7 Poker Dealing Tips
8 November 20097 Poker Dealing Tips
If you want your home poker game to go smoothly, good poker dealing is a must. If there are a lot of poker dealing errors, or even just slow and sloppy dealing, the game can quickly go from being a fun time, to a shouting match. Here are some tips for dealing poker that you should use the next time you decide to host a poker game or poker tournament.
1) Don’t Rotate The Deal – A common thing you see at home poker games is people rotating the deal. Everyone deals one hand, and then passes the deck to the next person who shuffles and deals the next hand. Rotating the deal is a mistake! And I will tell you why
- Many poker players are quite terrible at shuffling and dealing cards. Not only do inexperienced dealers make the vast majority of poker dealing errors, just watching a person try to shuffle cards who can’t do it grinds on the nerves
- The Dealer should be in the middle of the table – If you have an oval poker table, as opposed to a round poker table or an octagonal one, then whenever the dealer is at the ends of the table, all the other players will have to strain to see the cards that are dealt. Keeping the cards in the middle of the table makes it much easier for all the players to see the cards, and for the dealer to pull chips into the pot, and push the pot to the winning player.
2) Don’t Host & Deal – If you are the host of the poker tournament, you should not also be the dealer. If you want to run a smooth poker game, you will need time to do you poker hosting jobs, such as cashing players in and out (So you don’t get Missing Money at your poker game), explaining rules to new comers, and generally trying to keep your poker buddies from making a mess of your house. Although it may unavoidable for you to deal your first poker night, after that you should find out which of your friends are reliable dealers, and rotate it between them.
3) Do Rotate Between Reliable Dealers – Dealing poker the whole night can take some of the fun out of the poker game. Although you shouldn’t let the worst players deal at your poker night, once you have a group of reliable dealers you can rotate between the. Whether you want to rotate nightly, i.e. someone deals the entire night, but then 2 or 3 other people each deal the next several nights, or you want to rotate every hour, changing dealers will help make the game good for everybody. ( If you are hosting a poker tournament, as opposed to a poker cash game, when ever you rotate dealers it is a good time to change tables or redraw for seats.
4) Consider using two decks – Using two differently colored decks (a red deck and a blue deck) at your home poker game can significantly speed up play. Instead of waiting while the dealer retrieves, organizes, and then shuffles at the cards a new hand can be dealt almost instantly. If you do use two decks, then have the player sitting to the right of the dealer shuffle the deck not in use that hand for the dealer.
5) Do Use A Dealer Button – I’ve been to poker home games where a dealer button wasn’t used. You can get away with that if you are passing the deal, as the deck is the de facto dealer button. But since shouldn’t rotate the deal at your poker game, you need to use a dealer button to keep things straight. Each hand before you begin dealing the cards, pass the button on to the next player. It will keep the other poker players from complaining that you made a mistake and skipped their turn on the button, or that they were already in the big blind. Many poker chip sets come with a dealer button, and if you don’t have one and large round white object will do, even a real button !
6) Do Take Steps To Discourage Cheating – It’s amazing, but some people will cheat at a poker game for even the smallest of stakes. Having dealers that you can trust, and who don’t make many poker dealing mistakes can go a long ways towards minimizing cheating and minimizing the opportunities for an angle shooter. However there are other things you can do to further reduce cheating. One way of reducing cheating is to have your dealers lay the deck of cards on the table, and to deal each card by sliding off the top. This has two fold advantages, laying the deck on the table keeps any dishonest poker player from being able to peek at the bottom card of the deck, or from seeing the cards being flashed as they are peeled off the top. Additionally, if you have a mechanic at your table, this method will help to prevent them from being able to deal off the bottom or to deal seconds.
7) Do Keep Track Of The Number Of Players in the Hand - This is a pet peeve of many poker players, that the dealer does not keep track of how many poker players are still in the hand and announce it on each street. As the dealer, knowing which players still have live hands is very important, it keeps you from making mistakes like dealing a street too early when there are still players left to act. Announcing how many hands are live on each street lets each player know how many opponents they have, and keeps someone from trying to take advantage by hiding their hand behind their chips.
Following these tips at your next poker tournament will help to ensure that it is a success. Check out this Poker Tournament Hosting checklist for more tips on how to ensure you have a great poker night.
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