I don't think its appropriate generally to leave bets in front of players except maybe on the river, or of course you should do it heads up in a split pot game.

I really do not like the idea that you are basically suggesting to players that there is a split pot by leaving the bets in front of players only when you think there is a split pot coming.

I'm not really sure that it matters other than its faster to push a pot when you aren't trying to keep stacks standing.

I got sent to deal at a sister property that had a small poker pit. Usually they had some pit dealers trained to deal poker (but this weekend most of them were busy with a special event so myself and another poker dealer were sent to deal.

The players begged us to stay. They told me that there were a couple of the regular dealers who were ok as poker dealers but that most of them were terrible. At one point when I wasn;t dealing i was helping out as chip runner, I brought a $100 bill to the floor (who had control of the poker bank) and asked for a $40/$60 soft break. The floor just looked at me as though I was speaking another language, and then I taught the floor what a soft break was. What was the problem. Well this particular floor was a pit floor. I will say this for her, she at least was willing to talk with me about it and tried to learn some of the terminology. I do thank god I never had the need to have her make a decision at the game.

I deal a 2/2 dealers choice game with a huge amount of action, players buying in for £2.5k and during a night we will see a few 1k + pots, because it is PL we are taught to stack the pot in rows of 100 making it easier to keep track if we do lose track or get sidelined by something else, it can help

I liked the story about the floor not knowing what a soft break is.

so I was just wondering how easy is dealing poker? I've dealt a little at home games and i'm a pretty bad dealer and was wondering if going to dealer school really helps you even if your just a bad dealer? Like is dealing cards really easy with practice or do some people just fail at dealing?

Haven't you heard? Monkeys can do it, replaced by robots, etc.

I know a couple dealers at the Taj/Borg that have a short reach. If there's a bet they can't get to, they'll use the money slot pusher thing, and hold it from the bottom, and use it as an extension of their hand, hooking the bet in.

I always say "Button's moving".

I posted this in another thread but i'll add it to over here.

Dealing is very easy.

Being a good dealer who understands the subtleties and nuances of a game and how to run it well, not so much. As with most things, if you do it really well, it's not obvious that you're doing it.

But still, on the grand scheme of things to do in the world for money, dealing ranks among the easiest. But I still appreciate and respect the craft of doing it well.

Whether or not to push in bets and move the button depends greatly on the dealer. If you ask a 4'11", 66yo overweight dealer with a bad back "do you want me to push the bet in" the answer is always "YES!!!!" And the game tends to just stop every betting round when you have someone in the corner seat who simply won't put the bets out at arm's length. These same dealers often just point at the button when it's in the 2 or 3 seat and say "button moves, please... button... someone please move the button".

When you have a 6'2", 170lb, long-armed, 22yo guy dealing, you can mostly let him do his thing--he can reach almost anything and "helping" just breaks the rhythm.

Less is often more, but don't just sit there when the dealer is stretching and still can't get her fingers on the chips. If the guy who put the bet out there is too oblivious to realize he's the cause of this game stoppage and dealer discomfort, I'll move the chips 8 inches closer.

I find it terribly tilting when players repeatedly place their bets a mile away from the dealer. Is it really that foreign to some people to have consideration for those around them?

So are there anymore good breakroom stories?

Because thats easier than saying "excuse me sir would you please push your bet a bit closer to me?"

It could be, I mean a lot depends on the room and what happens next if the player says "F you, get it yourself."

A million of them. This one really has to be told in the first person, but I'll try to do it justice for him.

Heard this one from a 30+ year veteran of the business. He's in his 20s dealing in vegas. This would have been in the 70s.

He's dealing blackjack one day.

Next dealer to push him out was one of these Korean girls who married a G.I. back during the war. Her name? Suk (rhymes with Luke.) Unfortunately for her, it didn't match up well with her last name.

"Alright gentlemen, thank you very much. Here's your next dealer, Suck Johnson!" The table roars with laughter and he gets about fifty bucks in hand-ins from the punters.

So he gets called into the office.

"You know why you're here?"
"No."
"One of the dealers tells me you were referring to her inappropriately on the game."
"Suck Johnson? What because I used her last name?"
"IT'S PRONOUNCED SUK!"
"WELL I DON'T SPEAK KOREAN!"
"Oh just get out of here."

To this day, the phrase "I don't speak Korean!" has become a punchline in our household.

Rofl that's phenomenal. Great stories and advice itt.

I worked in a room where we had a regular player named Phat Ho.

I didn't know "Johnson" was a slang term in the 70's. I can't think of a single example of hearing it in a 70's movie.

There is a funny scene in "Police Academy" that uses this slang.

"There were Johnsons as far as the eye could see."
"Excuse me, sir"
"You know, 'Johnsons'" points at his man regions.
"Oh, yes and what a lovely sight to see" awkward silence.

Police Academy movies were from the '80s.

The term Johnson actually seems like it would have derived in the 50's or so.

Apparently may have started back in the 19th century.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/508763

If we really have to nit it up, it's possible the story occurred in the 80s guys.

No cool dealer stories this weekend?

Sorry nothing cool this weekend. crappy time instead some ******* threw cards at my face.

There's nowhere else to post this story, so since I actually heard it in the break room, I'll put it here. It's easiest to tell this story in the first person, so realize that the "I" in the story is not me:

I was over at [insert name of racetrack that has poker] playing in a cash game. A dealer walking past the table asked the dealer in our game, "You're in, right?" Our dealer replied, "Hell yeah, give me $20 on it."

This mysterious exchange naturally piqued our interests, so we all immediately started to interrogate the dealer to see what was "on".

He explained that one of the dealers had a hot tip on a horse (knew the trainer or something), and they were all going to bet on it.

Guess what our next question was?

Churchill Downs, "Larry Bird". Really? The horse is named Larry Bird? "No, but he's #33. Three horse, third race." Well, that's an easy way to remember it. The dealer added, "He should go off at about ten-to-one."

Naturally, we pester the floorman to put Churchill on one of the tv's next to our table. I decide what the hell, I'll throw $10 on it. I told my brother, who was playing on another table, and he also planned on throwing away $10 on this silliness.

The third race goes to post. It turns out that I'm the only player at our table to actually bet money on this race, but everyone at the table is rooting for us.

They opened the starting gate, and our Larry Bird dominated just like the real LB used to. The three horse led by daylight all the way around the track, winning easily by about ten lengths. A thoroughly, completely dominating performance, he absolutely mopped the floor with his competition.

Our whole table was whooping and hollering throughout, all the other tables looked over at us quizzically.

Naturally, my next concern was if my brother got the bet down for us. He came over shortly after the race, all smiles, alleviating my concerns. "But that horse didn't pay ten-to-one. He paid THIRTY-to-one!", and my brother handed me $310.

Everyone is smiling now...except the dealer. He's not seeing any other dealers smiling, he's not hearing any cheering from the break room. He's completely distracted, paying no attention to the poker game, dealing completely on auto-pilot.

Finally, his tipster walks casually past the table again. Our dealer, confused and desperate, calls out, "You put the bet in, right?"

The tipster looks confused. "Not yet. I can't bet the horse until Friday, the day of the race."