In my poker room right now there is 1 1/2 nl going, 4 deadspreads, and 6 more dealers coming in within the hour. I question the sanity of our scheduling dept.

I used to work in an 8 table room. the woman who did our schedule would often have scheduled 14 dealers.

That's gold. Did the person doing the schedule not work exclusively with the poker room?

She was a poker floor person. But she worked at the neighboring casino so it wasn't her problem. And business was so bad that we usually didn't even need 8 dealers. In fairness it was only occasionally that we would get the 14 dealer thing ... but we were always overstaffed.

I learned a very valuable tournament tactic by watching Susie Isaacs play. It has served me well for years.

In the opening rounds of the tourney, she would play super-tight, and aggressively play big hands like AA, KK, or AK, and drive everyone out of the pot. When they all folded, she would turn up her cards and whine about not getting any action. "Come on, guys! Gamble!" And everyone would think, "Not with you, lady, you won't play a hand, then when you do, it's always a monster."

This allowed her to steal at will later on, when the blinds were worth more than those piddly first-round pots. Every pre-flop raise by her made her opponents think, "Uh oh, it's that super-tight player who only plays big pairs and AK. I'll let her have this one."

This has become the cornerstone of my tourney strategy, and I must give all the credit to Susie I (or at least, to the guy who taught her that).

Having said that--there's nothing sadder than seeing someone carrying a satchel full of vanity press books, hoping to sell some to the poker players.

I hope you meant "even more strictly" when you said "more appropriately."

I don't know why after a year or so of reading your posts that this one made me LMAO..
Maybe because it is true..but the " I became dead inside" remark is so telling and reminds me of myself..
Before I got into my contractor career I stole cars for a living..( repo)..and it really affected me in the begininng to take someones car when it had baby seats in it..or when it would be packed with all of someones personal stuff...baby pics, school books..etc..the cars would sit and not get picked up..bumper stickers about their kids being honor students..
After about 4 months of feeling bad I came to be dead inside and didn't even flinch when they came up to me crying..

Hey sir this isn't BBV!!! But if it was the following would work

Brag:You played a satellite with Susie Isaacs
Beat:I was there too
Variance: We both got our A$$e$ handed to us, by the Golden Girls.

But they were some of the nicest ladies in Vegas.

I think (but could be wrong) that Greg Raymer coined the term on 2+2 around 2000.

I have killed, at most, 4 hands in the last 4 1/2 years. Maybe only 3. All instances were in tournaments, they were all players using their cell phones and they were all warned prior to their hand being killed.

Friday I killed a hand.

I had just been at the table a couple of minutes. I had dealt one hand and during that hand I had asked a girlfriend to leave the area since she was talking to her boyfriend. Not only was he in a hand, the action was on him and I stopped their conversation so the hand could proceed. She walked off and the hand finished up. I started the next hand.

The BB made a phone call as I started to deal out the cards. I told him he could not be on the phone when he was in a hand. He was still on the phone, not sounding like he was about to hang up when I dealt the second card to the button so I killed his hand and pulled his BB into the center.

I was pulling in bets as I was about to put out the flop when the BB said:

"You don't have to look so angry."

I wasn't angry, there was nothing to be angry about. I told him I don't smile much in the box, I'm known for that by regulars and I motioned towards a regular at the table and said "They'll tell you I don't smile".

The regular nodded then said "He wasn't being mad, I think he was being nice, you should have stood up to make the call, he didn't have to warn you and even after he did, you didn't hang up."

Another player, someone i do not know, said "You're disrespecting the dealer. He's doing his job and you aren't making it any easier."

Two other players chimed in and agreed with the first two.

I was truly surprised, it felt really good to get the support form the table.

I expected the guy to run and complain to a floor about it but after the table turned on him, he let it go.

It was Tommy Angelo in this post.

Our casino (I am a pit dealer) gets "preshuffled" decks to open tables with. That's 6 (or eight) decks of cards already comingled and shuffled. We load them into the shuffler immediately, or if someone is at the table, they just get loaded into the shoe and off we go.

I would have sworn the date was much earlier than that, but those years kind of run together. It makes sense it was Tommy since back then I generally read all of his posts and all of Greg's posts.

wow, nice find. I think I like this guys name better though. Too bad it never caught on.

RR, I will see Greg tomorrow, he is here for our big tournament series. (Brag comng) He knows who Dealer Guy is. I'll ask him if he recalls anything about the naming of the seat. Seems easier than doing an exhaustive search.

I'm not saying he coined it, but the first time I saw "hijack" was written by Bob Ciaffone, either his book or a magazine article.

"That will never catch on," I thought.

I wonder why a 24 hour casino operation does not come up with solutions for these problems.

Like, use of hotel rooms for shorter stays than a full day - when all you need is a shower and a nap. Truck Stops have showers, why not a casino?

If there is a smelly player and the only reason they can't solve the problem is because they don't want to spend $120 for an overnight hotel room and that is the only option the casino has to offer, I think the casino is at least 50% responsible for smelly and unkempt players.

And then you must be the other 50% responsible because you didn't take them to your home to use your shower

I had my first experience with a drunk at a poker table. Wow. Are all of these observations true, or is it just small sample size:

1) Drunk wins pot playing "badly" and tips really well.
2) Drunk winning pots playing "badly" riles up other players who now target the drunk.
3) Pots get bigger as more players try and take the drunk out.
4) Whomever wins the biggest pots - whether it's the drunk or not - tips really well.

End result is that a drunk at the table is +EV for the dealer.

That's definitely not the most common result I've encountered, ymmv.

I'd write a more detailed response, but no one wants this to turn into a tipping thread

Im not a dealer just a player.

I was in the Bellagio early one morning several years ago it was a year or so after it opened.

on one of the empty table was some guy sitting there passed out face down and snoring like a brown bear.

we used to come in and get a breakfast comp when doug arrived go eat then head for the hills.

anyway a floor man came over the touched the guy and he barely moved but started snorring louder.

so as they do out here they called the house paramedics and security to properly dispose of the relic usually dumping them off to CCPD or CCFD.

well they all arrived and were getting ready to 86 this guy. about this time one of the Bellagio white shirt security guys starts to shake the guy awake and at the same time the paramedic says "I wouldnt do that". the security guy said "why?" and gave the guy a shake from the shoulder.

a second later the sleeping drunk kind of rolled to his right lifted up his head and hurled massively all over every one and every thing except the Paramedic.

the Paramedic looked at the group stonefaced and said "told ya so"

if was simply priceless.

Random question... (remember I'm a pit dealer, so I know nothing about operations in the poker room)... how do properties get dealers for big tournament series? I am guessing not all of them work regular shifts in the poker room. Do they just get dealers from other casinos to deal temporarily, and is there ever a problem dealing at another casino>

you guys should have seen the white board at the Orleans open back in the late 90's. it was so huge many sportsbooks would have been put to shame

sounds like a BARGEr.

any of you guys ever deal at BARGE?

You forgot that drunks at the table (not me) slow down the game greatly.