Poker Dealer
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A poker dealer distributes cards to players and manages the action at a poker table.
Professional dealers[edit]
Any casino with a poker room must hire a staff of dealers. Casinos generally pay dealers minimum wage. However, a dealer's primary source of income is not salary, but tips from players. Tip income may be substantial for dealers who can deal hands quickly and efficiently. (In some countries e.g., in Sweden, where all the casinos are owned by the state, Dealers and other casino personnel may not accept tips from players. This rule is complied with strictly.)
To become employable by a casino, applicants without prior experience are typically required to complete a 4-6 week training program at a dealing school. Dealing in a casino may require working late hours and remaining seated for long periods of time. Dealers also commonly work holidays, since these are especially busy days for casinos. Having to deal with difficult individuals may be another drawback to dealing at a casino—some players are abusive to dealers.
Major poker tournaments also hire dealers. For a given tournament stop, the tournament coordinator will hire dealers on contract for the duration of the tournament, which may be a few days to a few weeks. Room and board may or may not be provided by the tournament management; the dealer is typically responsible for his own travel expenses.
Mechanics of dealing[edit]
Poker Dealer Reno
Dealers must be proficient in shuffling the deck, distributing the cards to the players, and, if required by the game being dealt, turning up the community cards in the center of the table. There are two methods of distributing the cards, 'American'-style and 'European'-style.
Shuffling[edit]
To shuffle the cards, the dealer follows a sequence defined by the casino. First all cards are spread out on the table and pushed around randomly. This is called 'scrambling' or 'washing' the cards. Then the cards are collected and squared into a deck. At this point a typical shuffling sequence might be: riffle, riffle, box, riffle. Professional dealers always keep both halves of the deck very low to the table while shuffling. Some casinos have automatic shufflers built into the table that shuffle a different deck of cards while the previous hand is being played, which speeds up the game.
Finally, a cut card is placed on the table and the deck is cut onto the card. The cut card is held on the bottom of the deck for the entire hand, to keep the bottom card from being exposed.
American-style dealing[edit]
In American-style dealing, the deck is held in one hand, and the dealer uses the thumb of their deck hand to slide the top card of the deck toward their pitching hand. The pitching hand clasps the card between the thumb and index finger while at the same time the mid-point of the card touches the face (nail) of the middle finger. It is the extension of the middle finger that 'pitches' the card off the top of the deck and a 'whoosh' should be heard as each card exits the top of the deck.
The ability to pitch cards accurately is critical, since the cards must be delivered in a way that players at the table can not see the undersides of the cards.
European-style dealing[edit]
European-style dealers touch only the top of each card being dealt. The card is pushed off the top of the deck to the table surface in front of the dealer. The dealer then propels the card toward the recipient, usually imparting some spin to the card to encourage sliding.
Burning and turning[edit]
Before dealing a community card, the top card off the deck is burned, or discarded. The rationale for burning is that the top card on the deck is visible to players during the previous betting round, so that a cheat might be able to spot a mark on the top card and therefore gain an advantage on his opponents.
When burning, the deck must be held low and the burn card kept level with the table surface. Casinos watch carefully to make sure a dealer does not 'flash', or inadvertently expose, the burn cards to players at the table.
In flop games, the three community cards comprising the flop are turned up simultaneously, never one at a time.
Responsibilities during a hand[edit]
Dealers control the action during a hand. This may include prodding players to act, verbally announcing actions of players to the rest of the table, and correcting players who act out of turn.
Dealers also must manage the pot. The dealer must verify the amount of bets and raises by players, collect folded hands, maintain side pots, and read players' hands at showdown to identify the winner or winners. In games with a rake, the dealer also must keep track of the amount of money in the pot and remove the appropriate amount for the house.
At times the dealer needs to communicate with the floor, or other casino staff. Some casinos equip the dealers with a headset or walkie-talkie for this purpose, while in other casinos the dealer must shout over the ambient noise. The following table shows some common calls a dealer may make, and their meanings:
| Call | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 'Floor' or 'Decision' | Requests the floor manager to come to resolve a dispute. |
| 'Seat open' | Announces that a player has left the game and a seat is now available. |
| 'Player in' | Notifies the floor or brush that a vacant seat has been filled. |
| 'Players checks' | Requests a chip runner to retrieve chips for a player. |
| 'Fill' | Requests a chip runner to bring chips to fill the dealer tray. This tray must be kept full of low denomination chips in a high limit game, so that change may be made in the pot so that the rake may be taken out. |
| 'Set up' | Requests replacement decks be brought to the table. |
| 'Pick up' | For cash games, used when an absent player's chips should be removed from the table to free the seat. Also, for single-table satellites, used to request the staff to come collect the cash entry fees from the table. |
| 'Playover' | Alerts the floor that a new player will be playing in a seat taken by an absent player, until the absent player returns. Usually a 'playover box' or some other object is used to separate the seated player's money and chips from those of the person playing over. |
| 'Winner' | Used in single-table satellites to announce that the game has completed and the prize is to be paid. |
| 'Brush' | Calls the floor to deal with a game participation problem, for example if a game must be broken due to insufficient players. |
| 'Service' or 'Cocktails' | Alerts the floor that a player wants a beverage and/or food. |
Online dealing[edit]
Online poker sites use Random number generation (RNGs) when dealing cards. A successful RNG distributes cards in an unpredictable and random way.
See also[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
References[edit]
- Shulman, Barry (2001-06-22). 'Dealer Compensation'. Card Player Magazine.
- Shulman, Barry (2002-03-29). 'Dealer Tipping and Economics'. Card Player Magazine.
Why would you want to become a poker dealer?
There are a few reasons that poker players, in general, decide to become poker dealers. One of those reasons, the most obvious reason, is that dealing poker is very profitable – much more profitable than most people realise.
Think of it like this, it’s pretty much good practice to toss the dealer a buck every time you win a hand right? Not everyone does it, but most of us do, some toss more especially the travellers and other people that don’t play the game on a regular basis.
How much do poker dealers earn?
For right now, let’s go with that, an average of $1 per hand in tips. We won’t even take into consideration tourists and other big tipping games. Now we’ll consider another fact about dealing poker, the fact that poker dealers are expected to deal an average of 30 hands per hour minimum.
So, assuming an average of $1 tip per hand, 30 hands per hour means poker dealers are making about $30 an hour in tips plus very small paychecks they are taking from the casino.
In Oregon, for instance, at Chinook Winds Casino poker dealers are paid $8.80-$9.48 plus tips. Comparatively, Table Mountain Casino in California pays new dealers $8 plus tips. Dealers in Oregon must pass an audition at the casino as well as undergo an extensive background investigation, pass a drug test and receive a licence from the Gambling Commission.
There are lots of openings for tournament dealers; however, cash game dealer positions are actually pretty hard to come by.
How do I become a certified poker dealer?
The most common way to become a certified poker dealer is to take a class on dealing poker. The length of poker dealing classes varies from as little as two weeks to as many eight weeks. The price of the classes varies almost as much as the length required in them.
The ease of finding a class and being able to afford that class largely depends on where you’re located. For instance, in Oregon at Chinook Winds Casino, classes are offered free during the slower months in effort to gear up for busier summer events.
Classes at Chinook Winds Casino are usually a couple of weeks long with as much follow up as is required for a new dealer to pass an audition. Caesars in Las Vegas also offers free poker dealer classes when they’re gearing up for the World Series of Poker season. These classes are three weeks long, are followed up by auditions, background checks and licensing by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
The average price to learn any new casino game seems to range from these free classes, that aren’t offered regularly, on up to about $1500 with a guaranteed job placement after you’ve graduated at the larger more expensive schools. It’s been said that the best dealer schools teach new dealers how to deal multiple games including Chinese Poker.
If you are curious what sort of things you might learn at a professional Holdem Poker dealer school check out videos on YouTube for learning to deal casino poker.
Poker Dealer Chip
Dealing these major tournament events offers these new dealers a venue in which they can hone their skills, become ready to pass stricter auditions working in places such as Atlantic City, Las Vegas or aboard poker cruise ships.
Obtaining your State Dealers Licence
Once you’ve gotten the necessary training, and a position at a casino, you’ll need to become licenced by the state where you’re to be employed. This process generally involves proving your citizenship via the same documents employee’s use to prove their right to work legally within the United States and passing a criminal background investigation.
The background investigation usually requires that the applicant submit to fingerprinting and submit a photograph of themselves with their application. Applications then need to be renewed every 3-5 years.
Breaking into the Industry
Poker Dealer Outfit
If you’re looking to become a licenced dealer, at an actual casino, you’ll need experience dealing professionally. It’s the same catch 22 the world has dealt with when looking for employment for decades, you have to have experience to get it.
The best way to break into the field without actual live game dealing experience is during large tournament events. When casinos hold monthly, quarterly or annual large events they tend to be very short-staffed so this is a great time for a trained, yet under experienced dealer, to pick up some extra dealing time and grab some experience to put on the their C.V.
The biggest tip you can take advantage of is to learn every game you can whenever you get the chance. Whether it’s poker, or another casino game, the more games you can list on your job applications the more appealing you will be to the casinos you send your C.V. to.
Remember, as you hear about free classes like the one’s held occasionally at casinos like Caesars, that 100’s of dealers before you have paid a lot of money for these classes to get their position within the casino. You may have to pay for other classes in the future so, snap up these free opportunities whenever and wherever possible!