How To Deal A Poker Tournament
27 June 2008Poker Dealing Options
When you are hosting a poker tournament, good shuffling and dealing is essential if you want your game to run smoothly and quickly. By far the most common cause of mistakes and slow downs in a poker tournament are dealer error. When a dealer makes a mistake you have to do one of two things, either redeal, or consult the rules on what to do for that mistake, and then explain the rule to every one at the table. Either way, the game gets slowed down. So how do you avoid dealer errors? By picking the right dealer option
1) Rotate the Deal Around the Table - At most home poker tournaments the deal rotates with the blinds. The button shuffles and deals the cards, and the two players on his left are the small blind and the big blind. This works because every one gets a chance to deal, and it helps people keep track of the blinds. But it isn’t the best way to deal a poker tournament. By rotating the deal around the table you are ensuring that your worst dealers will get to deal out at least some of the hands. If you are starting a new poker game, chances are that up to half of your players are bad at shuffling and dealing. Some can barely shuffle, others can’t do it at all. There is nothing more painful than having a poker game slow down because one of the players is spreading all the cards out on the table to shuffle them. In general, rotating the deal around the table should be avoided.
2) Have one person deal - Instead of rotating the deal around that table, you can have one person deal the entire poker tournament. It could be you, it could be a different strong dealer who is sitting near the middle of the table. This has the advantage of ensuring that all of the hands are dealt competently, but will not be fun for the person who has to deal the whole tournament. The dealer won’t be able to focus on the other players, and will be at a disadvantage through out the game. Instead of looking for tells and studying patterns, they will be focusing on dealing and handling the flop, turn, and river. Having one person deal the entire tournament is an ok solution, but not the best
3) Switch the deal every round - The best option for dealing is to figure out the three or four best dealers at the table, and to switch between them every time the button goes around the table once, or every time the blinds increase. Thus, one person will deal approximately 10 hands, and then it will switch to the next player. That makes sure that one person isn’t disadvantage the entire tournament, while ensuring your tournament is dealt well. Since you won’t have the deck rotating, you will need to use a marker to keep track of the button, so you can keep track of the blinds. Most poker chip sets come with plenty of markers.
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