a dealer did an outstanding job and you let them know with a verbal atta boy?

Just a simple comment like "you did a great job on that 4 side pot hand" or "you handled that situation well" can go a long way to giving a dealer a mental boost to help them get through the night. It's not that we're fishing for compliments,and understand it's the nature of the job. But I've pushed into a table and a player will say "that last dealer is one of the best". I'll pass on the compliment later and the dealer will be truly surprised to hear that, as that player has never spoken two words to that dealer in months.

So I would suggest that once in a while you let the good dealers know you think they are good dealers. A little verbal appreciation in a basically thankless job means a lot more than you would think.

I personally like it if a player smiles to me when I tap in and says hi, taps the table in my direction when I leave, little things like that are nice. Just be nice.

Even the tipping thing, you don't need to shower me with redbirds (though feel free to do so if you are so inclined) - the dollar I get tossed at the end of a down by a player who thinks I did a good job puts a spring in my step as I head to the next table or break.

Great reference. Lots of great examples over the years from tilted stubborn jerks calling because they want revenge to young males trying to impress their girl friends or girls at the table with their fancy play trying to out play the table with mediocre cards.

Looks like this was RR’s last post in this thread, and his last post on 2+2 was 4/20. Anyone have an update on him? I always enjoyed hearing his perspective.

Just treat me like a human being. A little "thanks" if I do something well or above and beyond the basic job description, a "sorry" if you point out an error that turns out to be correct, when you muck or throw chips in, put them where I can reach them. If I'm getting dumped on while trying to do my job such as asking someone to not talk about a hand in progress or calling an obvious string bet, maybe back me up.

The physical act of dealing really doesn't wear on me. The things that crush my soul just a little each time are what makes the job difficult. When someone yells at me for giving them bad cards, when they don't see a raise and blame me for not announcing it (which I did, but they tuned me out), when I ask them a question related to the hand in progress (Was that a check? Are you all in?) and they either don't answer or get snippy, stuff like that. So try not to do those things

"Please" and "Thank you" have gone out of fashion unfortunately. Once saw a quote "Politeness is the cheapest good investment" which I think is accurate.

1. As others have mentioned, simple basic manners ("hello", "please", "sorry", and "thank you") go a long way.

2. Try to be a clean player. What I mean by that is make it blatantly obvious what you are doing. When you fold, throw your cards in the middle and don't just push them 1 millimeter forward and assume the dealer saw that and understands your intent (especially in the 1 and 9 seats). Loudly declare all in and then push all of your chips forward. Don't say it quietly and then do nothing. When you check, actively tap the table so that no one misses it. Nothing worse than someone tanking for two minutes (so everyone else at the table falls asleep) and then they wiggle their pinky finger while playing with chips so absolutely no one else at the table sees it then gets mad when everyone still assumes it is still his turn.

3. Play fast. I don't mean never pause and think about your play. If you have a decision take your time and think it through. I know lots of money is involved. What I am talking about is that if you insist on watching videos on your phone or such, don't let it slow down the game by forcing the dealer to constantly have to let you know it is your action. Pay attention to the game and act when it is your turn. I know sometimes that the player before you can be at fault because they are slow and never clear on what they do, but most good dealers will take that into account and do something to let you know it is your turn. Don't tank for no reason (9,4 offsuit UTG+1). You are not giving away info by folding quickly.. Everyone gets bad cards most of the time so it is ok to fold them quickly.. Dealing to a table where everyone is acting quickly, efficiently, and cleanly is very pleasurable for a dealer. It is easy to deal to.

4. Finally (and this ties into #1 about common courtesy), don't be a pig. Please clean up after yourself. A normal human when they generate garbage (such as the wrapper from a just eaten candy bar) thinks to find a garbage can and dispose of the garbage there. Unfortunately a loud minority of poker players seem to think it is ok to put whatever garbage they generate under the table. I have never played poker at a table that did not have a garbage can within 100 feet of the table. It is easy to dispose of any garbage you have on a hand where you fold. You won't miss anything. I understand that you might be sipping from a bottle.of water that you keep at your feet and then when the table breaks you are eager to get to your new tablenso you forget about the bottle of water. Completely understandable. Eating a bag of chips and then just throwing the bag under the table? You are an *******.. You probably live in your mom's basement and she has been cleaning up after you your whole life. Don't be that person. Someone has to clean up after you. Sometimes a dealer, sometimes a cleaning person. Why make their job harder?

Thank you for your excellent question.

First table of the day I sit down at a $2/$5 game that has seven players. Within the first two minutes two players get up from the table to do whatever it is they are doing (bathroom, eating, prostitute, whatever) leaving their chips behind. So the table is five handed. Someone asks for reduced rake and it is granted. The game is moving very quickly. Four of the players are acting very fast. Two are playing very tight and folding almost everything pre-flop two others are being aggressive and raising a lot pre-flop. The fifth player seems to be struggling. He is playing lots of hands but he he is thinking things through and seems lost. On more than one hand as it plays out he seems to be signaling me by making expressions with his eyes and sighing. The two aggressive players are tipping me pretty well ($1 per hand when the sweep the blinds, more if they take a bigger pot). The two tighter players seems fine with the fast pace so I am flying. I am getting out the cards in a hurry, between hands I am wasting no time. I am happy with the down, 4 of the 5 players seem very happy that the game is moving at a very fast pace. The 5th is miserable.

A half hour goes by quickly and I am soon tapped out.

Something like 3 hours later as I am tapping into a tournament table next to the $2/$5 game, the miserable player sees me and runs over to talk to me. He grabs me and says "Hey, don't get me wrong, you didn't make any mistakes or anything, but earlier when you were at my table you were dealing too fast. When it is five handed you need to slow down because the blinds come around too fast." When he finishes I start to say "Sure, but it affects everyone equally. You get the blinds a lot, but you also get the button and the hijack more so you can steal the blinds a lot more." As soon as the first words leave my lips though I can see I might as well be talking to the potted plant next to us. He isn't accepting any of it. He repeats "The blinds come around faster." Then says "You might make more money if you dealt slower because the players wouldn't have to pay as much in the blinds." I sigh and then say "Thank you for you input. I will consider that next time."

A side note.

The other day I was playing at a nearby casino and there was a player who was a regular at our casino. He is a pro in that he makes his living by playing poker. He was playing and eating a bag of pretzels. He finished the bag and throws the bag under the table. Since I am somewhat familiar with this player and we have talked in the past, I decide to give him a hard time. I ask him why he threw the bag under the table when there is a garbage can literally 10 feet away from him. He looks confused and then responds by asking what difference does it make. I respond by saying that by throwing it under the table, that someone else was going to have to clean up after him. He says"So., that is their job." I don't say anything.

A few days later I tap into a game and he is playing. During my down, I am rather brutal to him. I don't let him take any shortcuts and I repeatedly ask him to clarify any action that could be misinterpreted. When he (sitting in the 9 seat) slides his cards slightly forward and leaves the table before it is his turn, I reprimand him when he gets back not to act out of turn. I ask him to clarify many times if he folded or not when his cards are borderline, even though I know his action. After 10 minutes of this he picks up on it and is bothered. When I tap out of the table he grabs me and asks what that was all about.

I play dumb and ask him what he means. He says "What is with all of the clarifications? You know what I am doing. " I respond "You are a professional. It is your job to be clear. ". I then walk away. I don't know if he ever understood my point or not.

Maybe I was being an *******. . Maybe I was teaching him a lesson about being a better human being.

Whatever.

Unfortunately, you have to keep in mind there are a lot of people out there who have no concept of acting in a manner that benefits everyone. All they understand is what they want and they want it now. They have no interest in learning how to be a better person.

Yeah it's sad. And it's pretty disheartening when you're exposed to these types of people every single day.

I had two players completely lose it last night and both were so over the top I was able to just enjoy the spectacle.

#1 - 5/10NL. Seats 3 and 4 both missed the bb and returned the next hand. I had seat 3 buy the button. Seat 4 was turned around talking to someone and was an old nit so I didn't bother telling him he could straddle then buy it the next hand. He was either going to not understand me or say no.

We get halfway around the table and he turns around and screams "WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE ARE MY CARDS?"
I'm sorry sir, we can't have two people buying the button at the same time so you can come in next hand.
"I'M THE BIG BLIND! WHY WOULD I HAVE TO BUY THE BUTTON!"
You both missed the big blind. He is buying the button this hand.
He's literally screaming at the top of his lungs directly into my face.
"THE BUTTON IS RIGHT THERE! HE'S THE SMALL, I'M THE BIG!"
Sir, you both missed the blind before you returned. He's not the small, he's buying the button. He has 10 in front of him and here's his dead 5 in the middle.
"THE BUTTON IS RIGHT THERE!"
The player who was the BB before chimes in:
"I think the dealer just didn't see you come back. He dealt around you."
Great, thanks for backing me up.
We go back and forth a couple more times in the same fashion with no progress so I try a new tactic.
"It's my fault, I should have properly communicated the situation when you sat down. I apologize."
"THERE'S NOTHING TO COMMUNICATE! I'M THE BIG BLIND! THE BUTTON IS THERE!"

At this point I give up and other than slamming his 15 down to buy the button he seemed to let it go. Eventually he gets the button and the guy who chimed in earlier looks confused when I tell him he's the small. "Remember, were the BB before they came back. That's how this whole thing started." "Oh, that's right!"

FML.

Just like with playing, your mistake happened preflop and was compounded from there.

Just busting chops . OMC went quite a bit overboard about missing one extra hand to hope for aces. But yeah, straightening it out before the deal probably would've left him slightly less cantankerous. Slightly.

#2 - 2/5NL. Very drunk guy with a 90% full beer in front of him.
He shoves. While the other player tanks he calls over a waitress and asks for another beer. He gives her the $2 he had behind as a tip and tells her he'll pay for the beer when it comes (they aren't free in this room) and they go back and forth joking about it for a bit.

The other player folds and we move to the next hand. He tries to re-raise by throwing a single black chip on top of his straddle and I say it's a call. He won't accept this and eventually demands I call the floor for a ruling. While I explain things to the floor the waitress returns. She tells him she can't give him another beer yet so he demands his money back. He starts arguing with her when she says he never paid.

We're on the next street and action is back on him but he won't act until he gets his money back from the waitress. He demands I call the floor. "You want me to call the floor on the waitress?" "It's not about the money, it's the principal! Call the floor!"

I call the floor and they argue for a while. I'm trying to get him to act on his hand and trying to let the floor know that action is on this guy but they're locked in battle. Player is demanding they go to the cameras saying he's been robbed. Literally every other player at the table is telling him he never paid her because he was all in at the time. The floor is trying to explain that it's not his department and he will call the F&B manager over.

Player will not budge. He insists that the floor check the camera and he demands satisfaction. He always pays in advance! It's the principal!

At least he's forgotten about the single chip call. Eventually he sits back down and spends a few more minutes venting about how he was robbed before folding. The whole ordeal took a good 15 minutes. He then follows the floor to repeat himself some more. He's not slowing down the game now but I felt sorry for the already overworked floor.

I consider it more of a bad read - I saw him look down where the big MISSED BLIND buttons were and immediately turn around to talk to someone. I assumed that being a 5/10 player he understood the situation.

You want me to call the floor on the waitress?

Haha pure gold.

in our room, the player cant straddle and play the hand with tje promise of buying the button the next hand. he isnt considered eligible to play a hand if he still has the requirement to buy the button facing him. So Im just curious how other rooms handle this. I've found that most players cant follow the explanation regardless of which way you go with it.

I don't even suggest it as a possibility unless someone is dead set on playing immediately. They're essentially playing the hand as a straddle but still retaining the missed blind button. Even if they don't follow through and buy it the next hand it doesn't mess anything up other than a little added confusion.

They'll get confused when you tell them they can't both come back in the same hand anyway.

The waitress story is a good one.

I try to get very proactive in this spot and walk them through it before anyone starts posting money. "Okay you both have missed blinds so you have the first chance to buy the button" while pointing at the first spot.

Once someone puts out money explaining to them why they can't is challenging, yes. If you get in a tough spot with this, a visual aid can help with your explanation (moving the button again and showing the second guy that they'd still wouldn't be the button after this hand even if they posted now.)

So tonight I tap into a tournament table and within a few hands the blinds go up to the 400/800 level (with an 800 big blind ante). The player in seat 3 has about 9000 in black $100 chips and there is about 3000 spread among the other 8 players. In tournaments we do not have any chips in our racks to make change with. So almost every hand I am taking a $500 or $1000 chip and sliding it to a player asking him to change it for me so I can make proper change for the bets. Everytime I go to make change, the 3 seat (with all of the black) is busy. He is turned talking to a waitress, or standing back from his seat stretching, or what not so I never get change from him, but someone else seems to always have just enough so I was able to make do. Finally one time I catch seat 3 in his seat so I slide him the $1000 chip the big blind gave me for his ante and ask him to please change it for me. He slides it back and says sorry, but he doesn't make change. Huh? What? Ok whatever. I get change from another player and continue on. A hand or two later, seat 3 throws out a $1000 chip as a limp. I make change for everyone else (another two limpers and the big blind) by getting it from other players on the pot.. But there is literally no one else at the table who has enough $100 chips to break his $1000 chip for change and there is no more black left in the pot. So I ask him to put in exact change. Initially he refuses, I then tell him that there is literally no other way for me to change the chip short of calling a floorman and asking him to bring more black to the table for change. He hesitates for a second, getting ready to argue with me, but as soon as I start to call the floor he relents and throws in a purple $500 and 3 $100 black chips. I bring everything into the middle and put out a flop. On the flop the big blind bets $1700. Two people including seat 3 call with everyone putting out exact change. So I burn and turn. While waiting on the action I take 5 black and a purple out of the pot and slide them to the player who is going to be big blind next hand and tell him to give me a $1000 chip.

Seat 3 goes crazy. He starts screaming that I can't make change out of the pot for a player who isn't in the pot, and that if a player wants chips from the pot they should win it. I look up for the floorman and see him a couple tables over talking to another dealer, but he looks up because he sees seat 3 screaming. So I look at seat 3 and ask him if he wants me to call over the floor. Seat 3 just continues to yell that I can't do that, so I call over the floor. The floor quickly comes over and asks me what is going on. I tell him that seat 3 has a complaint about the way I am dealing. So the floorman walks over to seat 3 and asks him what the problem is. Seat 3 tells him that I was making change from the pot for a player who wasn't in the hand. The floorman obviously looks at him like he is crazy so he comes back over to me and asks what is going on. I tell him that seat 3 refuses to make change and there is not enough black left on the rest of the table for me to make change so I was thinking ahead to the next hand and made change for the next big blind. Floorman stands there for a second looking dumbfounded. He then shakes his head and you can literally see the thought running through his mind that he isn't getting paid enough for dealing with this ****. He sighs and says he will be right back. He goes and gets a rack of black and makes change with all of the other players at the table.

I soon tap out and he grabs me and asks what that was all about. I shrug and tell him it was exactly like I described. He refused to make change but had almost all of the black on the table. There was nothing else I could do. He shook his head and walked away.

The funny thing about this whole episode is that I am always quite sensitive to making change from the pot. Back in the day when the Hard Rock (Las Vegas) poker room was a thing there was a player who went by the nickname "Iceman". He was a notoriously tight player, and he also collected the $5 Black Cat Hard Rock promotional chips. So whenever one of them was in the pot he would ask the dealer to exchange it for another $5 chip, even when he wasn't in the hand. I used to taunt him by putting those chips out but asking the dealer to refuse to exchange them and telling Iceman that if he wanted the chips he should play more hands and win them.

As a dealer I am also aware of who put what type of chip into the pot. So if on a hand one players bets a stack of red and another player calls with a black chip, if they end up chopping the pot, I try and give the player who bet the black chip his chip back and give the other player a stack of red. I know it isn't super important, but I think it is just a courtesy and players should get back what they bet. I am not real strict about it, but I try the best I can.

So I am sympathetic to seat three complaining about me making change from the pot for a player who isn't in the hand, but I also think that his attempt to horde all of the black on the table is just a dick move that just slows the game down and makes it hard on everyone else (players and dealers).

I've dealt to some players like that in tourneys. But I guess our room just takes a stricter approach. We dont let players refuse to make change. If a player who has a large number of the smaller chips refuses, we simply say that in a tournament all players are required to make change as no change is kept in the well. Likewise, when a player with tons of change tries betting with a big chip I cant break, I just tell him that I cant ask another player to make change for a player who has change himself.

In the rare instance someone decides to keep fighting it, the floors always back it up. In cash games we will honor players superstitions about making change as we can work around it. But never tourneys.

As a player, if that guy was at my table, I would ride him mercilessly.

One time I had a chip hoarder who also wouldn't make change. He literally had all of the smaller value chips and refused to make change, even putting out a big chip when in the blinds when he knew he had all of the smaller chips.

He argued so I called a floor but the room was busy and the supervisor was dealing with something elsewhere so we just sat there. Clock going. Players getting angry but I literally cannot do anything at this point but wait - either he relents so we can move on or we wait. And wait.

Fortunately the other players were all on my side and proceeded to destroy the hoarder until he finally relented. For the rest of my down he sheepishly made change as needed without any complaints.

This isn't that difficult to work through.

Cash game: The chips belong to the players. The player can put the chips in his pocket. Take them home. Use them to pay for food and drinks. Take them to a blackjack table. Player doesn't want to make change? Well, he's a jerk, but it's his right.

Tournament: The chips do not belong to the players. If a player puts the chip in his pocket he can be disqualified from the tournament. The chips can't be used for anything outside of the tournament. The chips belong to the casino. If a player refuses to make change, give him a warning. Then give him a penalty. Then give him a more severe penalty. Then disqualify him from the tournament.

As a side note, what happens when it's time to color up the black chips. Does this guy plan to refuse to cooperate with this as well?