Our Setup: I typically host a 2-table tournament. Both tables are rectangular -- 8' and 7'. Sometimes I have a 3rd table that is oval -- 8'. All tables can seat 10. We are averaging 14-15 players. We have 2 permanent dealers at each table sitting in the middle opposite each other. Up to now, the incentive for dealing is starting in the dealer position for one of the dealers. Our typical tournament last 3-4.5 hours of playing time with a break at the 2 hour mark. When we go to final table, the 2 dealers with the highest chip stacks deal the final table. Our buy-in is $30 and it's freeze out.
Problem: In the last year, 3 of my regular dealers are either no longer in the game, no longer able to deal, or just can't be there as consistently. In that time I've picked up 1 dealer part time. Our game is growing slowly -- about 2 players average in the last year. We now scramble for dealers. We had 12 possible dealers at one time, but now it's just 5, and most don't want to deal every time. When I had 8 regular dealers, it was pretty easy to rotate so dealers dealt only every other time.
Ideas I have:
1. Offer dealers an additional amount in chips. Currently players start with 35,000 in chips; we have a 5,000 on-time bonus. If I gave dealers extra chips, say 5,000, dealers could be getting about 29% more in chips than others.
2. Take money out of prize money and pay dealers. The plan would be pay each dealer $5 to deal the first 2 hours, but they would have to stay even if KO'd to collect. Then pay $5 each for after the break and again would have to deal to the end to collect. That would cost $30 a night. I've thought of 2 different ways to do this:
Any idea of paying the dealers is not meant to compensate them fully, but give them an incentive to deal proportional to our buy-in. There is NO thought of paying a permanent dealer who doesn't play.
Other Info:
1. Our dealers start as playing dealers. Does anyone pay playing dealers?
2. For those who pay dealers, how do you do it, meaning where does the money come from?
3. What are your thoughts on the ideas above and do you have any other ideas we could consider?
Thank you -- and Happy Thanksgiving!
Problem: In the last year, 3 of my regular dealers are either no longer in the game, no longer able to deal, or just can't be there as consistently. In that time I've picked up 1 dealer part time. Our game is growing slowly -- about 2 players average in the last year. We now scramble for dealers. We had 12 possible dealers at one time, but now it's just 5, and most don't want to deal every time. When I had 8 regular dealers, it was pretty easy to rotate so dealers dealt only every other time.
Ideas I have:
1. Offer dealers an additional amount in chips. Currently players start with 35,000 in chips; we have a 5,000 on-time bonus. If I gave dealers extra chips, say 5,000, dealers could be getting about 29% more in chips than others.
2. Take money out of prize money and pay dealers. The plan would be pay each dealer $5 to deal the first 2 hours, but they would have to stay even if KO'd to collect. Then pay $5 each for after the break and again would have to deal to the end to collect. That would cost $30 a night. I've thought of 2 different ways to do this:
- Take $20 from each of 2 payout slots, decrease the total payout $40. Plan to pay the $30, with the rest designated to our Main Event prize pool
- Take 10% of each players' buy-in ($3) and put it into a dealer/Main Event (ME) pool. I've already looked at $2 and that would not be enough to fund the dealers in 2/3 of the games.
Any idea of paying the dealers is not meant to compensate them fully, but give them an incentive to deal proportional to our buy-in. There is NO thought of paying a permanent dealer who doesn't play.
Other Info:
- Some dealers are better than others, but with some incentive, we could get the better dealers to train new dealers. Perhaps with an incentive program, I could get more dealers, though some of our players are never likely to be good at that. I might require untrained dealers to serve one night with nothing to train them if they are not already deemed qualified dealers.
- Players are supposed to take turns shuffling, so the person in the current dealer position shuffles for the next hand. Different dealers handle this different ways. Some do most of their own shuffling, some none of it, and everything in between.
- The lack of training for the willing sometimes causes issues. This month a dealer inadvertently grabbed live cards that were uncapped and put them in the muck pile. The player had just made a big bet and there was one other player in the pot. The other player admitted he was going to fold and chose to let the player have the pot, but it could have been a disaster. Obviously capping his cards would have helped. The dealer not just grabbing cards would have helped. That's way less likely to happen with a trained dealer. The good dealers are willing to train other dealers on the job. I could easily arrange to have good dealers at different tables for that purpose.
- If we offer an incentive beyond the dealer position, the dealer position would be determined differently. Currently players draw a seating chip which gives them their table #, seat #, and starting position. They go to the seat with the matching seating chip. I'd most likely change that to just table # and seat #. Just before "shuffle up and deal" is called, one of the dealers would collect the seating chips players drew, turn them upside down, shuffle them, and the one drawn would start as the dealer.
1. Our dealers start as playing dealers. Does anyone pay playing dealers?
2. For those who pay dealers, how do you do it, meaning where does the money come from?
3. What are your thoughts on the ideas above and do you have any other ideas we could consider?
Thank you -- and Happy Thanksgiving!
