Dedicated Dealer (1 Viewer)

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For all you that host home games with a dedicated dealer, I'd like to ask you a few questions:

1. How do you pay the dealer? Is part of it taken from the pot? This is assuming that all players know about this.
2. What is fair to pay a dedicated dealer? I would think that their per hour wages could be less for cash games because of the tips they will make. I could be looking at this wrong.
3. How has your experience with a dedicated dealer been? Do you think it's worth shelling out the money for?

Thank you all for your input. This is something I'm highly considering and I want to make sure I go about it the right way.
 
My dealer works for tips only. Makes about $12 an hour. Not bad in a .50/.50 game. Totally worth it for us because we mostly play all kinds of mixed games and she is so used to dealing them she rarely makes mistakes and is excellent in split pot games. Keeps the game moving too.
 
I'm at the point where I pretty much detest self-dealt games. The increased speed/efficiency and reduction-in-errors advantages of having a dedicated dealer far outweigh any financial costs, and there really aren't any other disadvantages. The difficulty of dealing to the opposite end of the table, mismanagement of pots and action, and the trouble with seeing flops dealt at the other end of the room are powerful reasons to consider hiring competent dedicated dealers.

In our tournament leagues, dealers are paid $15/hr plus any tips from winning players (optional, but usually about 10% of 1st/2nd place prize money). Dealers are paid from a 'dealer pool', which is funded by a fixed rake on all entries ($4 of $60) plus from the optional purchase of 'dealer tokes" -- players can purchase a $5 dealer toke at buy-in in exchange for extra starting chips (typically about a 15% bonus). Any funds remaining in the dealer pool at the end of the regular season pay for the dealer at the free-roll Championship Tournament, with any excess added to the Championship Tournament prize pool. It usually works out to about $20/hour for the dealer between direct pay and tips.

For non-league tournaments, the dealer pay is deducted from the prize pool prior to distribution to the winners.

Cash games around here typically pay out in tips-only -- which in my experience, works out to about the same $20/hour earnings as that of a tournament dealer.
 
The games around here are raked underground games that pay from the rake (varying percentages depending on venue), so my experience in paying private dealers myself is limited, but as to whether you should do it, the answer is an unqualified YES. Makes the game go so much more smoothly and you get many more hands an hour regardless of what game you're playing. I will always agree to pay anything within reason for competent dealers.
 
Thank you Dave. You really covered all the bases. I'm so tired of mismanaged pots, flops at the opposite end of the table, etc. and I'd also like my next personal table to have a dealer spot.

My games will start in February, so I should have time to find a dealer by then.
 
I assume it varies in each area of the country but in my neck of the woods a typical cash game which here is 1/3 dealers who are fast and can deal roughly 20-30 hands an hour of NLH only can make typically $ 200- $ 250 a session which is roughly 7PM till 3:00 4:00 AM. This is in tips only nothing from the house.... I find that sometimes if we have good dealers that play also ( in other games not ones that they are dealing) and get stuck a little bit in a game I will let deal to pay off there book.......Again not sure how big your game is ..... Bigger games with higher rake dealers tend to make more as hands are bigger such as 2/5 when $1.00 chips are used only as tipping chips here and not in play ..

I cannot stand self deal games so you wont catch me at those unless its very casual at very low stakes.... The secret is speed.. dealers need to keep the game moving ..always have two decks in play and have two new set ups in case a player asks for a wash and even still wants new decks all together. Make sure they check all 52 cards and usually have a few of the same decks around for imperfections that require you replacing a card .... I prefer COPAG jumbo index as I am blind as a bat but KEM is good to just like all the different color decks ...... never get those no peek decks by the way.. players cant stand them myself included :)

Oh yeah back to the question ---HAHAHA

Tournaments vary but we will pay a $ 250 + 30 buy in 2 table 20 max set up $ 100.00 for each dealer plus the winner or group of winners if they chop will pay an additional 10-15% to the dealer .... If you can find a dealer that can deal Omaha or Hi Lo as well then you have hit the jackpot...
 
Definitely worth it. Mine is paid in tips only in $1/1 mixed game but they do well, esp. since other dealers play in the game and generally tip well. I have little shame if a n00b isn't tipping or someone forgets: "who won that pot?" "nicely dealt hand (insert name of dealer)."
 
For players that want to deal our tournaments, I require that they either have previous dealer experience or attend a dealer training session (which covers the basic mechanics of dealing, pot control, action management, what to say and what not to say, and commonly referenced tournament rules). Everybody is on the same page -- same shuffle/riffle/cut, same muck location, etc. Consistency is great fuel for expedient games.

Funny story.... when we first started organizing poker games and tournaments 10 years ago, I was the dealer (and also played). For a solid year, I dealt almost every single tournament; sometimes two or three per day -- it was close to 100 events over that period of time.

When I announced at the beginning of the next year that dealers would be paid going forward, several players verbally balked -- including one of my best friends, who said he would deal himself rather than pay a dealer. I agreed, and he dealt the first tournament of the new season. About half-way through (~2 hours), he started begging to quit (until I took over), and he has never bitched about paying dealers since (nor has he volunteered to deal again). He's also one of the best tippers when he wins. :)

We now have non-playing dedicated dealers. Dealing, when done properly, is hard work.
 
If you can? Absolutely worth it.

BG and Deezer, where does one find decent dealers when you are 5 hours from a casino? The dealers at the larger underground games I've played in around here are highly mediocre at best - none of them are trained in dealing, and all of them are players first and would rather be playing if they hadn't gone busto and/or got suckered into dealing by the host. Even if they were good, I wouldn't want to be that guy. :eek:
 
IMG_3582.jpg 1) Jumbo index 2) No Peek Bridge 3) Narrow 4) Narrow Bridge

- - - - - - - - - Updated - - - - - - - - -

So on the subject of dealing understand for cash games we rotate two dealers all night pretty much every 45 minutes as a rule.... changes a lot for the game as well. 1) Players may feel bad beated all night and a new dealer and deck changes help that 2) helps to keep game moving and fresh) 3) works for dealers that are tired and allows you to focus on the game more) 4) the game tends to run longer with two dealers which is always good for the house..

Ben in our neck of the woods we have dealers that deal home games for a living ....I know it nuts but very much true. They make a pretty good living ( though they are all mostly single and female) but our lightening fast, great math skills, know the rules and house rules especially at the games they deal and all players really like them. Its small group that are that way but the other guys have simply learned through trial and error and gotten to be good in there own right.... I myself can hold my own but that to has just come from playing and hosting ....
 
Bridge-size cards are much easier to shuffle and deal over long periods of time, and jumbo index (although I personally prefer standard index) cards are easier to see flops from the ends of an oval/oblong table (or around the table, when dealing stud games). We rarely use anything else.
 
Yes, In general a wide (poker) size playing card is 2.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall. A narrow (bridge) size playing card is 2.25 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall. So the total difference between the narrow (bridge) size and wide (poker) size playing cards is .25 inches in width only. This equates to about 10 percent of the total card width. This does not sound like much, but to some people it is very important.

Both wide (poker) and narrow (bridge) size playing card sets use a standard deck. So most common games are able to be played with either type of card. The names "Poker" and "Bridge" only refer to the size of the card and do not necessarily mean the card has been made to play only the games of Bridge or Poker
 
BGinGA said:
I think those are actually: 1) jumbo-index bridge, 2) no-peek poker, 3) standard-index bridge, 4) jumbo-index poker
Click to expand...

That sounds better, to me.

I was wondering if there weren't a third standard width (poker, bridge, narrow bridge?) that I hadn't heard of, in which case none of the pictures you put up were full poker-width cards.
 
And I think the proper index reference for #2 is "poker-peek", not "no-peek".
 
BG, I was wondering the same thing as Ben. Where do you find trained dealers in your area?
 
I either use semi-pros that deal underground games (a bunch are very competent), or for players that want to learn, I train 'em. I hold a class every so often.
 
I found a dealer school near and they are more than happy to deal all night for a small fee and tips are appreciated, they do not get much real play scenarios and they like the practice.

I usually have me and a friend (that I trust, and my players trust) sit across from me (dealer spot) and we will deal every other hand, this gives me time to shuffle and we do not loose a seat to a dealer.
 
If I lived near AZ, I would deal your game. I used to deal a game for a volunteer fire department, and did well for what the game was. Come to think of it, maybe I could find a game around me to deal at again as a side gig :)
 

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