Card Dealing on Oval Table (10-player) (1 Viewer)

Steeeeb

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Unfortunately for home games, most of my friends are not great at shuffling OR dealing. The further a seat is away from the middle, the more difficult it is to deal with, and sometimes cards are revealed when dealing across the whole table.

Other than having a Designated Dealer at the table center, we've decided to only have the 2-6 of the middle seats to alternate dealing. Is this considered bad practice/etiquette?

(I will be swapping out an oval for a round one in the near future)
 
Have those people on the ends tried standing up to deal? Makes a huge difference, if necessary.
 
Unfortunately for home games, most of my friends are not great at shuffling OR dealing. The further a seat is away from the middle, the more difficult it is to deal with, and sometimes cards are revealed when dealing across the whole table.

Other than having a Designated Dealer at the table center, we've decided to only have the 2-6 of the middle seats to alternate dealing. Is this considered bad practice/etiquette?

(I will be swapping out an oval for a round one in the near future)
Not at all. You might want to put your best 2 dealers in those middle seats. If you guys don't mind dealing, its a great way to keep the game moving.
 
It's fine. I've been to games where the dealer is randomly whoever feels like dealing that hand, but it's always someone near the middle of the table. Of course, for cheating prevention, the shuffler and dealer are different players.

However, I highly suggest you encourage your friends to learn how to shuffle and deal. Anyone who plays cards must eventually learn how to shuffle and deal. It's a useful life skill, like learning how to ride a bike. Provide them a friendly positive environment and be patient and supportive when they make beginner mistakes.

That being said, no one should be expected to pitch cards to a players eight feet away with any accuracy. Not even professional dealers do that. I tell my players who are sitting at the ends to pitch cards halfway to the center of the table. That way players sitting in the middle can assist.
 
Even just one player, the host, seated in the middle can deal, with the help of a shuffling machine (even the cheapest) and, of course, two decks.
Players on the button would have two tasks:
-Cutting the deck in the beginning of a hand (since the dealer is also playing)
-Putting back the used deck in one piece, in the end of the hand, and handing it over to the host/dealer to surrender it to shuffling machine
 
Our home games are on oval or rectangular tables and are also self dealt games. We generally have everyone deal and the rest help move the cards around as necessary. There are occasional mistakes but they aren't that frequent and with more practice others get more proficient at it.

If someone near the middle position volunteers to deal we are all for it, but we don't request that anyone deal because they are sitting in particular spots.

It will also depend on your players at your game. How many of them don't mind dealing and how many are just terrible at it or don't want to deal? How do you design seating at the table? Is it random seating or everyone picks where they want to sit?
 

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