I've been playing some poker at the Wynn Poker Room in Las Vegas. By far, it has the best dealers I've ever seen, and the reason is that there is no extraneous talking when they're dealing. The hands are efficiently dealt and are error free far more than any other poker room that I know of.

I think some of the other poker room managers around town (and elsewhere) should spend some time in The Wynn Poker Room to see how it's done. And I consider dealers who talk non-stop and don't pay attention to the game to be the biggest problem most poker rooms have.

Mason

I too play quite a bit at the Encore and they have a few talk non-stop dealers, just like any other room. You must not have played there enough yet to run into all of them.

Perhaps, but when I play there has been virtually no talking except what is necessary to run the game. Also, a couple of my friends have told me the same thing.

I actually hope your comment is not representative of the room. Talking dealers who don't pay attention is a major problem in most poker rooms and it's important that poker rooms address it.

Mason

The Wynn has always tried to run the best room in Vegas .. Bounty Tournament .. Milestone Sattys .. 'Year-long' tournament 'in-house' series to the point where they can afford to fully staff themselves every month.

There's no wonder that it's full pretty much the whole WSOP .. Players know they are going to get a better game there than the 'pot luck' Dealers that run through the Series every year that may not even know how to deal a game they push into.

Looking at the other side of things .. a good Dealer will know when they need to liven up the table and when to stay out of it. It changes by table dynamic and table stake. Sure, there's Regs in Vegas, but it's typically Players the Dealer has no previous relationship with .. so by default there's really no reason to attempt to establish a 30 min repour with someone who you may never see again!

As with everything there's a fine line .. Dealers are there for tips, and just like a valet, baggage handler or concierge (taxi driver) need to be able to read a situation in short order to see if they need to interject or just 'do their job'. GL

Many recs like me like having talkative dealer to chat with. They liven up the game when it’s too serious with the hoodie headphones staredown crew.

FWIW there are a few talkative dealers at the Wynn so I don’t have the same experience as you there

Do you have a sample size? How many dealers did you see? Suppose you played 8 hours you saw 16 dealers out of 100 or more, I would just consider it being lucky. I do agree when a dealer pushes in they shouldn't be joining in our conversations unless we were speaking to them, and/or start random conversations with the players. I don't have anything against them, but it is a small pet peeve when dealers think they're there to entertain us, but that's just me.

Holy cow I was just having this discussion with some regs and pros on the East Coast, and you couldn't be more right. Oddly enough, I was playing yesterday (won't name casino or person) and this dealer wouldn't shut up. Occasionally slowed down hands, half-attentive, etc. He looks at me and another reg after his "pal" left, and says, "you have to chat with certain people; it makes a huge difference in your hourly take." This dealer is like the mayor of the poker room.

We had mixed feelings about his statement, but people always gravitate toward their best interests. Did you happen to notice how Wynn management polices/detects/enforces proper behavior?

Mason bringing out the old hits

Talking efficient dealers > Quiet efficient dealers > Inefficient dealers

I want to 2nd this. Normally there's more action when there's a talking dealer.

I prefer dealers who can talk and deal well. Most of the longtime dealers can and it isn’t a problem. Keeps the games friendly especially at higher stakes

There is a line that's hard to quantify but easy to recognize when it's crossed.

I was a very quiet and reserved dealer. But if there was a great tipper there that wanted a conversation with me I’m not going to tell him to shut up lol

I like talkative dealers. However, it is a real problem if they comment or react in any way to the cards, players, ranges, or action. In those situations, you don't want to get someone in trouble, but it might be appropriate to call the floor.

The main things are your customers enjoying the talk and it isn't significantly slowing the game. If so, go right ahead. The problem is that it is rare that a dealer is able to do both.

And what happens when there's a dispute, which might include you, and the talkative dealer who wasn't paying attention has no idea what happened? The worse problems I've seen in poker rooms occur because of this reason.

Mason

Talkative =/= not paying attention.

I've been writing about this subject for many years. And in our book,The Professional Poker Dealer's Handbook which was first published in 1998 we made it a point to include "no extraneous talking" when dealing. It's good to see this picked up by other players.

https://www.amazon.com/Professional-...s%2C177&sr=1-1

Mason

There are a small number of dealers who can do a fair amount of talking and still be an efficient dealer. The problem with this is that it'll encourage other dealers to talk non-stop who will now do a poor job due to their talking and not paying attention.

Mason

I don't agree with the word "most." A few can but most can't.

Mason

No one said you should tell any player to "shut-up." But your job is to deal well and not partake in non-stop conversations. If a player says something to you, give a polite but short answer, and then get on with doing your job well. You should get more tips since more hands will be dealt.

Mason

And this is exactly the point. Again, the worse problems I've seen at a poker table is almost always because a non-stop talking dealer who is just going through the motions can't explain correctly what actually happened when a dispute occurs.

Mason

Dude. Multi-quote.

This is a ludicrous claim. I don’t prefer talkative dealers, but being able to maintain a conversation on demand is absolutely more important to the bottom line than squeezing out an extra 2 hands per hour at the majority of tables (particularly low limit NLH tables).

Obviously, it’s possible to talk too much while in the box, but you have to be pretty far to the right on the bell curve of talking while dealing (and game quality has to significantly suffer) before the marginal dollars tipped per hour begins to decrease.

Agreed.

I think the Wynn has a great staff but I've definitely had some talkative dealers.

The one who gets the most hands out and doesn't make mistakes actually talks a lot.