The white board at CAZ easily surpassed 100 on most nights during its best times. It was not unusual for all 46 tables to be full and have a list with 2 columns of names all the way to the bottom for EACH game going, occasionally 3 columns.
The girls that ran the boards then( some still there now) had that down to a science and it ran like clockwork.

I still remember using an actual "brush list" that we carried around on a clipboard and didn't use a whiteboard.

Yeah, that was during the good days in 2005/2006. And the crazy part is that those lists got so long that they would read off 10 names before someone was even actually in the room still.

I really miss those days.

Over my years of playing in many different rooms I have found that a well organized room in which the brush is divided among different limits runs way smother then when they try to sign everyone up at one area. It seems that most rooms with que systems use them as a replacement for good old fashioned organization. And it shows.

Thats why i am anal about making sure i thank the brush, even on a busy saturday night, and shut up when he/she is busy.

Thats how Turning stone was until they re-did the poker room. It was amazing how disorganized it got in there on a busy night.

We had a fun incident this past Saturday night. I was not in the room at the time (5am) but got multiple emails about it.
A player called a bet on the river and after realizing he lost he pulled his money back slyly. The winner of the pot called him out on his conniving and the player called him a effing f****t. The two guests argued (one being a semi well known tournament pro) and the situation was diffused by one of my floor men.
For whatever reason the guest was not asked to leave until a shift manager got wind of the situation and came over to talk with the upset tournament pro. The shift asked the other guest to leave for the night at which point the guest called him an effing f****t and called every staff member on his way out the same.
Before he left the poker room he threw his coffee at the shift manager and the floor. When he was being escorted out he asked for a comment card that he then threw at the security shift manager.

I miss grave shift. I'm starting to feel left out because I only get cussed out once a month instead of every weekend.

In no way will I ever miss grave shift.

Celebrity players in the room.

We are gearing up for our big yearly tournament in a few weeks and Greg Raymer is promoting it for us this year.

Greg is truly a great guy. He was at the casino Saturday night, Sunday and Monday morning of this past week. He had an early afternoon fight back home. He passed through the rom and spoke to the room manager Monday morning before leaving.

As I was dealing a player said "That guy over there looks exactly like Greg Raymer, you know the guy who won the world series a few years back"

I said "That is Greg Raymer".

"No way"

"Yes way."

Later that day I was dealing to a table of regulars when one of them told me about a player he spotted playing 4/8 limit a week or two back.

Ylon Schwartz , 4th place at the WSOP in 2008. He asked him why he was playing 4/8 limit in our room and Elan said he was having fun. He was also buying drinks for the table.

Fantastic thread. Keep'em coming!

What is turnover like in other rooms?

In the room I work in, turnover in the poker department is less than 1%. (< one percent!) No BS.

We have well over 100 dealers.

All applicants for the poker room have to have been working in the casino elsewhere for at least 90 days. No outside hiring is being consdiered for poker.

They held a dealer's school last month, the first one in over a year. 9 chip runners took the class for only had 4 openings.

Anyone who applied for the chip runner positions left open by the new dealers was told not to expect another dealer's school for another 4 to 5 years.

+1 for Greg being a truly nice and friendly dude. Tremendous ambassador for poker. If your room wants to bring in a celeb, you cannot go wrong with Mr. Raymer.

We carry about 65-70 dealers. Turnover is very low. VERY few leave of their own volition. I don't think anyone has left here of their own choosing since I came on in November. If someone goes, it's usually because of a drug test or something like that. If I had the choice of any room to work in (that I've ever visited) I'd choose this one. It's a great gig. I love it here. The staff is great. The customers are for the most part great. I am thankful every day for this job.


What's considered full time for everyone? 30 hours here is full time. Since I'm a part time employee (getting full time would involve multiple people retiring, dying, or getting fired at this point most likely) I'm not allowed to get more than 29.75 hours a week.

I did 45 hours last week, 2 weeks before when we had the Pokerstars UKIPT my shortest shift in the 5 days was 11 hours, did two 16.5 hour shifts aswell. All the dealers are on 0 hour contracts here, meaning that you all choose which days you want to work

How does that work exactly? Do you sign up for days until slots are filled, just show up, or what?

16 hour days? Daaaaamn you must have been raking in the dough. When I go above 10 or 11 my brain turns to jelly.

You just tell cardroom manager if you have any preferences or days you cant do and she books you in, people swap shifts and cover others etc. it works well. I didnt mind the long shifts because it was the UKIPT, my sleep was really weird aswell, i was only sleeping like 5-6 hours (waking up naturally) and i usually sleep for 10 hours without an alarm. Back to normal now though

where is this?

Rendezvous brighton

So I'm dealing 2/4 Holdem the other day and the final board read K T 9 4 5 with no flush possibilities. Two players still in. One was betting the whole way, the other was just calling. At showdown, the better showed KK, and the station showed QJ. The better asked him why he was just calling, the reply "I didn't have it to the ace, I was sure you had the higher end." It made my eyes bleed.

--Before the economy went to hell, turnover was high (dealers would no-show or mouth off, because they knew if they got fired, they'd have no trouble finding work elsewhere; same goes for people who would quit in a fit of temper), and the EO list was packed every day.

--Back when the internet was in its infancy, and twoplustwo.com had just one forum, instead of the 100 or so it currently has (there wasn't even an "Other Topics" yet, let alone an "Other Other Topics"), Greg Raymer posted here regularly. It quickly became apparent that my opinion on any strategy question was "right" if Raymer shared my opinion. I was pretty pleased when he scooped a bracelet, let alone the ME.

Oh that's nothing. I once saw:

--a kid call on the end with a Royal. He didn't raise because the board was paired.

--a lady call a bet on the end in stud, when she couldn't beat the four cards she could see. When asked why she called, she explained, "I wanted to see what he had."

--a lady call on the end with a Royal. When asked by her tight opponent why she didn't raise, she snarled, "You give action, you'll get action."

(Actually, I didn't see that last one first-hand, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true.)

I can understand people not raising with a royal if there is a bad beat in play.

Our turnover has never been significant. In our casino, when you hit 5 years without a break in service, you are ooffered the option o go full time which means full time benefits but you HAVE to work 40+ hours per week... NO EO.

A lot of dealers either already have hit it or will soon hit the 5 year mark, I'm just a few months off. Not everyone takes full time but a good number are doing so.

You think someone with a hand good enough for a bad beat qualifier is going to be simultaneously: 1) smart enough to fold a full house, etc., to a better hand; and 2) dumb enough not to be paying attention to jackpot possibilities?

Perhaps we can have dids do a few pullthroughs in the employee lot for you, to thin the field?

Anything special that players can do to help move the game along?

With the kid, I am assuming he had a royal flush with a pair on the board indicating possible quads. Betting could have gotten him the pot or a call. but checking would get him the pot, or possible bad beat share.

Uh-oh, you sure you want to open up this rant...?

The main thing for me is to keep your hands behind your stacks. Poker is a visual game, and the table is the playing surface. If it's not part of the hand in play, it shouldn't be there. Hands in front of stacks block the view when you have cards, and make it difficult to know when you don't.

Along the same lines, when you're in a hand, put your cards in front of your stack with a chip on top. You don't need your fingers on them. The cards-with-chips is the visual shorthand of "this player is in the hand" and helps more than you'd think it does.