I'm a Poker Dealer and I still love my Job!! (Long)

[balt999]

I used to be a regular poster on 2+2, but lately I've become more of a lurker than a poster. The last couple of weeks I've seen a trend of negativity towards poker dealers. As a poker dealer myself, I've been particularly disturbed by the bashing of poker dealers. Bigfishhead and Photoc are the most prominent Las Vegas Poker dealers that posts regularly and I usually enjoy reading what they say. I wanted to chime in my two cents of what being a poker dealer is all about and what I see from the box.

1) I work for a major Strip casino, but our poker room is small in comparsion to other huge casinos, so our major clientel are tourists with a sprinkle of locals. In generally many of these players are reasonable people who have a good time, so crap like dealer abuse, bad attitudes, and nits are little or non existent where I work. It makes the environment very pleasant to work at when you know the players are there to have fun.

2) Tipping: Listen, everyone who knows our job knows that tipping makes up for huge part of my income. When I first started dealing it used to bother me when I get stiffed on a 700 pot. BUt as I've gotten more experience getting stiff doesn't bother me much anymore. I figured in the long run the poker dealers make the same amount at the end of the year, so there's no sense of getting all worked out when someone stiffs ya on a $1,000 pot.

3) I take pride in my work. I'm always working on my dealing skills to make myself a better dealer, and fortunately I've gotten a lot of feedback from players saying they respect and like the way I deal, and how I can control a game.

4) I'm not a big talker in the box. It's my responsibility to make sure I give my game my full attention even when I'm at a table full of stiffs. but if it's a fun 3-6 game or a crazy 1-2 NL and they're talking to me, I'm not going to ignore them. I pretty much look at the table dynamics and go with the flow.

5) Finally I love my job!! I can't believe I didn't do this earlier. There's never two days the same. Everyday you sit with 10 different people with 10 different personalities and someone always happens that brings out some sort of genuinue emotions, where it's watching some young WPT Wannabee (dark sunglasses, REd Bull drinking, and iPod wearing) Donk off all their money on Q-High or watching two people fight over a 10 dollar pot.

And Finally to all the Young stallions WPT wannabees playing 1-2 NL...when you try to stare down an opponent for an eternity trying to get a read, 90% of the time you're usuall going to fold and I'm ready to drop the deck [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

That's my two cents from another Las Vegas Poker Dealer

[JLGatsby]

post moved

[GoblinMason (Craig)]

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In generally many of these players are reasonable people who have a good time, so crap like dealer abuse, bad attitudes, and nits are little or non existent where I work.

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where it's watching some young WPT Wannabee (dark sunglasses, REd Bull drinking, and iPod wearing) Donk off all their money on Q-High or watching two people fight over a 10 dollar pot.

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[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Reef]

good post

[ungarop]

[ QUOTE ]
And Finally to all the Young stallions WPT wannabees playing 1-2 NL...when you try to stare down an opponent for an eternity trying to get a read, facing a $10 call with $17 in the pot, 90% of the time you're usuall going to fold and I'm ready to drop the deck [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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[robber baron]

Thank you. When I play I always empathize w/ the dealers, how can they stand to be around all these annoying people all the time, hear the same comments, same jokes - how can they stand it. Not to mention the poker bums that stink to high heaven b/c they take a bath between 40 hour sessions.
Kudos to you buddy

[steamboatin]

Okay, you guys an laugh but this happens much more than most people realize. Yesterday, Playing $2-4-4-8 at Ceasar's IN this young guy wearing sunglasses, waits until it is his turn, looks around, considers the action that has occurred, carefully looks at his hole cards (one at a time of course), looks back up considers what to do, then calls the two dollars. He plays almost every hand, at least 90% VPIP but goes through the exact rictual each and every hand.

After his fourth or fifth buy in he mentions that he is down $500 and then goes and rebuys again. We all assure him that the swings in holdem are extreme and you can't do anything when you aren't catching cards.

during the last buyin, he removes his sunglasses and folds a few hands on the turn. His chip stack grows a little (mainly after showing me a runner runner flush when we were heads up on the flop) but then the sunglasses are back on and he is busto again.

He seems like a really nice guy and I never get angry about his TV antics because it really entertaining to watch and he is not bad for the game. I like to play cards with him at the table. I have no idea what his real name is but I have nicknamed him Mike TV.

[lowpockets]

Hey balt - good post. I think that the negativity you sense towards most dealers is because from what you described - you are not like most dealers. Granted, there is a huge population of a-holes playing poker, at least some of the grief I have seen dealers get is valid. If I tip a dealer a buck I don't expect a huge acknowledgement or sign of gratitude. However, with a $5 or $10 tip after a big pot when the dealer doesn't acknowledge the tip, it is frustrating.

One thing that I have thought about doing more with tipping is giving the dealer a buck for every pot I win and then if they are pleasent and competent tipping them another $5 or whatever when they rotate. What do you think?

[Jeffage]

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One thing that I have thought about doing more with tipping is giving the dealer a buck for every pot I win and then if they are pleasent and competent tipping them another $5 or whatever when they rotate. What do you think?


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I think it's a good idea provided you're not playing poker to win money. The dealers will definitely appreciate it though.

Jeff

[QuadsOverQuads]

[ QUOTE ]
I used to be a regular poster on 2+2, but lately I've become more of a lurker than a poster. The last couple of weeks I've seen a trend of negativity towards poker dealers. As a poker dealer myself, I've been particularly disturbed by the bashing of poker dealers. Bigfishhead and Photoc are the most prominent Las Vegas Poker dealers that posts regularly and I usually enjoy reading what they say. I wanted to chime in my two cents of what being a poker dealer is all about and what I see from the box.

1) I work for a major Strip casino, but our poker room is small in comparsion to other huge casinos, so our major clientel are tourists with a sprinkle of locals. In generally many of these players are reasonable people who have a good time, so crap like dealer abuse, bad attitudes, and nits are little or non existent where I work. It makes the environment very pleasant to work at when you know the players are there to have fun.

2) Tipping: Listen, everyone who knows our job knows that tipping makes up for huge part of my income. When I first started dealing it used to bother me when I get stiffed on a 700 pot. BUt as I've gotten more experience getting stiff doesn't bother me much anymore. I figured in the long run the poker dealers make the same amount at the end of the year, so there's no sense of getting all worked out when someone stiffs ya on a $1,000 pot.

3) I take pride in my work. I'm always working on my dealing skills to make myself a better dealer, and fortunately I've gotten a lot of feedback from players saying they respect and like the way I deal, and how I can control a game.

4) I'm not a big talker in the box. It's my responsibility to make sure I give my game my full attention even when I'm at a table full of stiffs. but if it's a fun 3-6 game or a crazy 1-2 NL and they're talking to me, I'm not going to ignore them. I pretty much look at the table dynamics and go with the flow.

5) Finally I love my job!! I can't believe I didn't do this earlier. There's never two days the same. Everyday you sit with 10 different people with 10 different personalities and someone always happens that brings out some sort of genuinue emotions, where it's watching some young WPT Wannabee (dark sunglasses, REd Bull drinking, and iPod wearing) Donk off all their money on Q-High or watching two people fight over a 10 dollar pot.

And Finally to all the Young stallions WPT wannabees playing 1-2 NL...when you try to stare down an opponent for an eternity trying to get a read, 90% of the time you're usuall going to fold and I'm ready to drop the deck [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

That's my two cents from another Las Vegas Poker Dealer

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I'll second everything you just said.

Also: a big shout out to bigfishead for consistently giving solid advice to 2+2'ers who are considering becoming dealers. His suggestions helped me land my first dealing job -- a job which I still thoroughly love after a year and a half of solid work [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


q/q