Paying home dealers (1 Viewer)

[theycallmeop]

Take vs hourly for home game dealers.

How do y’all handle paying dealers in a raked home game?

I was thinking tips + percent of rake but hourly seems simpler.

 

[ekricket]

Just pay them a flat fee plus tips for the night. Adjust the flat fee based on the amount of tips you think your game will do.
If you expect tips to be in the thousands I wouldn’t pay much. If they are in the tens I’d pay a lot more.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Most raked games are illegal. So be cautious.

 

[WayDeep]

Would be great if we had a database of dealers available in areas. Maybe I should start one?

 

[DrStrange]

We need to distinguish between a for-profit, business focused "home game" and a nice PCF style home game where there isn't a profit motive, yet a dedicated dealer is used.

A profession dealer, working a regular job at a "home game" needs a predictable income. They likely expect a healthy hourly rate however they get paid to compensate for benefits / vacation / retirement / holidays and the risk of legal consequences. If the game runner doesn't pay well enough, the hired help will go somewhere else. (just spit balling here, but I think the local rate in central Texas is something like $30 to $50 per hour.)

The dedicated dealer at a meat-up or in one of the plusher games we spread likely isn't getting paid nearly as much as the professional dealer in the underground card room. As there isn't rake taken, most hosts are going to use a 100% tip route or a collection from the table/door fee to pay the dealer.

The casino nights people paid $15 - $20 an hour the last time I worked for one. It wasn't enough to persuade me to come back. I'd rather play than work for the house.

 

[WayDeep]

We need to distinguish between a for-profit, business focused "home game" and a nice PCF style home game where there isn't a profit motive, yet a dedicated dealer is used.

A profession dealer, working a regular job at a "home game" needs a predictable income. They likely expect a healthy hourly rate however they get paid to compensate for benefits / vacation / retirement / holidays and the risk of legal consequences. If the game runner doesn't pay well enough, the hired help will go somewhere else. (just spit balling here, but I think the local rate in central Texas is something like $30 to $50 per hour.)

The dedicated dealer at a meat-up or in one of the plusher games we spread likely isn't getting paid nearly as much as the professional dealer in the underground card room. As there isn't rake taken, most hosts are going to use a 100% tip route or a collection from the table/door fee to pay the dealer.

The casino nights people paid $15 - $20 an hour the last time I worked for one. It wasn't enough to persuade me to come back. I'd rather play than work for the house.

Thanks for the reply DrStrange. It's helpful !

 

[Machine]

It depends on the stakes, but just tips for any game 1/2 and above.

Another method would be to add the tips to the rake and give the dealer 1/4. This is an old-school method and sucks for the players and the dealer as the dealer is incentivized to overrake. Once the players find out about this, they are less likely to tip.

Tips plus hourly often leads to the host who is risking money to find that he is doing all the work to field the players, provide food / drink / equipment / loans (keeping a book), playing for 12 hours, losing the rake, shelling out for the spread and seeing the only winner walk out with never risking any money. Then the dealer isn't going to take less to do the same job.

Tips should be fine as long as the players are tipping. I'll ass U me that you are playing Holdem; 22 hands an hour shouldn't be hard for a seasoned dealer. By the end of the night, the tips should be about 1/3 of what is in the box.

Do you have a shuffler? If not your hands per hour aka your rake is going to slow down.

Taking a rake will also affect the amount of chips you ought to have on the table, and if you're changing out the box during the game, players are going to see it and feel it much more.

We played 12 hours and he had to change the rake box 15 times!