05.16.07
Becoming a Dealer
So, I applied for a gig at a local casino (it will remain nameless just to be fair to all casinos in town) to be a part time poker dealer. I figured this would be a good way to raise money for trips to Vegas and maybe put some cash into savings.
I was surprised to find out that the school lasted FIVE weeks and ran Mon-Thu 6-9pm. I missed the first week due to some timings of interviews and what not. My next surprise was to realize at the first night of class that “class” consisted of the “students” playing pretend 3/6, while one of us dealt. So based on the number of “students” we really only dealt for a half hour, every other night.
My next big surprise was to learn that there is discrepancy about how to throw cards, what to do between the cards, etc. We even had a half hour conversation about minimum raises on a NL table. You would think that after 250 years of poker being played and the countless hands played, this would be fairly standard, at least within a given casino. But it’s clearly not.
So what does this mean to you as a player. Well basically rules are open to the interpretation of the room supervisor. If you don’t like a decision made at the table, ask for a supervisor and they may say something different.
It is important to note however, that when it comes to rake and taking of the bad beat that they did all agree on that. So for the most part, the stuff that matters is covered and consistent.