Hope I'm not petty here: Is the dealer allowed to stack chips in the pot while a hand is in progress? We have a dealer who has started this habit. They never do it at player's request (I Know that can't be done).

Ex) On the turn, chips are scattered in the pot from preflop and flop betting. During a lull on the turn dealer has a habit of stocking pot chips into 2 ~equal stacks. Stack sizes vary depending on pot size, there is never any intention of making stacks any set size. It appears dealer does it to speed up/simplify pushing the pot when the hand will be finished, or out of boredom. Dealer does this very regularly, whenever the timing allows it, maybe 75% of the pots.

It's my understanding this isn't allowed, curious if I should mention this to dealer.

This should only happen in split pot games. It's a bad habit and you should talk to a floor about it, who will tell the dealer to stop.

They does on all pots on cruise ships. But they do it because the dealers need to do it this way to know how much rake to take. But I hate it.

No

Why don't you want him or her to do this?

“Allowed” by who? I doubt there are any gaming regulations that disallow a dealer from doing that. But most poker rooms probably tell their dealers not to do it because it’s bad procedure.

Personally, I couldn’t care less.

This. The floor will tell you whether or not it is something they allow or not. Maybe they allow it there... If not, they should make it stop.

Some will say that keeping track of the pot is a skill and stacking it assists the player.

When I was playing in a room that also had non-poker games, sometimes a non-poker dealer would be sent over to "our side". I guess it's common in those other games to stack pots. So this dealer starts stacking the pot in a poker game, and a player reaches over and knocks the stack over and gives the dealer a look that could kill.

So I wouldn't put up with it for even one pot.

As a dealer, I'm stunned by this. Learning to keep track of the pot size is something we learn early on in dealer school.

I'd be more concerned with a player touching a pot than the dealer stacking it.

It's normally bad procedure to stack the pot but I don't think it's a big deal. I play mostly PLO and I actually prefer to be stacked at this point. There's running it twice so it saves chop time and I get really annoyed watching someone try to figure out the pot size they can bet for 10 seconds, fail, and then ask the dealer how much they can bet.

Cruise ships are notorious for bad poker dealers. Plus the take is usually absurdly high so dealers have to be exact for even bigger pots.


Stacking in PL games makes sense because a player is able to ask how much is in the pot and bet that amount. Similarly dealers should always stack in split pot games too.

yes to this

Every time the dealer touches the chips is another chance for the dealer to steal chips.

I hadn't thought of tracking bigger pots. My room takes 10% up to $5, so I always have one free hand with 5 fingers on it to keep track of the pot with. If I had to keep track up to $6 or more I'd need a 3rd hand to count with.

I’d never do this as a dealer even if it was allowed. I’ve noticed several times when I’m playing and the dealer pushes a player a neat stack of chips, they’re less likely to tip. When you push a player a big messy pile of chips, I think it makes the pot appear bigger. Don’t want to start a tipping debate, just gotta be a psychological thing with most players.

Seems like the potential gains are smaller (barely quicker push) or rarer (split pot), but also potential to lose time as well. If the dealer is stacking cheques, then they aren't quite in ready position to do anything else, whether that's pulling in wagers, dealing the next round, or mucking the stub & sending the pot if the hand ends there.

Also, I'm not sure if the dealer really saves time pushing out two 30+ high stacks of chips, unless they have a really nice roulette push.

As a lot of replies have said, it probably depends on the house. But I would be pretty pissed at this. Anything that’s going to make anything easier for my opponent, I’m against. Typical practice is to take the stacks and push them all into a pile. This guy is doing the opposite, that’s ridiculous.

Is it actually against the rules for dealers to stack the chips? Why? Because it's a player's responsibility to be able to keep track of the pot size on their own (in non-Pot Limit games)?

Can you show a rule book that addresses the stacking of chips by a dealer?

I like it.
as an older person who's fingers don't function quickly anymore if I win a big pot its 3-4 hands later and I'm still stacking chips.

as for keeping track of the pot please reread OP post
dealer is not stacking in 25 or 50 or 100 but random 2 equal stacks

anyone who can't keep track of a pot by betting action most likely doesn't care or benefit anyway

But on most cruise ships there is one poker table at most two. They often only run a game at night for 3-4 hours. Also the dealers are all pit dealers. So I they don’t go dealer school for dealing poker. Maybe 15% of there time max is dealing poker. They just don’t do it enough to get good. Plus the floor also is not really a poker floor and he is also watching for correct rake. Note the rake is up to at least $15 and sometimes $25. So it will sit like it gets to $6 and they are capped.

Poker on a cruise ship with live dealers can be a circus between the weird house rules odd dealer understanding of them and the wacky floor rulings. Then lay in the poor procedures and simply bad dealing mechanics. If the players were not often as bad I might stop playing on cruises. But the last four I payed for the cruises from poker.

But while I hate electronic poker tables on land. I much prefer them on cruises. At least the dealing is fast and proper. And pretty much no one is running the game with or without a dealer anyway.

If I was in the game I'd be glad he did it and give him a big thumbs up, and buy him a drink.

Yeah, that has nothing to do with the OP.

Rulebooks don't address dealer procedure, they address player procedure.

Employee handbooks address dealer procedure.

A player touches the pot enough to significantly manipulate its shape, and you buy him a drink? Okay. You’re probably alone on that one.