Be a good dealer!

[Sfynkz]

I try to practice myself to be a good dealer, because I will make a big tourney in a billard room!  My problems is for counting quickly the amount of chips which was bet by the players and to see quickly the winning hand.

Do you have some tips for that!

Thanks and sorry for my english (My primary language is french),
Maxime Boily

[72]

to see the winning hand, you should be looking at the board cards and know what the best 2 possible hands are. practice reading the board by dealing yourself 5 cards and finding the nuts and 2nd nuts, so when you're dealing a game, at showdown you will know faster what hands are winners.

this also helps when you're playing the game too, so many players i deal to don't see the flush or straight possibilities on the board and are surprised when they're beaten by one.

[Sfynkz]

Thank you very much!

[Nerre]

As for counting the bets, practice on cutting the chips in stacks of five. You should be able to make 3-4 stacks of 5 chips in 2 seconds.

Then when a player raises, announce "raise", count the chips fast and then the amount.


As for the winning hand: You don't have to find it fast! The players will most likely see it before you do, but you must compare the hands two at the time, in the correct order, and kill the losing hand of those two. Just ignore the players who are trying to tell you which hand won.

When killing the losing hand, always turn it face down first, then pull it into the muck. This will give the players a few seconds to object and you can turn the hand face up again to check if you misread it.


Oh, right, get yourself The Professional Poker Dealers Handbook. It's well worth the price.

[72]

practice cutting chips is pretty important for dealers. they should be able to cut out 1-5 chips out of a stack and be able to break down stacks of chips into stacks of 5(4 for $25 denominations) for counting purposes.

[holdemholmes]

practice cutting chips is pretty important for dealers. they should be able to cut out 1-5 chips out of a stack and be able to break down stacks of chips into stacks of 5(4 for $25 denominations) for counting purposes.

I agree that this is huge...a big timesaver. I watched some video of the dealer training classes at a community college by me, and this was the thing they had the most difficulty with.

[72]

it's second nature for me to do... with my eyes closed i can take a stack of chips and cut out 5, then 4, then 3, then 2..... i can place my hand on top of a stack of more than 20 chips, and pull off exactly 20 99% of the time.

your fingers develop a memory with practice and experience.

[bluegarage]

"The professional Poker Dealer's Handbook"  Is a great resource.  It has some drills for reading hands as well as for some of the other issues that tend to bite dealers in the ass sometimes; such as breaking out sidepots.

[Lumpy50]

Poker Jack posted a link to this dealer training site. It has videos on pretty much everything to do with dealing including cutting chips.
http://truepokerdealer.com/index.html