i was playing blackjack at commerce where the dealers carry their own trays. there's a flap that goes over the top to help protect it while it's being carried. while they're at the table, the flap is pulled back but still attached in two places, creating a little loop and a void between the dealer and the table.

so i was having a decent run and up a few hundred and playing with green chips. the dealer was paying me in black. i'm drunk and happy (just got engaged, playing with my wife) and i prolly looked like an easy mark. i counted my black chips and one was missing. i ask the dealer. she offers to count down her tray. she does and finds that she's up like $11, which she said were her tips.

i walked away, but still just couldn't let it go. i was just sure i had another 100. so i go back and i was gonna ask the pit boss to check the tape for me. when the dealer saw me come back, she flagged me down and said she found the chip. she said it got stuck in her tray cover. but she hadn't moved tables, so idk how she would have found it. i was happy to get the money and just left.

now that i'm older i regret not reporting the incident. but i'm sure if she kept it up, she will have gotten caught eventually.

At my most recent audition, I eschewed the black/whites, because it's been too many years since I've seen poker dealers dressed that way, and I knew they didn't dress that way at the place holding the audition. I went with a black dress shirt, which seems to be much more common in poker nowadays.

The bad news is, I was the only one who showed up for the audition NOT in black/whites.

The good news is, I was the best dealer there and got the gig any way.

***

I'm carrying a bank from table to table for the first time in my career at my current job. I hate it. Any time saved from fills is more than lost every time some klutz dealer drops his chips all over the floor. Pfap's security concerns are 100% valid. Any time saved from the incoming dealer not counting the rack is more than lost watching the outgoing dealer trying to balance a tray of chips in one hand, a toke box in the other, tiptoeing through the tight space between tables, while the incoming dealer does the same thing from the other direction.

Also, I can't just walk out to the break room, I have to walk a mile the wrong way to lock up my tray before I can proceed to break.

***

Speaking of toke boxes, does anyone, anywhere, still put their tokes in their shirt pocket? I hate lugging those toke boxes around, and I really hate when the players see my box filling up. Can someone explain to me the virtues of the toke box? I don't see it.

I do at one of my jobs.

The virtue of the toke box is that when you have a uniform without a pocket a toke box holds them very nicely. I have had jobs with no pocket, and even worse a job with a shirt pocket on the right hand side.

I thought I was the only one here who could walk a mile one way and still be in the casino they worked in.

Our toke boxes are black steel and have one clear panel in front.

We wear black and white with a gold vest but no tie.

I don't mind the toke box, but I'm in a small room, and it's easy and secure for me to stash it in the break room adjacent to it. But what bugs me is that some dudes will leave the lid open. Guys, c'mon. Have some decorum.

At some places, I've seen them use clear plastic cup holders for their tokes, right on the table. Ugh ugh. Some dealers put pictures of their children on there. C'mon, stop hustling. You're giving us all a bad name.

Ours are locked, we have a check out room that is dedicated to dealers cashing out. It's secured with an electronic lock and pass point scanner and that is where we leave our boxes during breaks.

All depends on how the state/gaming comission wants it done. In states where you receive your tokes at the end of each shift it really doesn't matter when you are getting taxed on a set amount anyway. Where I work we total our tokes at the end of shift but don't receive them until taxes are taken out on our checks. The state wants to make sure they get their whole share.

Where I work we cannot even have pockets... We wear aprons that are there pretty much only because they make going into pants pockets harder, and our shirts don't have any either.

Toke box in poker in my state started being mandatory about 6 years ago because a bunch of dealers were stealing rake. They used to just check out a tray for example $300 and tip in an empty slot and in between downs color up their tips and at the end of the day take the extra home.... pretty obv why that didn't work at least in Washington. In Washington we just tape up our toke boxes and put a piece of paper over the view window when dealing blackjack where sometimes you'll get a 500-1k night and it's embarrassing (for your co workers to know what you made). In poker most of our players are droolers and couldn't care less what we make.

The only place where I have seen dealers put tokes in the shirt pocket is in Vegas.

It's been said a couple times over the years, but as a gentle reminder to everyone, it has been asked to please leave out all discussion about how much a dealer makes, how much to tip per hand, per bad beat jackpot, etc. out of this thread.

We are all very tired of the "discussions" surrounding that issue and the types of posters and posts it drags out of the woodwork to muck up what is supposed to be a friendly easygoing thread to build community.

There is a dedicated thread on this forum for all your tipping related inquiries.

Thanks!

I've seen a dealer put a picture of his kids on their cut card. Completely tacky imo.

Our toke boxes are locked, completely steel so no looking inside, and are left in the poker room in a cabinet while on break. We cash out in a secured employee only cage room. The only problem with the system is if you get out at 6:00pm when there's a crapton of Poker and BJ dealers all getting off at the same time and you'll be stuck in line for quite some time.

When I first started dealing, I got off at 9PM. The old poker room then was very small, the cage was inside the room and the cage had two drawers. Since dealers had to cash out at the cage and there had to be 2 cashiers on duty to cash out a dealer, if a cashier was on break, we had to wait.

I got up to the window one evening at 9PM and there was only one dealer on duty. The other dealer has gone on break to visit her boyfriend who has a radio at a remote bank in the overflow room. The floor called her on the radio and we could all hear the conversation.

Floor: "You can't take a break at 9PM, you need to come back to the cage now, there are 6 dealers waiting to leave."

Cashier: "When did dealers start leaving at 9PM?"

Floor: "8 months and 5 days ago when the room opened. Get back here now."

It's much better now, a separate room with a dedicated cage and cashier. Unless you EO at an odd time, there is someone to cash you out right away. BJ and poker never cashed out at the same cage. BJ tip pools now so they don't cash out anymore.

I love answering the inane questions from Dbags about when we started doing a completely standard procedure (like show one show all or something) with "October 2009", since that's when the room opened.

Hi guys, great reads on here! I dealt at a charity poker room in Michigan and am now in California working as a banker/prop player at a local casino. I'm looking to get a job out here dealing in the LA area, or possibly move to Las Vegas. Does anyone have advice/info on the state of dealing, the best way to obtain a dealing job in California? Thanks in advance!

Network. Cold call. Be persistent.

Dealing job opportunities exploded seven years ago. Then the rooms reached capacity. In the time since then, there have been few new jobs in established casinos (and no new casinos in California), but the dealer schools keep growing and keep pumping out new dealers.

If you're already working in a casino, that seems your best bet to land a dealing gig.

Yeah, while I don't feel like I totally "missed the boat", having the mentality of "screw dealing, I'm gonna PLAY for a living!", wasn't the best decision in hindsight haha.

The issue with working in a casino for me is that I'm a banker, so I work for a 3rd party, not the casino itself. If word gets out at my casino I'm looking for a dealer job, I'm afraid it would look real bad on my behalf, and show no real loyalty/look a little classless on my part. Although the pay is less than ideal, my company does treat me real well, and they see huge potential in me, due to my competency, education, knowledge of card games, and overall passion for gaming. At the end of the day though, my heart lies fully in poker more so than table games, so I'm kinda in a bind in that regard.

I can't speak for California. But at least here in Vegas ..... relationships are key. I have had 10 different poker jobs here and of those 10 ..... I got 8 of those jobs with the assistance or referral of friends.

This resource was invaluable to me last year when I was scouring the nation looking for a poker dealer job:

http://www.indeed.com

I always figured this was really the most important factor. I'm pretty upset at myself, when I lived in Vegas 2 years ago, I had made friends with someone who's father worked in the live poker circuit, friends dealt at various poker rooms and one even managed a poker room in downtown LV, and she said "If you want a job in the industry, we can get you a job." Silly me thought grinding $.50/$1 PLO8 was a better idea at the time Any advice on things to mention/not to mention/talk about when talking to a prospective employer/poker room manager?

can you deal?

That's usually the last thing they look at.

...Is there anything I could I say that would separate me from the countless others asking the same question?

Network. Be a nice person. Learn the art of "yes, and..." Be persistant. Be the kind of person who inspires others to do him favors. Show leadership qualities. Demonstrate that you can be a supportive follower with no ego. Get lucky. Be well-spoken. Handle yourself with confidence. Be awesome.

Network, network, network. If you can't get your foot in the door, none of the rest of it matters. By the time your foot is in the door, the decision has practically been made.

I've never not been hired after an audition. The audition is the easy part.

When you are auditioning for a mass hiring like the WSOP its pretty easy. All you have to do is meet some minimal standard for dealing. When you go for a one on one audition where you are the only candidate for the job and you are getting hired unless you **** it up .... its easy.

But when you are going to a mass audition where they are auditiong 40 candidates for 2 positions and your audition is likely going to me deal 2 or 3 hands in a mock game being played by your fellow candidates ..... Its nt so easy. Sure the dealing part is easy ..... but what can you really do to stand out in those circumstances? sometimes you just have to be lucky

Do those still happen? My only group audition where not everybody was hired was six years ago. It seems these days, with the dealer pool super-saturated, you need to be practically hired before you sit down for the audition. The audition is the final formality, to make sure you're not a complete screw-up. But my experience is limited, and I've only been in Vegas for a year.

Anyway, here's how you stand out: by being good, with quiet confidence. By accepting that you're going to screw up, and rolling with it. By not defending yourself if someone points out a problem. By efficiently running the table.

The dealers who do poorly in auditions are the dealers who have "their way" of doing something, and defend it. When the person giving the audition says something, these people retort, "Well, at such and such, we did it this other way, but I can do it that way if you want." That's wrong. What you say is this: "Okay, thank you." With a smile.

At the end of the day, you can't teach experience and confidence. Either you're comfortable in the box or you're not.