BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

I am just looking into what good dealers would consider an average for say one year, or 2080 hours of being on shift. I know mistakes happen, and this is probably the most common dealer error that can really effect the game. I am in management and have a few dealers that burn and turn before action is complete more often than others.

What do you consider to be too often? Once per week? Once per month? Once or twice per year?

When I was dealing 10 years ago, I don't remember this being as big of a problem as it is now. I keep stats in a personal journal about my dealers and am starting to notice that a few of the poker dealers are making this mistake nearly every night while other dealers are never bringing a card prior to the completion of action.

Other than termination, what can I do?

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

I would say I do this at the most say once every three months. I deal a bit fewer hours than your hypothetical though. Then there are times where it is questionable as to if the dealer burnbed and turned early or did the button check. Guy on button is bouncing his hands dealer sees it as a check next thing you know there is turn up and button claims he wasn't checking


Dealers who do this frequnetly are generally trying to go to fast.

What can you do. Emphasis accuracy over speed in your evaluations of dealers and burn into their heads the fundamental of knocking on the table before they burn and turn.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
I am just looking into what good dealers would consider an average for say one year, or 2080 hours of being on shift. I know mistakes happen, and this is probably the most common dealer error that can really effect the game. I am in management and have a few dealers that burn and turn before action is complete more often than others.

What do you consider to be too often? Once per week? Once per month? Once or twice per year?

When I was dealing 10 years ago, I don't remember this being as big of a problem as it is now. I keep stats in a personal journal about my dealers and am starting to notice that a few of the poker dealers are making this mistake nearly every night while other dealers are never bringing a card prior to the completion of action.

Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]


Not to be rude but if you actually keep a journal about dealers you need to get a life. Concentrate more on family or friends and just suck it up to the fact that there are more and more games now then there were 10 yrs ago so you will find more dealers that just suck . Its the same with players as now there are more [censored] players then there were then just cuz there are more of them.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am just looking into what good dealers would consider an average for say one year, or 2080 hours of being on shift. I know mistakes happen, and this is probably the most common dealer error that can really effect the game. I am in management and have a few dealers that burn and turn before action is complete more often than others.

What do you consider to be too often? Once per week? Once per month? Once or twice per year?

When I was dealing 10 years ago, I don't remember this being as big of a problem as it is now. I keep stats in a personal journal about my dealers and am starting to notice that a few of the poker dealers are making this mistake nearly every night while other dealers are never bringing a card prior to the completion of action.

Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]


Not to be rude but if you actually keep a journal about dealers you need to get a life. Concentrate more on family or friends and just suck it up to the fact that there are more and more games now then there were 10 yrs ago so you will find more dealers that just suck . Its the same with players as now there are more [censored] players then there were then just cuz there are more of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

are you off the meds? That was way out in left field.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am just looking into what good dealers would consider an average for say one year, or 2080 hours of being on shift. I know mistakes happen, and this is probably the most common dealer error that can really effect the game. I am in management and have a few dealers that burn and turn before action is complete more often than others.

What do you consider to be too often? Once per week? Once per month? Once or twice per year?

When I was dealing 10 years ago, I don't remember this being as big of a problem as it is now. I keep stats in a personal journal about my dealers and am starting to notice that a few of the poker dealers are making this mistake nearly every night while other dealers are never bringing a card prior to the completion of action.

Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]


Not to be rude but if you actually keep a journal about dealers you need to get a life. Concentrate more on family or friends and just suck it up to the fact that there are more and more games now then there were 10 yrs ago so you will find more dealers that just suck . Its the same with players as now there are more [censored] players then there were then just cuz there are more of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am assuming your suck at reading comprehension. The man keeps a journal as part of his job. If you understood that, then whoa. Consider switching to decaf.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

IMHO this is a GREAT question. Its unfortunate that in most poker rooms the management are former dealers, not professional managers. Its great to see you ask a question to help improve the quality of your staff - congrats, so many managers are fearful of looking to outside help in their decision process.

I suggest budgeting in merit performance pay. Now there are many ways to impliment this concept, I will only provide one as an example.

Assuming you have systems in place to determine the house take per down and track which dealer is where on each down then a merit system could be constructed based where the employees get their share of the merit bonus pool (determined at the beginning of the fiscal year, this should be a fixed cost) based on two qualifications

1) Their share of the total percentage of the house take
2) A deduction from their share of the merit pool for each dealing infraction made.

The concept is simple, it encourages dealers to not only deal fast, but to also deal accurately. The challenge becomes management training, you must now conduct team meetings to discuss how dealing errors greatly reduce the take per down because an error takes more time to correct than dealing slower and more accurately would.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

IMHO this is a GREAT question. Its unfortunate that in most poker rooms the management are former dealers, not professional managers. Its great to see you ask a question to help improve the quality of your staff - congrats, so many managers are fearful of looking to outside help in their decision process.

I suggest budgeting in merit performance pay. Now there are many ways to impliment this concept, I will only provide one as an example.

Assuming you have systems in place to determine the house take per down and track which dealer is where on each down then a merit system could be constructed based where the employees get their share of the merit bonus pool (determined at the beginning of the fiscal year, this should be a fixed cost) based on two qualifications

1) Their share of the total percentage of the house take
2) A deduction from their share of the merit pool for each dealing infraction made.

The concept is simple, it encourages dealers to not only deal fast, but to also deal accurately. The challenge becomes management training, you must now conduct team meetings to discuss how dealing errors greatly reduce the take per down because an error takes more time to correct than dealing slower and more accurately would.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem this presents is that when you penalize dealers for every mistake they will try to fix their own mistakes to avoid penalty. This ends up being much worse.

While merit pay is not a bad idea strict formulas are problematic.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

Youre also assuming there's a budget allowed for incentives like this.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

I do actually have a life, and manage to work 50 hours per week as well. I would have a hard time believing that anyone working in poker management could do the job well without keeping a journal on dealer issues and floor decisions. For one, how else can the floor rulings be consistent, and also, when working with 20 dealers, (Small Casino) how else do you evaluate them fairly.

Psandman - Once in 90 days in my opinion is not often enough to be an issue. Especially as you describe the situation with the button, or last to act. When I was dealing (and I try to explain this to my dealers) If I announced "Four player's" as I brought the flop, it was automatic for me to not burn and turn until four player's acted. My dealers are constantly missing someone. It never seems to me to be something as simple as the last person to act, which I would consider to be an understandable mistake occasionally.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

IMHO this is a GREAT question. Its unfortunate that in most poker rooms the management are former dealers, not professional managers. Its great to see you ask a question to help improve the quality of your staff - congrats, so many managers are fearful of looking to outside help in their decision process.

I suggest budgeting in merit performance pay. Now there are many ways to impliment this concept, I will only provide one as an example.

Assuming you have systems in place to determine the house take per down and track which dealer is where on each down then a merit system could be constructed based where the employees get their share of the merit bonus pool (determined at the beginning of the fiscal year, this should be a fixed cost) based on two qualifications

1) Their share of the total percentage of the house take
2) A deduction from their share of the merit pool for each dealing infraction made.

The concept is simple, it encourages dealers to not only deal fast, but to also deal accurately. The challenge becomes management training, you must now conduct team meetings to discuss how dealing errors greatly reduce the take per down because an error takes more time to correct than dealing slower and more accurately would.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem this presents is that when you penalize dealers for every mistake they will try to fix their own mistakes to avoid penalty. This ends up being much worse.

While merit pay is not a bad idea strict formulas are problematic.

[/ QUOTE ]

How is providing a reward a penalty? Its an incentive for good performance, not a penalty.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

TT what he means is dealers will be trying to fix their own mistakes in the box without calling the floor for fear of penalty for the mistake, instead of the floor making the correction and just moving on, now you have dealers fixing their own mistakes to avoid a penalty.

Not good.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
Youre also assuming there's a budget allowed for incentives like this.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can argue this easily with upper casino management, I will increase the take by x%. lets set aside Y% of the increase for the performance incentive. This is a found opportunity, its the cost of increasing productivity. This concept comes from the manufacturing floors of factories, and is a proven metric that encourages employees and management to reach the management revenue goals.

pretty convincing, no? Say the projected increase is an overall 1.5 hands/hour at a $3 drop. (fuzzy math coming - ). In a 10 table room thats $45/hour. Lets assume the per-table rev calc is for a 12 hour period (again, fuzzy math but it helps explain the concept simply). Thats $540/day * 350 (we will remove 12 days to show down time), $189k/year projected increase in GROSS revenue through the incentive program. Now lets set asside 25% as the cost of the program - the pool is a theoretical $47,250.

To make the calc more accurate you could make the incentive so the pool becomes 25% of the total over the prior years gross take with some metrics for statistical variance such as holidays, conventions, players/hour, tables in use - all used to provide a measure that doesn't allow the incentive pool to bloat with disclose to the staff how the calc is being made (this is important - communication with staff is key so they don't feel cheated).

Another positive is that encourages staff to remain. The award could happen in January but payment is made in April or something like that so you dont see a mass exodus after the holidays. Or this pool could be developed on a monthly basis.

Keep in mind this is just one idea... there are many ways to increase productivity, accountability, and accuracy. A nice side effect will be that the card room might become the most in-demand job for dealers in your market, which in turn will allow you to replace non-performing employees that are holding back the team from making their goals.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

IMHO this is a GREAT question. Its unfortunate that in most poker rooms the management are former dealers, not professional managers. Its great to see you ask a question to help improve the quality of your staff - congrats, so many managers are fearful of looking to outside help in their decision process.

I suggest budgeting in merit performance pay. Now there are many ways to impliment this concept, I will only provide one as an example.

Assuming you have systems in place to determine the house take per down and track which dealer is where on each down then a merit system could be constructed based where the employees get their share of the merit bonus pool (determined at the beginning of the fiscal year, this should be a fixed cost) based on two qualifications

1) Their share of the total percentage of the house take
2) A deduction from their share of the merit pool for each dealing infraction made.

The concept is simple, it encourages dealers to not only deal fast, but to also deal accurately. The challenge becomes management training, you must now conduct team meetings to discuss how dealing errors greatly reduce the take per down because an error takes more time to correct than dealing slower and more accurately would.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem this presents is that when you penalize dealers for every mistake they will try to fix their own mistakes to avoid penalty. This ends up being much worse.

While merit pay is not a bad idea strict formulas are problematic.

[/ QUOTE ]

How is providing a reward a penalty? Its an incentive for good performance, not a penalty.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
2) A deduction from their share of the merit pool for each dealing infraction made.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
TT what he means is dealers will be trying to fix their own mistakes in the box without calling the floor for fear of penalty for the mistake, instead of the floor making the correction and just moving on, now you have dealers fixing their own mistakes to avoid a penalty.

Not good.

[/ QUOTE ]

Part of the process is a sliding penalty scale. If the dealer is caught fixing his or her mistake the penalty becomes huge compared to the penalty of a dealing error. Nobody wants the big penalty because it would remove the shift's earned incentive, make it cost prohibitive and the problem will disappear.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

IMHO this is a GREAT question. Its unfortunate that in most poker rooms the management are former dealers, not professional managers. Its great to see you ask a question to help improve the quality of your staff - congrats, so many managers are fearful of looking to outside help in their decision process.

I suggest budgeting in merit performance pay. Now there are many ways to impliment this concept, I will only provide one as an example.

Assuming you have systems in place to determine the house take per down and track which dealer is where on each down then a merit system could be constructed based where the employees get their share of the merit bonus pool (determined at the beginning of the fiscal year, this should be a fixed cost) based on two qualifications

1) Their share of the total percentage of the house take
2) A deduction from their share of the merit pool for each dealing infraction made.

The concept is simple, it encourages dealers to not only deal fast, but to also deal accurately. The challenge becomes management training, you must now conduct team meetings to discuss how dealing errors greatly reduce the take per down because an error takes more time to correct than dealing slower and more accurately would.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem this presents is that when you penalize dealers for every mistake they will try to fix their own mistakes to avoid penalty. This ends up being much worse.

While merit pay is not a bad idea strict formulas are problematic.

[/ QUOTE ]

How is providing a reward a penalty? Its an incentive for good performance, not a penalty.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
2) A deduction from their share of the merit pool for each dealing infraction made.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]


Answer: Allow the employee to opt-out of the merit pool. Its not a penalty if its found money they wouldn't have had in the first place. if the pool was created by lowering staff wages then your argument would be valid, this is a found opportunity for all dealers, its "magic money". The reward is tempered by mistakes, some mistakes cost more than others.

Also keep in mind nobody would want to get fired if it jeopardizes their end of year bonus.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

I have also considered an incentive program of sorts, such as shift changes. Allowing the dealers that are mistake free better shifts. A few years ago I managed a poker room that was brand new. This was before poker gained its popularity and I would have sit down sessions with dealers that were making mistakes. In turn, the problem dealers were soon afraid to call the floor when a simple error was made and I found that some were attempting to correct them on their own. Personally I have no tolerance for self correcting dealers and had to terminate on this basis alone.

Recently I have thought of averaging my dealers mistakes on a per shift basis and allowing something like one burn and turn per 10 or 20 shifts. Anything over that would have to be a warning after the first evaluation period, and termination if the problem persists. Then again the dealers that keep a very low average should be given first choice of shifts and maybe something such as some reward of some kind. I am also a veteran poker player, and find few things more irritating when I am playing than a dealer that makes mistakes, especially one that can cost the rightful winner an entire pot.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

I opened a room in which managment told the dealers that after 90 days they would be ranked on skill level and choice of shifts distributed on that basis.

I also believe that the extra board dealers were led to believe that such ranking would give them a chance to get a full-time shift (I suspect management will claim they never said that, it was clearly implied == I was one of the extra board dealers) While it sounds like a good idea there is a problem .. . your management has to be honest and dedicated to these evaluations.

When the 90 day point came we had a meeting and we were told that all the dealers rankings were so close that they didn't mean anything. Now there were quite a few breakins, a couple experienced dealers, one or two with a ton of experience.here is no way that those rankings were legitametly all to close to matter. We had good dealers bad dealers and in between.

We were asked to sign our evaluations and return them. . . Problem . . No body had written up an evaulation of me. So one of the shift managers went and wrote one up. It was all positive not one negative. == That was the last day I ever worked at that poker room.

So you can see why I'm some what skeptical of these sort of systems, not in theory but in practice.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

I'm not saying therit pay is a penalty simply saying that dealers will be trying to hide their mistakes. Hey am always happy to call the floor when I screw up. But a dealer knowing that calling the floor may cost them money may be hesitant.

If merit pay is introduced I don't think it should be optional.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

Don't dealers already get merit pay, ie. tips?

Everybody talks about how dealers at Foxwoods suck because the tips are pooled and there is no incentive to be better. Isn't the corollary of that, that individual tips cause dealers to try harder and work smarter thus improving their abilities.

Is there any evidence that some additional incentive would actually be effective?

This is actually why I hate the standard tip for all dealers policy. As players we're removing the main tool we have for improving our dealers.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
What do you consider to be too often? Once per week? Once per month? Once or twice per year?

Other than termination, what can I do?

[/ QUOTE ]
Anytime I find myself asking these questions, and I've learned the hard way, I need to get rid of somebody.

Being mathematical, I'd probably chart out the dealers and see where the top 10%, 20%, 50%, 80%, 90% fall. I'm thinking once a night is too much, bye.

As for incentives, I'd use the tip pool and the top x% would split say 20% of it. I'm not a dealer. But I would think this is a disaster when it happens, and least for big pots.

Actually, now that I think about it. I'd probably set a standard. Dealers doing his less than x times a month for example get to split the pot. And I'd like to reward the zeros more, maybe thats the standard. And forget the top x%.

Just my thoughts, hate these problems.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
I But a dealer knowing that calling the floor may cost them money may be hesitant.

[/ QUOTE ]

A dealer who hides his or her mistakes should get fired, and their co-workers should encourage it since they leave behind his or her share of the incentive pool.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

It is common for the room log to list dealer errors where floor is called.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
I do actually have a life, and manage to work 50 hours per week as well. I would have a hard time believing that anyone working in poker management could do the job well without keeping a journal on dealer issues and floor decisions. For one, how else can the floor rulings be consistent, and also, when working with 20 dealers, (Small Casino) how else do you evaluate them fairly.

Psandman - Once in 90 days in my opinion is not often enough to be an issue. Especially as you describe the situation with the button, or last to act. When I was dealing (and I try to explain this to my dealers) If I announced "Four player's" as I brought the flop, it was automatic for me to not burn and turn until four player's acted. My dealers are constantly missing someone. It never seems to me to be something as simple as the last person to act, which I would consider to be an understandable mistake occasionally.

[/ QUOTE ]


I dont understand this journal for floor decisions and dealer issues.
Are you saying is if the same exact mistake happens on 2 different games it could be fixed differently each time? How can floor decisions be inconsistent in such a small room. I would think that you (being in Management) would have set the guidelines on how to fix things and your floors should fix them the same.There should be no discrepancies and no need to keep track in a journal as all problems are fixed the same way each time. Management should know what mistakes could happen and which way to fix them.

Now with dealers if you said 100, 200, or more it would be different but you say there are 20. If I ran a small room like that they wouldnt be making the same mistake. Instead of writing in my journal and keeping track i would be right there helping problem dealer constantly with what to do to improve. If he/she didnt want to improve well he/she would be let go and i would have people that i wanted that didnt make mistakes. I also supervise in gaming but not poker. I have probably worked with 5 - 700 different dealers this year alone and i know as soon as i see them what mistakes they consistently make and how exactly to fix them. When i supervise craps and a dealer makes mistakes i know what to do to help a dealer improve. Its my job to know otherwise i wouldnt be a supervisor.Unfortuantely ifI continue to tell them and it still doesnt help i am in no position for disciplinary action and/or termination.
I know i sound like a jerk and people dont aqree with me but IMO management shouldnt need to come on an internet forum and ask others for advice. Its their job to know what to do. Otherwise they shouldnt be in that position.

Figure this should get the crowd riled up

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

Personally, I have 2 burn-and-turns in the past six months. I don't believe a competent dealer should be making this error very frequently, and certainly not nightly. If they are, then I suspect it's not so much a speed issue as a focus and game-control issue.

q/q

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]

IMO management shouldnt need to come on an internet forum and ask others for advice.

[/ QUOTE ]

which perfect world do you in? I want to move to the land of make believe. Say hello to Mr Rodgers for me!

[ QUOTE ]
Its their job to know what to do. Otherwise they shouldnt be in that position.

[/ QUOTE ]

The vast majority of people in poker room management have no management background, they are former dealers.

[ QUOTE ]
Figure this should get the crowd riled up

[/ QUOTE ]

Photoc is always riled up, give that man his lithium.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Figure this should get the crowd riled up

[/ QUOTE ]

Photoc is always riled up, give that man his lithium.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha TT. Actually, I haven't got much to say in this thread. I can see both sides of the argument, the good and the bad too. I've got management background between running my own business with 5 employees to being in a table games management position and now I just prefer to deal. It's so much nicer for about the same amount of money (not including running a business working those 100 hour weeks and it sucked!) There just isn't anything I can say that hasn't been said already in here.

I don't get riled up at threads like this honestly. It's just the stupid and redundant threads/people that drive me nuts.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

IMO management shouldnt need to come on an internet forum and ask others for advice.

[/ QUOTE ]

which perfect world do you in? I want to move to the land of make believe. Say hello to Mr Rodgers for me!

[ QUOTE ]
Its their job to know what to do. Otherwise they shouldnt be in that position.

[/ QUOTE ]

The vast majority of people in poker room management have no management background, they are former dealers.

[ QUOTE ]
Figure this should get the crowd riled up

[/ QUOTE ]

Photoc is always riled up, give that man his lithium.

[/ QUOTE ]


TT...What is the point of the statement that the vast majority of poker room management started as dealers. I would think that 90% of managers out there started at the bottom no matter what they did. Whether its Mcdonalds managers, managers at walmart or managers of a poker room. I suspect every manager started at the bottom at sometime. Its not like they just walked into the job as managers.

Not fantasy land just the facts i would think. In this situation OP said he was a dealer 10 yrs ago. Now what has he been doing since. If its managing and he is coming on here asking what to do well then i dont think he is the right manager for that position. Again I am a supervisor in my position as well.IMO if i came in here and asked how to do my job or what to do if mistakes happened well then i dont think i should be doing that job then. Managers are suppose to know what to do. Right or wrong?

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

Have dealers announce number of players/ and pull bets in before burning. This will eliminate a majority of your B&T errors

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
Its not like they just walked into the job as managers.

[/ QUOTE ]

lower level managers, yes. Corporate management, generally no.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

Hey, Joe, come on in. Close the door. Have a seat.

What? No, you're not in any trouble. Not at all. In fact, I was just going over your latest evaluation, and it's fantastic. You show up every day, on time, neatly dressed and shaved...the players like you, you get along well with everybody...you do a great job at the table running the game...BUT...the one problem you seem to be having is with all the Burn and Turns.

It happens, I know. Believe me, I know, I've done it myself. It happens to all of us. But it happens to you a LOT. A little too much.

Again, you're not in trouble. I was just hoping that we could address this, and see what we can do to prevent it from becoming a problem.

So let me start by asking you: Why do YOU think you have so many Burn and Turns?

***

At this point, Joe is likely to blame the players. Don't let him get by with that. Point out to him that he's dealing to the same players that all the other dealers are, and they're not ringing up B&T's left and right.

Before you ask Joe why he's B&T-ing so much, you should already know the answer. It's probably one of the following common reasons:

--He's trying to talk and deal at the same time;
--He's rushing, trying to get out more hands (to make more $$);
--He's one of those brain-dead people that make you wonder how they find their way home from work every night.

If it's Reason #3, you're screwed. There's no fixing stupid.

#1 and #2 are easily fixable, if the dealer WANTS to fix the problem. Some dealers just like talking more than they like taking pride in a job well done. As the manager, it's on you to motivate your dealer to WANT to do a good job.

The obvious motivational tool is M-O-N-E-Y. Tell Joe that time is money, and stopping the game to get the floorman costs Joe money. Re-shuffling in the middle of a hand costs Joe money. Pissing off the players costs Joe A LOT of money.

Once properly motivated, figure out what Joe is doing wrong; bring it to his attention; urge him to work on it; and this is very important, FOLLOW UP. Call him back into the office in couple of months, and discuss his progress.

One last thing: when offering criticism to a subordinate, I've found that it's best to serve criticism as a sandwich: start by giving him a compliment; get to the criticism; and finish with more compliments.

The sandwich looks like this:

Compliment
Criticism
Compliment

Example:

"Hey, Joe, let's talk. First, you're doing A, B, C, and D right! Great Job! But E and F are a problem, you need to work on E and F. But overall, I'm very pleased, you're a great guy, we're lucky to have you!"

Hope this helps.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

There's a dealer at Canterbury who claims that he has never burned and turned prematurely in 6+ years of dealing because he always taps the table first. If your dealers always pull in all bets and tap the table before burning and turning, errors in this area should be almost non-existent.

Accuracy should not be sacrificed for speed.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

Nice post youtalkfunny.

Calvin Coolidge to his secretary: "Your dress makes you look pretty, please dot your I's"

Excerpted from "How to Win Friends and Influence People." If you work in management and have not read this book, then you shouldn't be working in management.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

[ QUOTE ]
Other than termination, what can I do?


[/ QUOTE ]

Insist on proper dealing procedures. Many dealers attempt to take a short cut of leaving the bets out while they burn and turn. The correct procedure is to bring the bets in and then deal the next card. While the dealer is bring bets in the players have plenty of time to speak up and say they haven't acted yet.

Re: BURN AND TURN. Dealers Please!
 

I've burned and turned too early once since I've been dealing FT again, which is about a year and a half. I have two habits which keep me from missing anyone - I rap the table pretty hard, or sometimes tap of the edge of the rack, so everyone knows I'm about to burn and turn. Also, I take a quick peek both directions as I'm burning.

The cause of B&T too early is usually rushing things, trying to make more tips. The thing these dealers don't realize is that if you take an extra second or two to make sure action is complete before you proceed, it only costs you one or two hands per night. However, the players do notice and appreciate dealers who are careful and make few mistakes, and ultimately players tip these dealers better.

"Every night" is friggin' ridiculous. Try my time tested method of kicking them in the nuts.