Marker used to signal the dealer or last player in poker
Dealer button and playing
cards
In poker, the buck or dealer 🏧 button is a marker used to indicate the player who
is dealing or, in casino games with a house dealer, 🏧 the player who acts last on that
deal (who would be the dealer in a home game). The term button 🏧 is also used for a
variety of plastic discs, or lammers, used by casinos to mark the status of
players.
History 🏧 [ edit ]
When poker became a popular saloon game in the United States
in the middle of the nineteenth century, 🏧 the integrity of the players was unreliable
and the honor codes that had regulated gambling for centuries became inadequate.
Because 🏧 the dealer has the greatest opportunity to cheat (by manipulating the specific
cards that players receive, or by inspecting the 🏧 dealt cards), the players would take
turns in this role. To avoid arguments about whose turn it was to deal, 🏧 the person who
was next due to deal would be given a marker. This marker was moved clockwise around
the 🏧 table after each hand. A knife was commonly used as a marker, and the marker became
generally known as a 🏧 "buck", as an abbreviated reference to the buck's horn that formed
the handle of many knives at that time.
When the 🏧 dealer had finished dealing the cards
he "passed the buck". According to Martin, the earliest use of the phrase in 🏧 print is
in the July 1865 edition of Weekly New Mexican: "They draw at the commissary, and at
poker after 🏧 they have passed the buck." The phrase then appears frequently in many
sources so it probably originated at about this 🏧 time. However, Mark Twain cited it as
common slang in Virginia City when he was a reporter there in 1862.[1]
"Passing 🏧 the
buck" soon became a metaphor for dodging responsibility. U.S. President Harry S. Truman
was noted for a sign in 🏧 his office reading "The buck stops here." It was a gift
from[citation needed] Fred Canfil, who found a similar sign 🏧 in the warden's office at
the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma.
The use of other small disks as such
markers 🏧 led to the alternative term "button". Silver dollars were later used as markers
and it has been suggested that this 🏧 is the origin of "buck" as a slang term for
"dollar," though by no means is there universal agreement on 🏧 this subject. The marker
is also referred to as "the hat". The origin of this term is believed to stem 🏧 from the
wearing of a hat having been used to denote dealership.
Dealer button [ edit ]
Today, a
dealer button is 🏧 typically a white plastic disc with the word "Dealer" on each side.
While in most home games, the player holding 🏧 the dealer button deals the cards, in a
casino or cardroom, an employee handles this responsibility.
The dealer button is
sometimes 🏧 modified to indicate a secondary detail about the hand being played—for
example, a kill game may use a button with 🏧 the word "Kill" on one side to show that the
current hand is a kill pot, and turn the "Dealer" 🏧 side up to show that the kill is off,
or a dealer's choice game might replace the dealer button with 🏧 a placard indicating the
chosen game.
The term "button" is often used to refer to the dealer position, which is
the 🏧 position whose turn to bet comes last. Being "on the button" is therefore the most
advantageous and most profitable position 🏧 in poker.
Other buttons [ edit ]
In casino
and card room cash games, the dealer's well may contain an assortment of 🏧 laminated
discs that the dealer may place in front of a player's seat under certain conditions.
Properly called lammers (rhymes 🏧 with 'spammers'), but also referred to as buttons, they
are separate from and used differently from a dealer button.
The following 🏧 table lists
the most common lammers and their significance:
Button Use All In Put in front of a
player who has 🏧 wagered all their chips. Blind,
Small Blind with
Big Blind Put in front
of the players to show they owe the indicated 🏧 amounts. The blind button is used in
single blind games, while the big and small blind are used together in 🏧 double blind
games. Missed Blind,
Missed Big Blind,
Missed Small Blind Used to mark the position of
a player who has missed 🏧 their turn to pay a blind. When the player returns, the missed
blinds may be paid immediately, or the player 🏧 may keep the lammer and wait to play
until the unpaid blind comes in turn. Which indicative lammer is used 🏧 depends on the
game being played or which blinds are missed. No Player
or
Absent Placed on the table
at the position 🏧 of a player that has been away for an extended period. According to
World Series of Poker Live Action Rules, 🏧 after the seat has missed the blinds, each new
dealer places an additional lammer in front of the missing player's 🏧 empty seat. On
receiving a third lammer, the absent players chips' could be picked up by the house in
order 🏧 to seat a player waiting to get in the game. Reserved Put in front of an empty
seat to hold 🏧 it for a player that is arriving soon. Seat Change A player can request
one of these lammers from the 🏧 dealer and reserve first choice to change seats when a
player at the table leaves the game. Third Man Walking 🏧 Marks the position of a player
who leaves the table when two players are already away. According to World Series 🏧 of
Poker Live Action Rules, the third player's chips' could be picked up by the house to
seat a new 🏧 player if the third player has not returned when the blind comes to their
position. Kill/No Kill
or
Kill/Leg Up Used exclusively 🏧 in kill games, these lammers are
unique since they read differently on each side to indicate the kill status of 🏧 the pot,
similar to the "On/Off" point marker in Craps. If the kill is active, it is placed
"Kill" side 🏧 up in front of the player who has triggered it to show that player is
required to "kill the pot" 🏧 by posting an increased additional blind for the subsequent
hand; Unless the player is also in a regular blind position, 🏧 which would require only
the increased value "kill" blind. If it is not a kill pot, the "No Kill" side 🏧 is kept
up by the dealer. The lammer may also read "Kill" and "Leg Up" on each side to show 🏧 who
has triggered the first half of a requirement to kill the pot ("Leg Up"), or if the pot
has 🏧 been killed. Which of the two differently marked lammers is used depends upon the
requirement to trigger the kill pot 🏧 for that game.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit
]
