Tournament dealer procedures

[Nick C]

 The following is a list of what I will be teaching new dealers. If anyone has anything to add, I would like to hear your suggestions.
     RESPONSIBILITIES OF TOURNAMENT DEALERS:
Proper shuffle procedures MUST be followed. This will include automated shufflers.

*Dealing to all tournament players, including those absent from the table. (PLEASE NOTE) This may require a change in procedure. The details will be better explained after the new rules from the TDA Summit VI are adopted.

Blinding off absent players.

*Kill the hand of an absent player as soon as the last card is dealt. There is a pending change to this procedure. The new proposal will not allow players to receive any cards unless they are seated before the first card is dealt. Exactly how this will be accomplished has not been finalized. This means, that before any betting begins for that round, the absent player has NO option to contest the hand. Therefore, their cards will be mucked.

Starting the action with the proper bettor for each round.

*Announcing, out loud, all bets and raises.

Calling any string bets and/or, string raises.

Count the deck as required.

Know when to call for the floor.

Announcing the number of players at the table, after a player is eliminated.

Never stall, or slow down the speed of a deal, waiting for the clock.

Read all tabled hands, at the showdown.

At the showdown, never expose any player's down cards, unless directed by the owner of the hand, or the floor.

Be sure to issue warnings to player's who use offensive language, become abusive to others, or break rules of etiquette. Repeat offenses will require you to alert  the floor.

Remind players to protect their own hands, and Act in Turn.

*Announce the number of active players  before dealing each round.

Announce when a player goes all-in.

*Keep spectators away from the table.

I strongly advise dealers to educate all players to: Act in turn; wait until the active player (to their right), acts before them, or as directed by the dealer. Protect their own hand. This may require players to hold onto their cards when all-in.

I also suggest at showdown, players competing for the pot, NEVER release their live hand until they are certain their hand is beat, or THEY HAVE BEEN PUSHED THE POT!

* My feelings on re-shuffle are; A scramble or mix of the cards (not the standard shuffle) would better guarantee that no cards are exposed. The standard shuffle requires that the cards be gathered and picked-up facing away from the dealer before the first riffle. This would be unacceptable because it would expose the identity of remaining cards.



I thought that I would add Unacceptable behavior for dealers:

HYGIENE:

          a.) offensive body odor
          b.) overpowering cologne
          c.) wrinkled or soiled uniform
          d.) bad breath
          e.) dirty fingernails
Procedures:
          a.) sloppy dealing
          b.) flashing cards
          c.) rolling the deck
          d.) premature dealing
          e.) failure to observe action
          f.) watching TV
The Never's
          a.) Never engage in unnecessary conversation.
          b.) Never Stare at players. Avoid eye contact.To stare at a player is often mistaken as an indication that it is their turn to act.
          c.) Never address women in any derogatory manner; such as honey, sugar, sweetheart etc.
          d.) Never call any female "ma'am," young or old. Miss or young lady is better, and knowing their name is best.
          e.) Never point your finger at players. (use an open hand if you must point).
          f.)  Never forget to acknowledge a toke (tip).
          g.) Never criticize how a player plays their hand.
          h.) Never disagree with any decision made by the floor. These should be discussed in private.
           i.) Never display anger at the table.
           j.) Never chew gum.





*ADDED AFTER ORIGINAL LISTING

Nick Ciavarella

[Spence]

Announcing the number of players active on each street.
As well Nick, do you kill the big blind hand immediately after finishing the initial deal out when he is away form the table? I know a few places will wait until it is that players turn before mucking the cards.

[Nick C]

Thanks Spence,

We used to wait until the action returned to that seat, and like you said, the hand was live until then. We had some problems with that and found that it was better to let the players know that they had to be in their seat when the last card was dealt. Player's would, take another "hit" on their cigarette, or talk a little longer on the phone, and then race back to their seat. We realized that having players running through the card room was not a good idea.........so, we changed that to killing the hand immediately. An argument could be made if everyone folded (even the SB), that the absent BB should get the pot. There are a few unlikely scenarios that could take place (rare but possible) . If that did happen, you could award the pot to the absent player, or leave it in the center for the next deal.

To further explain: The absent BB will have the cards killed but, the BB will remain in the "betting area" in front of his seat until the complete round of betting is finalized.

I will add your suggestion: announce the number of active players  before dealing each round (street). I would announce the number of players when I was "tapping"before the burn.

[Luca P.]

Nick,
I think that only SB and BB should have a live hand until it's their turn, because they payed an obliged bet and so they have the right to play

[Nick C]

Consider the tournaments where players are blinded off when they are late arrivals? Do you wait for the action to reach that seat before killing the hand? If you do, I have no problem with allowing the SB and BB (ONLY), to have live hands until the action returns to them.
I like to tell student dealers that there are some cardrooms that have different procedures than others. For example: I teach riffle, riffle, strip, riffle and others teach riffle, strip, riffle, riffle.
I'm curious. When "the poker brat" is late arriving, and his BB is posted, does anyone say; "Hold on, Phil is in the lobby, he'll be here in a minute."

[Luca P.]

Nick,
sorry I didn't explain my point of view correctly:
What I was saying is that if BB is not at the table and for example everybody fold to him, I assume he is the pot winner

[Nick C]

Linker_split,
I think I answered your question in reply #2: An argument could be made if everyone folded (even the SB), that the absent BB should get the pot. There are a few unlikely scenarios that could take place (rare but possible). If that did happen, you could award the pot to the absent player (BB), or leave it in the center for the next deal.

[JasperToo]

Any hand that does not have a player at his seat when the last card is dealt to the big blind is killed.  The cards are placed in the muck.  If there is a blind in front of that seat then the chips come into the middle of the pot.  If the hand is folded all the way around, then the last player with a live hand gets the pot.

there is no way under TDA rules that  an absent big blind could be awarded a pot on a preflop fold around.

[DCJ001]

Jasper is correct, except that the first sentence of his post should read:

Any hand that does not have a player at his seat when the last card is dealt to the button is killed.

[Stuart Murray]

with regard to who gets the pot when everyone folds and the bb is not at his seat, the last LIVE hand wins the pot, therefore if it is folded round to the SB he would win the pot, even when he is folding as he has the last live hand at the table, and does not need to 'call' or raise the absent BB's forced bet in order to win the pot.

It is rare that it does happen, as usually someone will want to pick up that dead BB amount, with a raise from late position.

Regards
Stuart

[Nick C]

Gentlemen:
If you look at my original post, you will see that I agree with the majority. I also agree with Stuart when he points out how rare it would be, if no one called the BB. How many options could there be?
                                             a.) Kill the hand immediately
                                             b.) Wait for the action to return, to that seat before mucking the hand
I prefer killing the hand immediately because what happens when players call the absent BB, but there are no raises? How far do you go?

I don't agree with Jaspertoo. I prefer to leave the BB in front of the empty seat as opposed to pushing it into the pot right away. I want players to be able to easily identify the blinds. The cards are mucked but the chips remain until the betting round is complete.

There must be other issues with the procedures I've listed? I'll wait for your feedback.

[JasperToo]

Thanks DC, you're right about my first sentence... at least you knew what I meant

Nick, as to pulling the big blind chips in, I can go either way.  I kind of like having them there as a marker as well.  I was illustrating that the chips are part of the pot and that the player wouldn't be winning any of it.

[Spence]

Under "read all tabled hands" you can add in Highlighting the winning hand on the board
Announce out loud all bets and raises
Be aware of any suspicious activity including but not limited to Collusion/Soft play/Team play/Card marking etc.

[Nick C]

Thanks Spence,
I'm thinking about adding a DO AND DON'T'S for dealers. I think it would be helpful and easier to write.

[JasperToo]

Spence mentioned something in his post about announcing all bets and raises.  There was a bit of discussion at the summit about whether or not the dealer should announce the AMOUNT of a bet or raise.  And, unfortunately, I did not quite figure out if there was a definitive consensus.

I think it was pretty clear that a dealer shouldn't start counting down a big stack of chips from a player that just shoved all in.  Matt made his feelings clear on that....let the stack speak for itself until the opponent requests a count.

But it is pretty common practice for dealers to announce the amount of a bet or raise as a matter of routine during a tournament (and surely during a cash game as this tends to speed things up).  And you can't watch any of the live WSOP coverage and not hear the dealers announce the amounts of bets and raises.

I thought I heard Matt say that the dealer should never announce the amount of the bet or raise during a tournament, but merely announce that there IS a BET or RAISE with no quantifying speech involved.  And then when a subsequent player asks for a count the dealer should already know, if possible, or reach out and count it down. 

It was clear that most everybody thought that a dealer shouldn't automatically pull in all called bets, leaving the raise amount out, UNLESS the player who has the action makes the request.

So what's the consensus on this?