Hello and welcome!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ACnoHollywood
#1 Essentially it's the 'draw this table to get crapped on for a half hour, suck it up to get your chance to do your real job on your next table.'
This is that attitude that most dealers take. Most dealers are miserable at these tables. This only feeds the dynamic. Myself, I love these tables. You can choose to accept that it's a miserable experience, or you can choose to reframe it so that it's not.
This
is your 'real job' just as much as any other table on the floor. Your job is to adapt to the table conditions and be what the
table needs. It's not the table's job to adjust to what
you need. The long-term dealers who seem to be the most miserable and angry also seem to have the attitude that they run the table and these high stakes players are being jerkwads.
Nope.
The high stakes players run the high stakes tables. It's your job to navigate around the jerkwadiness.
That's the job. Don't take it personally. Learn to do it well. Whatever they do, make it easier for them to do it. Be an asset to the table by giving them exactly what they want. Ideally, you're invisible. Picture yourself as the harried butler constantly following around the drunk millionaire at the party, putting your tray under his drink so he doesn't drop it on the floor.
This
is your job. Try to figure out how to do it to the best of your abilities. Feel pride and joy from having done it well. Enjoy your job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ACnoHollywood
How do you deal with this on a daily basis? You are in the box where you are assured to make $0 in tips and be tormented for no reason other than that variance exists.
The tips
do not matter at all. They are a gift, every single time. Do you get upset when one person drags a huge pot in 1/2 and forgets to tip you? You shouldn't. Even if you know that person would have thrown you $20 if he hadn't forgotten, this makes absolutely zero impact on your life. Your hourly rate for the past year should be fairly consistent. Even if you're only part-time, that's less than fifteen cents a day. Who cares about fifteen cents a day? Getting stiffed on this table makes no perceivable difference at all to your overall bottom line. In the long run, it all averages out with those times an overly-generous player splits a pot with you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ACnoHollywood
#2 In a 2/4 limit hold-em game, a pretty 21 year old girl is playing horribly and crushing the game. Old people are utterly tormenting her for playing bad cards and winning, as if she should start playing only good cards and losing. She starts crying at the table and leaves the game. What as a dealer can you do in this situation to stop this? Any tricks or tips on how to diffuse the situation?
Ugh, that's awful. This is a weak spot for me, too.
At the very least, I'd shame them afterwards. "You guys feel real good about yourselves, teasing a pretty young lady until she cried and ran away? This is why you came here today? Good job." And then that's it. Don't engage when they defend themselves, because there's nothing to defend and nothing for you to prove. Just say, "Okay." no matter what they fire back at you. Don't give them anything more to consider than what they just did to her.
I wouldn't go so far as to say something like, "I hope nobody treats your daughters that way," because that crosses a line and opens the door to a defensive, "I teach my daughter not to be so weak and stupid." Just lay out the immediate situation in front of them.
Funny thing is, on some level many people want to be degraded. I never like getting stern or angry at a table, but I find when I bust the balls of an angle-shooting non-regular, I get more tips. Not only will the angler throw me an extra buck on the next pot, but other players will randomly tip me for not taking any crap. So if you expose their miserable attitudes for what they are, you might get paid more for it.
I try to avoid it, because I'd rather not have the situation, than get credit for handling it well. The latter means I failed to prevent it from coming to that in the first place. But some people just need a mirror held up to their faces.