That is the exact way to think about it. You cannot necessarily control who wins or who tips or how much. All you can do is maximize the opportunity for positive situations. Deal fast and deal clean and in the long run you will make more than someone who deals slow and sloppy.

The only place this breaks is the male/female dealer split. Since a vast majority of poker players are male, female dealers make more in tips (on average) then male dealers do.

Where I mostly play there is a female dealer who is a youngerish Asian female dealer. She is very pretty in a girl next door type of way. She is the nicest person in the world. She connects with everyone. Her smile melts concrete. Her laugh heals cancer. All she has to do is look at you and you feel like the center of the universe. When she looks you in the eye as she pushes you a pot it feels like winning the lottery. The worst part about it is that I don't even think she is really trying. It isn't like she is intentionally flirting or working her charms. It is just her personality/nature.

She is an absolutely terrible dealer.

Part of it is not her fault. Most guys at the table are flirting with her, telling stories, making jokes, and she gets distracted. Even when she is paying attention though she is bad. She regularly misdeclares bets which is bad enough, but then she will pull in three turn bets of three different sizes thinking the are the same. She properly moves the button like 50% of the time. She always loses track of action, etc. Just brutal.

She makes tons of money. Guys will throw her redbird from a $30 pot. The funny thing is I am well aware of the affect she has on males. I know 100% that I am falling under a charm spell, and I still over-tip her compared to other dealers even when i try not to. Almost every male does.

The last room I worked in tracked our hands in limit games and we would have to hit a minimum 15 hands/down. I know if you went six straight months under that you were let go. Before I worked in that room I played pretty frequently and I know quite a few older dealers were terminated over it. They were not bad dealers at all mechanically or in running the game, they were just slow and I know a few of them towards the end were trying to rush too much and made mistakes. I heard a story about one who got fired because in his last month because he was splitting the house drop and making two separate drops (hands were tracked by chips passing through a sensor in the house drop)

I always say it depends on the game. When a room I worked in temporarily had the time raked games from another poker room I generally enjoyed games like 20/40 and 40/80 Hold Em'. Not having to worry about rake is one less thing to worry about. Those games were played very fast and at minimum I would make $1/hand. Very easy down. Once in awhile we had 75/150 Hold Em' and those took time out of the first pot which was fairly simple. I might be in the minority but if I would be happy if I dealt nothing but 20/40 Hold Em'

However I dreaded dealing 20/40 & 40/80 OE & Mixed. Higher maintenance and more obnoxious players in those games that would suck the life out of you.

My friend Katie took down the Casino Employee bracelet at the WSOP last night, becoming the first woman to do so!



She and her mom are traveling dealers and I worked with them at an event I used to deal pre-COVID at the MGM National Harbor.

I am very proud of her!

sometimes i will count hands a dealer deals. it inspires the players and the dealer to go faster. like we are all in it together, going for the record.

40 minute downs, a few times we've gotten into the 40s. i don't remember what the record was though

8 handed no limit hold em

The room I play in (Tampa HR) has a serious dealer shortage right now. The ones who are there are overworked and wait lists for all games every weekend are more than hour at most times day and night. Is this just a local thing or is this happening all over?

to greater or larger extent I think it's happening in many places.

I wish it were happening where I work but unfortunately not.

Lots of shortages in Vegas right now and the EO lists are massive.

My market has to shut down games a few times a week because of staff shortages. It also has to send staff home once in a while because of overages. Player pool has changed massively in the last 5+ years.

Used to schedule for max and let extras take an eo if they weren't needed. Now schedule for minimum and hope next shift has enough coming in to cover.

So last week I had a weird situation arise. I push a pot to a player in seat 2. Just as I do it , a little old lady in seat 9 asks me a question. Now she is wearing a mask and is quiet so I can barely hear her. So I have to turn and lean in close. I am scooping up the cards as I listen to her. It was an unremarkable question that I do not even remember. Anyway, after I help her I refocus on whe table in front of me. I push the button on the shuffler to get the new deck and start the next hand. I notice a single $1 chip sitting on the edge of the table hovering over the rack.

I try and figure out where it came from. I do a quick scan of my rack and it looks accurate. I then think it was a two from seat two. He is a regular and generally always tips so I try and get his attention and thank him as I put it with the rest of my tips. He is talking with the cocktail waitress though so I just start dealing figuring I will thank him when it is over. While waiting for a player to act I realize one of the stacks in my rack is off. I recount the rack and it is a dollar short (some of our chips are really old and worn and some are fairly new so chipstacks can be uneven).

I call over the floor and tell him what happened. I figure during the previous hand I must have disturbed the rack and hit a chip so it was balanced on the edge. I thought it was a tip so I took it, but it wasn't. I just told him that all I wanted to do was take a dollar out of my tips and put it back in the rack. He tells me to hold on and goes scurrying away and I continue to deal.

A couple of minutes later the shift manager comes over and asks me what is going on. I explain it to him. He asks a ton of questions (which seat won the pot, how many hands ago, etc.). He watches me put the dollar back and then walk away. I think the whole thing is strange and a bit of an overreaction, but whatever. I mean here I am trying to give a dollar back to the house. Usually our casino is very relaxed about the racks. They do not care if they are a couple of dollars off.

So I finish my down and start to head towards the back for break. I see the shift manager so I head over to him and ask why the overreaction? He then tells me that he went to the cameras to see what happened. He says I caught a chip with my shirt cuff when I was dealing and bumped it out of the rack to the edge. The fact that he went to the cameras really surprised me. I asked him why they were going to the cameras over a $1 chip, especially since I was trying to give it back? He said that they have been having some issues lately and racks have been way off and they are trying to investigate anything strange. That had been the first day I had been working in a while so I figured it had nothing to do with me .

Fast forward to today. After dealing a bunch of tournament tables, I tap into a $2/$5 table. Near the end of my down the shift comes by and asks me if my rack is accurate. It was, so I tell him so. He then asks me if I am sure? I tell him that I counted it at the beginning of my down, but I jokingly tell him I can count it again if he wants (we joke with each other a lot). He stands there for a few seconds, so I awkwardly quickly count the rack again and it is correct. I tell him it is spot on. He sort of nods to himself and walks away.

When I get tapped out for break I go find him and tell him that I was sorry that I did not hear the call for rack counts otherwise I would have checked it more recently. He said they didn't call for rack counts, he was just specifically checking that table.

I pause and my mind is racing. I am wondering if I am in trouble for something I do not even realize. Did I somehow screw up when someone bought chips?

I think my shock and puzzlement showed on my face because the shift manager quickly told me not to worry that it was not me they were worried about.

An hour later, I am sitting at a table and see all of the tables around me get tapped out but my replacement never comes. I don't wear a watch so after a few minutes I ask a player what time it is. The push is now 10 minutes late. I call over the floor and let him know. He tells me that he knows I haven't been tapped out yet. He says I will probably have to do a double down. Ok. Eventually I get pushed by a different dealer. For the rest of the day I never see the dealer who was originally pushing me. I ask a floor and get a hushed "We aren't going to talk about that.". Later I corner a floor who I am very good friends with. They tell me that the dealer following me was fired for theft. I guess they were stealing from the rack.

I will never understand why people will risk a decently paying job for a few extra bucks.

I do not know if this belongs here or not (so mods please feel free to move it if it is inappropriate).

There has been a trend lately in tournaments of putting all your chips in the pot except a single chip.

I do not understand this.

Example: blinds are $300/$600. A player raises to $2000. A different (short stacked) player shoves for $10,300, leaving a single $100 chip behind so technically they are not all in.

What is the purpose of leaving $100 behind? Are they going to fold if reraised.

I ask this because it has come up a lot and it has caused friction. Players have gotten angry because I did not realize that they were not all in and that they had left $100 behind hidden behind their hands.

Is there a strategic reason to do this or are they just being idiots?

Able to stall if the bubble is about to burst or a pay jump. Can fold if in late position and they think the bubble will burst or pay jump happens the next hand. Basically trying to steal the pot by saying they are committed without actually committing everything. It’s a move used in online tournaments a ton.

I will add that it has 'in hand' consideration as well. If a short stack 'almost' goes all-in but then two big stacks both shove, then they can fold and hope there's an elimination for the pay jump or bubble (which is a pay jump in itself). GL

Often they do it out of carelessness. They push a bunch of chips forward not realizing there is one being used as a card protector.

Sometimes they do it to be silly.

They can fold if they whiff the flop and still be at the table to maybe stick around for a pay jump or get another chance to win a pot.

In bounty tournaments it might encourage the other players to raise and isolate them for some dead money.

Big blind antes make being super short more attractive because if they triple up they get 300+the 600 ante and can wait a few hands before being forced to put it back in.

I try to ask players if they're all in when I can't see any chips.

He didn't do it on purpose, but the Milly-Maker winner only had 25K going into the 500K BB.

So the 'chip and a chair' scenario is actually losing it's flair a bit with 'many' of these spots popping up over the years. GL

I think it's much more useful in post-flop situations, but yes there is strategy behind it:

https://www.pokernews.com/strategy/b...ains-33101.htm

Hypothetical: Are players entitled to hear improperly disclosed information about a hand, the same way they are entitled to see improperly disclosed information? Obviously if a player folds face up (not realizing he has more than one opponent), a player still in the hand who didn't see the cards-- say he's at the far end of the table-- is entitled to see them. But what about verbal information? Say it's 3 ways, and a player-- thinking it's heads-up-- folds to an overbet when a fourth club hits the river and says, "Guess my queen of clubs is no good." Then the third player in the hand asks, "What did he just say?" Are we supposed to repeat what was said? And the bigger question: if the player didn't hear the comment because he's wearing headphones, does that change things? I mean, he did choose to be a headphones guy...

In your particular example, no one who could get an advantage from hearing the comment has heard it.

Here is a new one on me.

7 handed mix, super Stud 8 round which is played 6 handed. The sit out goes around in order and it is the sixth hand so seat 6 is sitting out.

Seat 1 completes, seat 2 limps, seat three completes. About this time there is a commotion between seats 5/6/7. Apparently seat 6 (new, clueless player) mistakenly has a upcard but correctly no down cards.

Usually the players will just make a ruling here, but no one had any idea what to do. Suggestions were misdeal (despite too much action) or shift seat 6s card to seat 7 and make seat 7s card the burn. Seat 2 wants his limp back and to be able to fold if this happens.

Floor is called…what is the ruling here?

Since substantial action has occurred, Id say it can't be a misdeal. And since that action occurred with seat 7 having a particular up card showing, I dont see how you can give him seat 6s upcard at that point and force the already completed action to stay. I would probably at this point treat it like a player discovering he doesnt have the correct number of cards after substantial action has occurred. His hand is killed. In a way, seat 6 doesnt have the correct number of cards in that he should have 0 but has 1 card. It's not a perfect analogy but imo seems fair given the unusual situation involved.

That makes sense.

However I have also seen it a few times in tournaments that are no where near the money yet so bubbles and pay jumps are not involved.

I still don't understand why they do it in those situations.

Maybe just saw players do it in the Turbo high rollers so they are copying moves they do not understand.

I had the most frustrating interaction the last second of my last down today.

$2/$5 table. Everything goes smoothly for the 1st 29:45 of my down. The last hand, there is a small raise pre-flop. Three players to the flop. On the flop a player bets, another player calls and the 3rd folds. So far so good. The turn comes and the two remaining players are in seat 1 and seat 9. Seat 9 checks and then seat 1 says "$200" and puts out two stacks of red. I quickly run one down and confirm it is $100 and bump it into the other.

Seat 9 thinks for a long time. Finally he asks seat 1 how much he has left. Seat one moves his hands and shows ~$300 (three stacks of red) left.

A bunch of problems:

1. Seat 1 is Asian and has a heavy accent.
2. Seat 9 is Indian (from India) and has a heavy accent.
3. As the dealer, I am partially blocking the view between them.
4. It is really loud in the area of the room we are in. The speaker playing music above us seems louder than normal. We are at the edge of the room and there is a crowd outside the room talking loudly.
5. Seat 1 has all sorts of crap in his playing area. There are his chips, headphones, napkins, multiple drinks, a chip rack (he was getting ready to leave). It was a mess.

I am leaning backwards trying to let them see each other, but it is still not ideal.

Seat 9 asks if seat 1 has any big chips. Seat 1 is trying to be nice and literally counts out his chips. 2 full stacks of red, one partial stack of $95 plus 4 $1 chips for $299 total (plus his $200 bet).

Seat 9 sees him count them down but cannot hear him so asks if there are any big chips behind. Seat 1 repeats his countdown and declares $299. Seat 9 again asks if there are any bigger chips.

It is obvious that seat 9 only wants to know how many chips seat 1 has and doesn't feel comfortable from his vantage point automatically assuming that seat 1 has just $300 and is worried about him having more. It is also equally obvious that seat one is just trying to make it clear he has exactly $299 behind (again, besides his $200 bet). He wants to make this clear.

It is blatantly obvious that there is a communication issue. Seat 9 cannot clearly see seat 1's chips. It is loud, they both have heavy accents (and are naturally quiet people). A bunch of players tell seat 9 that seat 1 only has $299 behind. Seat 9 is still concerned.

Since my relief dealer has already tapped me (I am going home as soon as this hand ends), I tell seat 9 that seat 1 claims to only have $299 behind (100% accurate) and that I verified and it looks like $299. Seat 9 goes quiet and thinks for a while. Finally he folds.

I start pushing the pot/moving the button/dropping the rake/cleaning the table when a player speaks up. He says that nobody should have said anything. He said that the other players were wrong for saying the amount and then he specifically pointed at me and said I was wrong for saying the amount. He started saying that it was a visual game and that no one was supposed to speak and I was a terrible dealer, yada yada yada.

I looked at him and said that yes, it is a visual game, however sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. He then again accused me of being a bad dealer for speaking up.

I just tapped out and let it be, but it left a really bad taste in my mouth (as demonstrated by this post). Yes, technically he was correct, no one should say anything. However, being technical ignores all sorts of context. It was clear seat 9 did not have a good view of seat 1's chips. It was clear he wasn't getting good enough information that he felt comfortable making a decision. It was also clear that seat 1 was trying his hardest to make it clear how much he had left behind.

Should I as a dealer just sit there dumbly? Should I wait for seat 9 to get up and walk over to seat 1 and see how much he had left? It was obvious there was confusion. He was uncomfortable with the limited information he had

My belief is that it is the responsibility of the dealer to clear up any game state confusion. I know others would disagree. Who benefits from me sitting there dumbly until seat 9 finally acts? What is the purpose?

Some players will always find something to bitch about. I would have done the same thing you did. All you're doing is relaying requested information in a loud room.

I had a couple of players make similar complaints back when the plexiglass shields were still up and nobody could hear or see much of anything. Screw them, someone wanted an estimated count I was giving it to them.

Nobody wants to go home on a sour note, I think you handled it just fine and you should not worry about the table captain/rules nit unless there's a room policy in play that you 'more than' stretched.

Once Seat 1 opens the counting door then I think it's fine for the Dealer to confirm the count (but maybe not other Players).

As I say to my kids all the time .. "Answer the question, then tell your story" I would suggest the same here. If you are concerned about a communication issue then I think it's fine for you to reinforce the query by restating the question, perhaps even rephrasing it to "Any greens or blacks?" in an effort to satisfy the original request. If the 'answer' to the question comes with an actual count of the remaining stack then that's a bonus (the story) .. but the 'exact' question still needs to be answered, especially if you feel there's a language barrier or similar.

Doesn't really matter, but Seat 9 is probably trying to figure out if a shove 'can' generate a fold or whether Seat 1 is deep enough to float. So he 'really' wants to know if the stack goes beyond the reds.

Bump in the road .. GL

I certainly have never heard that a player shouldn't tell another player how much money is in his stack, that is totally ridiculous.

I know in many venues the dealer isn't supposed to tell how much another player has behind, but personally I think that is a bad rule.

I certainly think it would always be fine for a dealer to clarify what a player said, especially in a headsup pot. Why would it matter to the guy not even in the hand?