poker tournament dealer?

[gamblegood]

I have heard of dealers that just work the tournament circuit how much can they make? and can you get by just doing the tournament circuit? I have been thinking about doind this since full time dealer positions are hard to come by.

[Photoc]

Circuit can be fun, but easy to spend any money you make, and living in hotels can get tiresome after awhile. If you're single, like to travel, and don't mind EDR food in lots of places, it can be a good time. Income will be decent, but you have to pay your own travel expenses and sometimes hotel/living costs to go along with your bills back home.

[gamblegood]

Photoc if I where to go to dealer school would tournament gigs be easy to come by and how much money could I expect to make.

[Photoc]

I honestly don't know, but best bet is to show up at a bigger tournament and talk to the TD or even go to www.savagetournaments.com and could email Matt for info. I know they prefer more experienced folks, but if you can ace an audition and show that you really know the game and are willing to learn whatever they want to teach you, it can go a long ways.

As for what to expect to make, I have never even asked what circuit/tournament dealers make to be honest. Main events and cash games are where the money is though. The side events/sng's/sattelites drag it down quite a bit.

[LovinItAll]

I was speaking to a dealer in a local casino that hosts a couple of WSOP circuit events annually. He said he HATES dealing in those, and he mentioned that the regular cash game dealers in the same casino feel the same way. I haven't asked them, so I don't know if this is true.

His take was simple: he loses money when he deals tournaments.

[youtalkfunny]

Whenever the "circuit dealers" come to town for a big tourney, they always strike me as carnies. It's like they're on the road because they can't get/hold onto a steady job. There's a real vagabond-ness about them.

YMMV.

[pig4bill]

At the last Circuit event, I recognized a number of the dealers from the WSOP in Vegas. Some were working floor at the WSOP. It seemed like they were doing it more for change of pace than anything else.

[RR]

[ QUOTE ]
At the last Circuit event, I recognized a number of the dealers from the WSOP in Vegas. Some were working floor at the WSOP. It seemed like they were doing it more for change of pace than anything else.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are some that travel the circuit becasue they enjoy the lifestyle, but quite a bit more than 50% of the touranment dealers are otherwise unemployable either from lack of experience/skill or inability to pass drug tests. A few places have started drug testing the temps, so this may be changing.

[pfapfap]

Call up your local cardroom and ask how to become a dealer. It may be easier than you think.

[52s]

[ QUOTE ]
I was speaking to a dealer in a local casino that hosts a couple of WSOP circuit events annually. He said he HATES dealing in those

[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't surprise me that this is his answer.

When a tournament shows up at a room, be it WPT or the WSOP Circuit, for that stretch of two weeks, the tournament people usually end up taking control of the room.

Not only that, but the additional dealers in some cases ends up hurting the in-house dealers if the tourney is over-staffed. This seems to hurt the grave shift dealers the most from what I've seen, as in quite a few cases the in-house crew is usually a very small group that gets enlarged two- or three-fold for a tourney, only for the room to not get the expected business to justify having so many people on staff at those hours. With it, the grave dealers suffer since the $$$ gets dispersed over too many dealers.

The tourney dealer lifestyle is quite vagabond. As has been written already, most "tournament circuit" dealers either (a) can't get a regular gig or (b) are druggie [censored]-ups who can't pass a piss test or (c) are single guys in their 20s who want to travel and aren't tied down to having to live in one place.