A poker dealer
A poker dealer distributes cards to players and manages the action at a
poker table.[1]
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. There are a few
exceptions for taking tips. (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 to 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 or abusive
players may be another drawback to dealing at a casino.
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 their own travel expenses.
Mechanics of dealing [ edit
]
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 whooshing sound 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 no players at the table can 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 ]
