I am getting ready to tap into a $5/$10 table. I do not recognize anyone except two older gentlemen whose pictures are in the dictionary next to the definition of OMC. They both play extremely tight and extremely passive. Extremely. I have seen both of them make ridiculous folds that would get lots of laughs here.. I am pretty sure that they go weeks between the time they say the word "raise" because they will only raise on the river when they are absolutely positive they have the nuts.They both probably barely breakeven players only because there are enough hotshot tourists who think if they bluff just one more barrel, the old man who has checked to them on every street will fold. These two are sitting in seats 8 and 9.

The other dealer taps out and doesn't say a word to me. I tap in and ask for time collection. As usual most players ignore me and I have to ask multiple times. The player in seat 4 is not at the table so I reach over and grab a $10 chip off his stack and start to make change for it. Seat two immediately explodes and start berating me saying it is a new player who has not played a hand yet. He even uses a curse word and implies I am stealing for the house. I ignore his insults and simply apologize and state that I did not know he was a new player. Shame on the previous dealer for not telling me, but an innocent mistake that is easily corrected. I collect time from everyone and set it aside and start dealing.

As the first couple of hands are going on, I start to tune into a conversation that seats 3 and 5 are having. They are arguing whether seat 8 or seat 9 is tighter. They are both pretty much mocking them as much as they can without actually openly insulting them. As I listen more it becomes apparent that every one else at the table wanted to implement a mandatory $20 straddle, but these two declined.

So early in my down, a hand arises between seat two and seat eight. A third player raises preflop, seat 8 and seat two both call. The flop comes three spades. Seat 2 bets out, the preflop raiser folds and seat 8 (OMC) calls. Turn is a blank and seat 2 bets out, seat 8 calls. River is a blank. Seat two thinks a really long time and fires a third bullet. Seat 8 practically jumps out of his seat, catches himself and then obviously fake tanks for 30 seconds. He then says raise and goes all in. Seat two immediately looks like he is passing a kidney stone and goes into the tank. He obviously knows he should fold, but he keeps thinking. Eventually he pushes a stack out and says "call". Of course seat 8 turns over AK of spades for the nut flush. Seat two angrily throws in his cards and they hit my elbow and flip over revealing top pair, mediocre kicker (QJ on a Q high board). He then gets angry at me for exposing his cards despite the fact that he threw them at my elbow. He was obviously embarrassed that he made one of the most stupid calls could possibly be made in a $5/$10 game. I count seat 8's chips and try and collect the correct amount from seat 2. He literally argues about every aspect of the countbthat he can by insinuating the stacks are not 20 chips high and makes me count each and every stack twice. In the end my initial count is correctand he flings a bunch of black chips to cover the bet across the table. I collect them and give them to seat 8 and push him the pot.

As I am dealing the next hand, seat two pulls out some cash and places it on the table. I ask him how much he wants. He says "I am not going to do your job. Do your own job and count it.". So I finish dealing the cards and state cash on the table plays. I bring in the money, count it, and put it back in front of him while announcing the amount and pushing the button to call for a chip runner. He argues with me over the amount (I announced it as $800, he thought he had an additional $1000). As the hand plays out, the chip runner comes, she counts the money and announces it as $800. Player said he wanted $1000 and gives her $200 more. I tell him only $800 plays this hand since that is all he threw out. He gets angry at me ( a reoccurring theme here) and folds his cards by throwing them accross the felt where the hit seats 7 hand/cards. I collect them and warn him about about throwing cards.

A few hands later, he gets involved in a hand with the player in seat 9 (OMC#2) . Predictably, he three barrels in OMC#2, OMC#2 calls him down with a strong hand and seat 2 gets angry/embarrassed that he lost. Somehow he blames me for the river card that missed his draw. After doubling up seat nine, seat two is left with a large stack of $10 chips probably $370 high.

A few hands later when seat two is in the big blind, the player in seat 6 raises preflop to $60. Folds around to seat 2 who pushes his stack of $10 chips forward. Since seat two still had 7 or 8 in $1 chips, plus a $5 red chip behind I announce raise and say seat 2 is almost all in. He looks at me ready to argue. I point to his remaining chips and he looks surprised. Seat 6 puts out 4 black chips next his $60. I look back at seat two and he had thrown his $5 redbird plus the $1 chips next to the rest of his chips. I announce an all in and a call. I run the flop, turn, and river. I then look to seat two to show his hand. Seat two then looks at me and says he doesn't have to show his hand since he called the 4 bet of seat 6.

Now technically, seat 6 did not reraise the initial bet of ~$370 raise of seat 2 when he threw in the 4 black chips. Seat 2 adding the extra $12 was just a courtesy understanding that no one is going to fold $12 in a $800 pot on the flop.

This is a no win situation for a dealer. If I were to strictly and technically enforce the rules and push back the $12 preflop and make seat 2 bet bet it on the flop, every single player at that table will think I am wasting time. If I don't, I am opening myself to angle shoots over the last $12 and arguments over who has to show first.

So seat 2 starts to argue that he doesn't have to show first since he thinks he used the $12 to call the reraise of seat 6. I start to explain that technically seat 6 did not reraise, but as I open my mouth I instantly know seat 2 will use this for an angle shoot over the $12. Luckily seat 6 solves the dilemma by turning over his cards showing pocket 8s. Seat 2 throws his cards accross the table, and starts berating me how he was doing my job for me by waiting to show since he called seat 6s reraise. He goes storming off. As he is storming off, I cannot help but needle a little bit by asking him if he is coming back and then saying I guess not and wishing him a nice day.

A couple of years ago, I would have been flustered and bothered by such a player. Now, I find it funny. Obviously I will treat all players respectfully and professionally, but if they choose not to act in a respectful or professional manner I know it is their issue, not mine. The worse their behavior, the easier it makes to privately laugh at them.

I guess my point to this long rambling post is to let other dealers know that dealing with difficult players is just part of the job. Maybe some players are angry because the are losing money, maybe some are angry because their wife left them, maybe they are just *******s. Whatever it is, just realize that it is their problem, not yours. As long as you are doing your job and trying to be respectful, their behavior does not matter. If anything, it provides good fodder for laughs afterwards. It is not worth taking personal and getting offended by. Life is too short.

I am the exact opposite. As a qualifier, I completely understand this is a different strokes for different folks type of post, but I am in a very different place than you.

I previously worked in the corporate world. I did consulting where I worked on projects where I would have to occasionally work 80 hour work weeks where the end result would mean millions of dollars for the client. The stress was unreal.

I semi-retired and now deal poker. Now my hours are short. When I clock out I leave every thought of work behind. If customers are *******s, it doesn't affect me beyond the 30 minutes I have to deal to them. If anything, it provides good stories. I get paid to occasionally see some great high level poker. I get to over hear some great conversations between some incredibly intelligent people.. if a down is great and has great players, I get to enjoy it. Of it sucks, then 30 minutes later, everything changes.

Life is good.

As an example of some of the unreal conversations I have gotten to listen to, I think back to early March 2019. COVID was starting to be a thing. Poker players being the degenerates they are, a discussion broke out estimating the number of deaths that were going to come out of the pandemic. A couple of players decided they were going to bet on the outcome of COVID. They wanted to bet on the number of deaths that would result. At the time, the only prior experience had been SARS a few years earlier. As a result, the participants were throwing out numbers of deaths in the thousands, a few going as high as 20 or 30 thousand. The players involved were willing to put thousands of dollars on their numbers.Those conversations are almost a joke in retrospect given that the number of deaths are orders of magnitude greater and still climbing.

Give one of the incoming dealers the break to get dealer 1 out and have the other dealer be deadspread hoping that list goes.


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Our room deals them in until missing a blind and it 100% saves time/nonsense for everyone


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Dealing in a tournament, blinds are at $200/$400. A couple of limpers then this older gentlemen throws in a $500 chip while he says something. It sounds to me like he said $2000, but I was unsure (there was lots of background noise, he was a soft talker, and he had an accent). I was also confused by the $500 chip. So I hold up my hand to hold the action and ask the guy what he said. He points to the chip and clearly says $2000. As he points at the chip he realizes it is a $500 chip so he quickly grabs it and throws out a $5000 chip. I announce the bet as $2000 and point to the next player (who had not acted yet at all). The next player then starts arguing that it should only be a call since he only threw out a $500 chip. I explain that the player announced $2000 when he threw out the chip, so the declaration of the bet matters. He argues some more so I call out for the floor. He then gets mad at me for calling the floor saying that there is no need for the floor to get involved. He then throws out 2 $1000 chips for the call. Another player calls and it folds around to the first limper. He now claims that the guy said $5000 and it should be a $5000 bet. I explain that I heard $2000 and even had him clarify the $2000 bet before there was any further action. He continues to argue so I call out for the floor. The player is a Reg who I have seen many times and should know this rule. I am actually a bit confused as to why he is arguing like he is. The floor comes over and I explain everything that happened including the initial $500 chip and the first players complaint.

After the long winded explanation the floor says that it is a $2000 bet because verbal is binding and the amount was clarified before any further action. Initial limper argues some more then when the floor said his ruling was final the guy turned quiet, thinks for a minute then says that he is all in and shoves his chips forward as they scatter all over the table. I retrieve them and the floor warns him to not scatter his chips. It is a huge overbet. Something like effectively $50,000 into a $6000 pot. The original raiser (Mr. $500 chip) goes into tank and thinks a long time. The floorman stood by the whole time. A player calls the clock and while the floorman is giving his spiel, the guy folds. The next $2000 caller then goes into the tank. Eventually he calls and puts all his chips out ($50,000 total which the original all in player covers).

I guy who complained enough to have the floor called immediately smirks and turns over pocket aces. The other guy dejectedly turns over AQ. I deal out the board and the aces hold up. The player is smirking from ear to ear.

As I push the player all of the chips, the floor walks away. A few minutes later he comes back and asks to speak to the player away from the table. They are standing behind me so I can hear most of the conversation. The floor basically tells the player that while he is happy to handle any disputes or legitimate complaints, he should not be used as a prop to induce action to get other players to call. He warns the player against doing that in the future. The player feigns innocence and the floor just warns him for the future.

The player comes back to the table and over the next few hands him and his neighbor have a good laugh over the hand. Then their conversation turns to the floorman and the guy starts to get agitated that he was called out for his behavior. Him and his neighbor then start talking about the floorman and I get tapped out.

A couple of hours later, as I tap out of a game, a different floor grabs me before I can tap into the next game and redirects me to the poker office. The head poker honcho wants to ask me about what happened. Evidently, the player went to management and complained that the floorman accused him of cheating.

So I tell the head honcho everything. I tell him all of the action in great detail and I also tell him how the player and his neighbor were yuckking it up afterwards about getting the call. I explain that in my opinion there is no reason to think the bet was $5000. It doesn't make sense to think that the bet was $5000. I could understand someone thinking it was $500. They would be wrong, but I can at least understand why they would think it. $5000 does not make sense. Even if a person thought they heard $5000, the bettor was given the opportunity to clarify and they made it quite clear they wanted to bet $2000. Also, if he thought it was $5000, why wait until it was his action to argue? Other players acted on the $2000 and he clearly saw their action. Given the fact that the player was laughing afterwards with his neighbor I am quite certain that he intentionally decided to argue with the floorman in order to get fake angry because he knew he was going to lose the argument and he wanted a call on his shove because he looked angry. I also mentioned that there was two other regular players at the table and that he might want to ask them their opinions because I am quite sure they would support my views. I also said that I never heard the floorman accuse the player of cheating. He simply told him to not use the floormen as props.

The end result was the floorman was warned to be careful and nothing was done to the player, but he was politely told to be careful with his floorperson interactions in the future.

Thoughts?

Actually, the more I think about this the more pissed off I am. It is quite clear the Reg knew what he was doing by arguing with the floorman in an argument he knew he was going to lose so he can appear angry.

I think that is a bit cheesy and rather over dramatic, but I can sort of admire the quick thinking and ingenuity required to make such a move. I am not sure I could ever do it, but if I had thought of it and actually did it, I would just sheepishly accept my scolding from the floor and move on. Instead this player decided to double down and escalate it to management. Rather than acknowledge his position, he actually tried to get the floorman in trouble (possibly fired). That does not sit right with me.

"Are you serious? I was going to let you off easy with just the warning floor X gave you, but if you want to die on this hill, here's a 30 day ban. We are serious, don't use floor calls as props in your attempts to incite action. "

I've seen similar behavior, and did some 'angry' acting/speech play on my part as well, and it's 'always' AA/KK.

Obv this is a good one to pass down the grapevine and it could be disappointing that a Reg would possibly ruin his room rep with the Dealers over this spot.

Yes, potentially 'quick' thinking while you were clarifying action he saw an opportunity to turn the 500 into 5000 as an angle.

While this is not a case of being a 'skipped' Player, we could apply that standard to this spot and explain to the Player that the bet was established/verified and significant action has already occurred behind.

Did he put those chips to good use? Or did karma catch him at the bubble? GL

Not only is it unacceptable to use the floor as a prop in your game, it is unacceptable to spray your chips all over the place, and it is completely unacceptable to burn minutes off a tourney clock making an argument not in good faith just so you can angleshoot. Agree with dinesh's post above, enjoy your 30 day ban.

If it's a reg who isn't known for hardcore tilting it's always AA/KK. Casino, "serious" home game, penny stakes game, doesn't matter. If somebody calls for the floor and you're sure they know 100% what the ruling is going to be, you should immediately expect for them to have a different agenda. Shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what that is. Did anyone reading the post not immediately think "has to be aces" once they got to the all-in part?

All that over the top dramatic stuff basically means nuts. The fake fold followed by "I didn't realize I could check!"; the "Oh no, I grabbed the wrong chips!"; the "Wait, I meant to call!".

Dear fellow dealers, I do not care about your fantasy football team, your parlay bet that almost hit, the latest crypto trend, or how you’re getting so unlucky tonight when it comes to tips. Please do not sit by me in the break room when I am at a corner table with my AirPods in. That is all.

Yeah it's amazing how bad some people are at reading situations in general.

We have a semi reg who thinks himself a master of mind games, though I don't recall seeing him have a winning session. The other day he was heads up on the river. Player A bets 25, reg pushes out 50, pulls his hands back and I announce raise to 50. He says "Wait, I just wanted to call. Do I have to leave that out?" and pulls the 50 back. I repeat the bet is 50. He continues to argue but eventually puts it back. A thinks about it for a while then shoves. Reg snap calls and shows the nut full house beating A's nut flush.

Later on I'm dealing to him at another table and he goes "That was a great move, right?" I say "I'm surprised he shoved, it was obvious you had the nuts." "What do you mean? I played that perfectly! I got him to put all his money in."

He continues bragging about his play through that night until he can't get any more money out of the ATM, and brings it up again the next night. I'm happy to no longer have him see me as his nemesis (whole other story from years ago) so I mostly try to stay quiet and let him talk himself out.

Just reading that put me on tilt. F*ck that guy.

Two questions for the other dealers out there: First, I was always under the impression that the original bets/calls should NOT be pulled into the pot when a raise is made unless the player facing action requests it. (I believe TDA rules specifically prohibit pulling in bets without request.) Yet I constantly see dealers automatically pulling in the bets, unrequested, when I'm playing cash. So, is this acceptable in cash games but just not in tourneys, or are these dealers wrong?

Second, when the final board contains four clubs and one player shows a hand with the 2c, then another player shows a hand with the 4c, what is technically the correct way to announce the winning hand? "Four-high flush" sounds both wrong and right. Thanks.

[mod: moved back to breakroom thread and edited to make clearer it's a breakroom question - some of the responses below are from when I had moved the post to the LC thread.]

Room dependent, but in general, no, no one should be pulling in bets unless asked (or sometimes even then), whether cash or tournament.

As for announcing hands, that's also room dependent, or dealer dependent if the room doesn't have a standard. I prefer saying "flush with the 4" or something along those lines, because it is clearest and gives the pertinent information, but others insist that dealers should only say flush, or say "K hi flush" or whatever unless someone asks. Or the player will themselves announce it as K hi flush and try to hide the fact they they are only contributing the 4. Not my preference, but each room is different.

relatedly, I also prefer pushing up (or down) all board cards that make the hand, including ones that are duplicated in a player's hand. So if the board is AKQTx and the player holds QJ, I would push up the AKQT, and not just AKT, even though that player also holds a Q in their hand.

Cash dealers do a lot of things that aren't technically proper procedure in order to speed things up and because some players prefer it. In some rooms, pulling in bets becomes the preferred way for the better dealers to do it.

You aren't likely to get much traction by complaining. You'll just have to get used to it.

I also announce flushes like that as "flush with the 4" because "AQ874 flush" is confusing.

I never pull in bets before betting is complete. I think it can add to confusion and doesnt really add any advantages.


If there is only one flush tabled, I just announce flush. If there is more than one flush, I announce X high flush where X is the highest flush card in the players hand. I have never had any confusion with it. Sometimes a player (usually not in the hand) will say "isnt that an A high flush. And I say yes, but everyone who tables a flush has an A high flush, so that doesnt identify the winner. So I announce the card that determines the winner.

I have found this a very clear and simple way to announce flushes. It's like a shorthand. If the board was a k q hhh; and one player tables 56hh and another tables 78hh, you would technically announce AKQ8 high flush and AKQ6 high flush. So the shorthand is just dropping the common cards. All the players get it.

Some dealers pull in bets because they think it speeds up the game, but its bad because it can influence the action and also make end up slowing down the game in big pots by making it more confusing for players to reconstruct the action when pot starts to get big.

politely speaking to dealer or floor can often fix this issue, as good dealers absolutely don't do this unless a player specifically requests it

I always discuss this with Dealers if I see them doing it.

They generally think that it 'makes the action clear' to everyone, but it provides a 'free' look at the pot odds visually .. which is not something they should provide without being asked first as noted. It's also 'more work' .. and Dealers should figure out ways to be more efficient, not less. (This opens up the discussion of 'making the pot right' when you know that Players are going to RIT)

As far as the Board announcement .. I like 'flush with 4 kicker' or 'flush, 4 plays' or 'flush using a 4'. No reason to say 'high' in any flush hand when 'most' of the cards would be shared to begin with UNLESS a card from a Player's holding is actually the highest card. Obv up for debate and as long as the message is sent somehow in the ever versatile English language. GL

The problem I see is that here the ones that pull in the bets think they are the good dealers. They won’t be afraid to tell you that. Usually right after spending 30 seconds of bs on their fantasy football.

I do not pull in bets unless asked.
I call a hand a flush and push up the cards.
This is how I was taught.

Flush with the X.

Let me start out by saying that I almost never bring in partial bets. I do not like it done when I am playing so I try not to do it as a dealer. I will only do it when I am explicitly ask to do so by a player who is facing a raise. Even then, I will tell the player the amount of the raise and see if that is sufficient before bringing in the partial bets (i.e. initial bet is 17 then raised to 55. If initial better asks me to bring in the 17 I will tell him it is a 38 dollar raise and then pause to see if that is enough). More often than not, the player just wants to know how much more the raise is.

That said, a few days ago I brought in partial bets on my own without a request from a player. I was dealing at a $2/$5 game and there was a player who was quite inebriated. The game was moving quite slow because every decision he made took 30 seconds at minimum and of course he was playing nearly every hand.

Pre-flop the drunk guy raised a random amount (literally he grabbed some chips and tossed them in). He got three callers. After the flop a player checks, drunk guy throws in random chips ($65), player folds, another slightly inebriated player pushes a pile of chips forward that is clearly a raise. The last player folds and action is back to the drunk. I stack up the pile of chips and announce the raise to $180. The drunk guy stares at the board for 30 seconds, then looks at his chips, then stares at the board some more. Finally he asks me what the raise is to. I tell him $180. He starts to stack up calling chips but it is quite clear he doesn't know how much he needs to call. He asks me again what the raise is. I then tell him that is is raised $115 to $180. After stacking up a few too many chips in front of himself he accidentally knocks the stack over and asks me what the bet is. I tell him that the bet is $180. It is clear he is trying to visually figure out the amount so I grab his $65 and $65 from the raise and tell him that I am bringing in the initial bets. I then clearly cut out the remaining $115. He looks at it a bit then grabs a black chip and 3 reds and throws them in.

I am quite sure that literally no one at the table got mad at me for bringing in the partial bets, but that was an extreme example and not something I would normally ever do.