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A poker dealer distributes
cards to players and manages the action at a
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
table.
Professional dealers
Any
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
with a poker room must hire a staff of dealers. Casinos generally pay dealers
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
. However, a dealer's primary source of income is not salary, but
tip
Tip commonly refers to:
* Tip (gambling)
* Tip (gratuity)
* Tip (law enforcement)
* another term for Advice (opinion), Advice
Tip or TIP may also refer to:
Science and technology
* Tank phone, a device allowing infantry to communicate with the oc ...
s 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
holiday
A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
s, 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
Room and board is a phrase describing a situation in which, in exchange for money, Manual labour, labor or other considerations, a person is provided with a place to live as well as meals on a comprehensive basis. It commonly occurs as a fee at h ...
may or may not be provided by the tournament management; the dealer is typically responsible for their own travel expenses.
Mechanics of dealing
Dealers must be proficient in
shuffling
Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome.
__TOC__
Techniques
Over ...
the deck, distributing the cards to the players, and, if required by the game being dealt, turning up the
community card
Community card poker refers to any game of poker that uses community cards (also called "shared cards"), which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt an incomplete hand ...
s in the center of the table. There are two methods of distributing the cards, "American"-style and "European"-style.
Shuffling
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
Cut may refer to:
Common uses
* The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force
** A type of wound
** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past
** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment
** Cut (ea ...
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
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
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
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
Cheating generally describes various actions designed to subvert rules in order to obtain unfair advantages. This includes acts of bribery, cronyism and nepotism in any situation where individuals are given preference using inappropriate cr ...
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
In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...
games, the three community cards comprising the
flop
In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...
are turned up simultaneously, never one at a time.
Responsibilities during a hand
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
A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...
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:
:
Online dealing
Online poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...
sites use
Random number generation
Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance is generated. This means that the particular outc ...
(RNGs) when dealing cards. A successful RNG distributes cards in an unpredictable and random way.
See also
*
Croupier
A croupier or dealer is someone appointed at a gambling table to assist in the conduct of the game, especially in the distribution of bets and payouts. Croupiers are typically employed by casinos.
Origin of the word
Originally a "croupier" meant ...
*
Cocktail waitress
A cocktail waitress is a female server who brings drinks to patrons of drinking establishments such as bars, cocktail lounges, casinos, comedy clubs, jazz clubs, cabarets, and other live music venues. Casinos traditionally dress their cocktail w ...
Footnotes
References
*
*{{cite web
, last = Shulman
, first = Barry
, authorlink = Barry Shulman
, title = Dealer Tipping and Economics
, work =
, publisher = Card Player Magazine
, date = 2002-03-29
, url = http://www.cardplayer.com/cardplayer-poker-magazines/29-bay-101-15-7/articles/12442-dealer-tipping-and-economics
Entertainment occupations
Poker gameplay and terminology