A professional poker card dealer distributes the cards to the poker players and manages the poker table. Each and every casino with a poker room must have a staff of poker dealers. Dealers usually are tipped. Their tips are more substantial if they are quick and efficient at dealing hands. The dealers who are quicker are usually chosen by the casino to deal in the higher limit games.
Casinos usually require anybody wanting to be a poker dealer to take a 4-6 week training course at a dealing school if they have no prior experience. Some drawbacks of being a poker dealer include having to deal with some players that are difficult or abusive, working long hours and sitting for long periods of time.
Poker dealers may also be hired by major poker tournaments. The coordinators usually hire dealers for the duration of the tournament, which can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Dealers usually have to cover their own travel expenses. Room and board may or may not be provided for the dealers.
In order to be a dealer, you must be proficient at shuffling the deck and dealing the cards. If the game calls for it, the dealer must also turn up the community cards in the center of the table.
There is a particular method to shuffling the cards that the poker dealer must follow. This method is defined by the casino itself.A professional poker dealer will always keep both halves of the cards very low to the table. First, the dealer must spread out the cards on the table and “scramble them. This is called washing the cards. Then the dealer must collect all the cards and square them into a deck. After that, the poker dealer will follow a particular shuffling sequence such as “riffle, riffle, box, riffle”. Finally, a cut card is placed on the table and the deck is cut into the card. This “cut” card is held on the bottom of the deck throughout the entire game to keep the bottom card from being seen.
There are two different methods to dealing the poker cards. They are American style and European style. American style is when the deck is held in one hand, and the corner of the top card is pinched between the thumb and forefinger of the other hand. Then the dealer throws the card to the player. The dealer has to be careful to throw it low to the table and in the right direction so the players cannot see the card.
In European style dealing, the poker dealer touches the top of each card being delt. Then he pushes the card off of the deck and onto the table in front of him. After this, he propels the card to the player. Usually he adds some spin to the care to insure stability.
After dealing the poker cards to the players, the top card of the deck is “burned” before the community cards are laid out. Burning of a card is just discarding it. This is because it is possible that a player has seen this card. This ensures that there is no cheating. When burning the deck must be held low and the card that is to be burned must always stay level with the table. Casinos always keep an eye on the dealers, making sure that the poker dealers d not flash the card to the players, therefore exposing the card. During a poker game that includes a flop, the flop is comprised of the community cards. The community cards are always turned up simultaniously. Never are they turned up one at a time.
Dealers are in control of all the action in a game. This may include, but is not limited to, telling the players to act, verbally announcing the actions of a player to the rest of the table and correcting any and all players who act out of turn.
The dealer also manages the pot. The poker dealer must verify all bets and raises placed by the players. The dealer must also collect all folded poker hands. The poker dealer must also read the players hands during a showdown to determine the winner. In poker games where there is a “rake”, the dealer must keep track of how much is in the pot and he must also subtract the appropriate ammount for the house.
As you can see, a poker dealer does not just deal the cards. There is so much more to being a poker dealer than what it appears. With poker dealers having to do so much, they deserve all the respect they can get.