Rolling eyes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since I started dealing poker at The Poker Room NH in Hampton Falls I have met hundreds of poker players. Some of them I have met on my days off when I play poker, and others when I am dealing poker.

Like all people, some days I am better at what I do than others. I think it is not a matter of trying harder but a matter of focus. I can get easily distracted so focus and paying attention to detail helps keep me on track. I regularly deal two days a week, Friday and Saturday, two of the three busiest days at the poker room.

I have yet to develop a style or personality at the tables that would be my signature except for the fact I have a “santa like” beard. Some people call me “Santa” or “Methuselah”. I get comments like “give me a santa flop”, whatever that is.

Now the thing is, as a poker dealer, I do well to make sure that each player gets two cards, at least in Hold’Em. I do not determine what they get. I have heard players at the table say that I continually give them bad cards, hand after hand. After a while, these players become superstitious and when they see me coming, they cringe or roll their eyes.

Even though I am right there in front of them, they talk about me out loud to their fellow players, saying that I am the worst dealer ever, that they never get any good cards when I am dealing. I usually just ignore these comments and go about my business. About the only response I might give is that I can only try to give them two cards. It is best not to say anything because nothing you can say will help or make a difference.

This last Friday I think I finally have tipped one player over the edge. I have seen this individual at both the tournament tables and the Hold’Em cash games tables. Now I don’t remember how he did nor did I know or remember what I dealt him for cards. But at this point in the day, he was steaming a bit. His losses from both the tournament buy-in and the cash game, he said had cost him over $80 dollars so far and if he lost more at the table I was dealing at, he was leaving.

Needless to say, he did not do well at the table I was dealing at and when another seat opened up at another Hold’Em table he elected to move. Just as soon as he sat down at the other table, I was tapped out (another poker dealer was coming in to my table to replace me), and I was being moved to the next table, the same one that the aggravated player had just moved to. He must have heard that I was coming, because by the time I got there, he was gone. He moved to the blackjack tables, which I have not yet learned to deal.

Yes, dealing poker is defintely interesting and challenging. And you have the opportunity to create new friends and non-friends.

Stop Signs A well signposted junction near Mountmellick. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Disputedsign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most important tasks that a poker dealer has is to do, is to control the action at the table.

Right before everyone is dealt cards, I, the dealer, might have to ask for the small and big blinds to be posted as well as for the antes.

After the cards are dealt, I, the dealer, must indicate which poker player has a decision to make and keep the other players from acting out of turn. This is a lot like herding cats, by the way. Once a player folds out of turn, it sometimes creates a cascade of folding players (this is because the wonderful cards I dealt to them are sometimes not playable).

The same is true of betting. I must announce each bet or raise as they occur and hope that the players are also paying attention (it is the player’s responsibility to pay attention but guess who they yell at if they make a mistake and call a raise that they did not hear).

All verbal bets and calls are binding which can lead to some interesting problems created by players who did not pay attention to what was being said. The worst case would be when someone says “all in” and an inattentive player says “call”. Even those that say call to small raises are sometimes surprised that they are calling a raise and not just the big blind they thought they were calling.

My voice is a bit soft and low but the players do need to pay attention to what is going on. It does not help that we have TV’s all along our walls with sports games playing, sometimes distracting the players as well (we should tune “Sponge Bob Square Pants”, but some would watch that as well, I guess).

Controlling the pot is another duty of the poker dealer. I have to make sure that I have collected all of the blinds, bets and antes and that the pot is correct. Some players will call using a larger denomination chip and I need to make sure that they get back change. This is done after all of the players have acted. By the time the action gets to the last player, I must remember that player one needs change. Most of the time I have nine or ten auditors at my table, so I am never allowed to make a mistake on change or the pot.

Side pots are something else. Whenever we have three or more players involved in a hand and two or more players are all in, there is a proper way to account for the pots and there is the player’s way. The dealer must take care to use the proper way, which is slightly more time consuming but creates less problems when the hand is finished.

As an easy example, we have four players, one with 4,000 chips, one with 3,000 in chips, one with 2,000 in chips and one with 1,000 in chips. The big blind is 100 chips. Both the 1,000 chip and the 2,000 chip players go all in and the other two players call.

I first take the 100 chips from each player and move that to the main pot. I then take the smallest chip stack, the 900 chips and take 900 chips from the remaining three players and move that to the main pot.  The main pot is all that the 1,000 chip player can win, for a total pot of 4,000. Next I take the remaining amount of 1,000 chips from the 3,000 and 4,000 chip player, creating a side pot of 3,000 chips that the remaining three players can win. That would leave the 4,000 and 3,000 players with 2,000 and 1,000 respectively that they could bet against each other, creating yet a second side pot.

If I were to wait until after the hand is completed to create main pot and the two side pots or use the quick math that the players might suggest that I use, I might end up with more time being taken after the hand is completed. By creating these pots before the hand is completed,  it makes it easier and more accurate to know which pots might be going to whom.

Who knew that practices and procedures and math would be so highly needed in the game of poker, not to mention diplomacy.

Bad Santa?

Dealing poker at our local poker room, The Poker Room NH, can become very interesting at times.

I work two days a week, Friday and Saturday, and I get to see many people coming to play at our tables.

I deal at the tournament tables and also at the cash Limit Hold’Em tables.
The cost to play at the $2/4 limit table is a buy-in of $20 minimum.

Some of the players that I see are regulars and most of them know how to play. Occasionally we do get new players that have never played a limit hold’em cash game.

There is a certain basic strategy that good players follow. Good players do not play in every single hand unless they have very good cards.

New players however may not understand or know that concept and think that every hand that they see is an opportunity to win a pot.

Recently three young ladies have been becoming regulars at the cash tables and I have dealt to them when I have been assigned to their tables.

English is not their native language, but they speak it rather well. I don’t know if these three ladies are related or not but the younger one smiles when she sees me coming to the table and says “Welcome Santa”, I know you will be kind to me.

Now my basic task is to try and make their experience enjoyable, but I am only able to guarantee that everyone at the table gets two cards each. Beyond that, it is the players responsibility to do what they can with these cards to win the pots.

The problem that I see with the young lady who calls me “Santa” is that she plays every single hand that she is dealt regardless of what they are.  To her sorrow and dismay, she usually finds that she has lost all of her chips within an hours time. And she usually buys a hundred dollars of poker chips at a time.

I am not always at the same table for long periods of time because we are moved from table to table every 30 minutes or so, and I do not see when she ends up re-buying more chips so I do not know how she is doing.

One evening however, I did end up dealing to these ladies twice in the same evening, although at a different table.

The story was the same. Big smile and a “Welcome Santa”, but at the end of the session, with her chips all gone, she looked at me sadly and said “Bad Santa”.

You know how it goes … you cannot please everyone …

(This post will appear on MomPopPow.com)

Collect and Connect (Photo credit: fengschwing)

One of the things that makes for being a great dealer is consistency.

There are at least 42 steps to each hand that a poker dealer deals.

There is the shuffle, shuffle, riffle, shuffle. Making sure the blinds are posted. Dealing out the first hand. Collecting the bets. Burning a card. Dealing the flop. Collecting the bets. Burning a card. Dealing the turn. Collecting the bets. Dealing the River. Collecting the bets. Awarding the pot. Moving  the button. (in cash games, dropping the rake (the poker room’s profit), and dropping the toke (the dealer tips). And this is just in  one hand. (Note: I did not list all of the 42 steps).

In addition to the above tasks, there are also the collecting of antes, the counting of chips when a player is all in and the other player(s) need a count. There is also the creation of side pots in the events that someone is all in and two or more players are still in the pot. There could be up to seven side pots, heaven forbid.

At any given time, I do make mistakes,

I may miss a player altogether dealing at a tournament. (you must deal a card to each chip stack regardless of if the player is there physically or not). In cash games, you must deal to the actual people and not the chips stack. Some players walk away from the table for various reasons. Some are gone to play in a sit n go tourney and leave their chips behind. If a player is not at their seat for a cash game, they are still responsible to put up the big blind or small blind, I must take care to leave a token that says they owe for the big blind and/or the small blind and must settle before they can resume play if they choose to return and play.

So I must take care to not deal to someone that is not there in a cash game, but deal to the stacks in a tournament even when someone is not there.

Other ways I can err is to flip over a card when dealing it to a player. I can miscount chip stacks when awarding a player chips from another player.

Oh the things I could do wrong are numerous.

This brings me to the point of this blog. Too many errors at one time and some players get very upset. Some even get vocal. Some are downright mean in their comments. But they are the customer and the custumer is right.

So I always apologize for my error(s) and try to keep on going. Now the problem is that after it happens I am now trying too hard to not make an error. Oh well.

The good news is that all dealers are rotated from table to table every 20 or 30 minutes, for the most part. This gives us the opportunity to walk away from our mistakes and start fresh at a new table. As a dealer, I need to get over the bad expierences quickly and move on. After all, as they say, it is nothing personal.

In spite of the downsides of having to deal with upset players, the upside is the satisfaction when things run well. When the players get excited to finally be getting good cards. Yes I am that dealer that gives out the dreaded 7-2 or 2-8 or 3-9 or other garbage hands to players, sometimes two or three times in a row. At least that is what they tell me.

On the plus side, I now have players that greet me warmly when I approach their table. I now know many players by name and the banter is friendly or at least cordial. After all, they are here to play and/or have a good time while they are doing it.

My favorite table to deal at are are the ones where most of the players are smiling or laughing and having a great time.

Now if it could aways be that way …

Next post:  Bad Santa ….

Deutsch: Dealerbutton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been working as a poker dealer at a local poker room, The Poker Room NH, at least two days a week, since January 3rd 2012.

I also play at the same room, “The Poker Room NH” on my days off, schedule permitting.

My dealing skills are improving, albeit slowly, but I am getting better.

How do I know?  My supervisor, Chris, tells me that he is getting less complaints from the players. I even have had some players tell me that I have improved from when I first started.

I still have a long ways to go. Who knew that my math skills would be needed and that these same skills have eroded from non-use over the last four years.

My dealing goal is to have one perfect session per day. A session consists of when I sit down at a table and perform all of the duties as a dealer until my replacement comes.

We are usually moved from table to table in 30 minute plus intervals. This is done for many reasons. It keeps dealers fresh, it keeps the players happy if they think the reason for getting bad cards is the dealer.

Some days, I come really close. On other days, I don’t even want to talk about it.

The reason I wanted to work there is still valid. The staff of dealers, floor personal, wait staff, and custodial staff, are all nice and friendly people. They are who inspire me to be a better dealer. I am even getting to know the regulars by name (we are encouraged to do so). It is a friendly place and a lot of smiling employees who really love what they are doing or if off duty,  playing.

Plus it is fun dealing, I never know what cards the players are going to get. The cards that I flop always amaze me – like flopping three of a kind or three cards to a flush and then watching what the players do afterwards. Are they bluffing or did the flop make their hand that much better..

All in all, I think I found my perfect type of employment. Did I mention that if I am dealing, I am not losing at the tables? Another plus!

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I planned to enter the 7 pm Railbirds.com ranking event on LuvinPoker.com. To that end, I took a nap just before the tourney to assure that I would be at my best.

Of course, I had failed to let Diane know of my plans so when I woke up 30 minutes prior to the event, she thought I was being quite helpful in getting dinner ready.

I started to prepare the sweet potatoes while she pan fried the pork chops. I did not have much time before the event, so I wanted to speed dinner up.

With the potato in the microwave, I then warmed up our soup appetizer and served it. We ate the soup and by that time I had told Diane about the tourney.

After we finished the soup, I got online and quickly registered for the tourney. I hastily cut up my pork chop into bit size pieces and prepared the sweet potato for easy eating. I sat down on the couch with my meal and my laptop just as the tournament started.

My first two hands were easy folds. My third hand was a pair of Kings. When it was my turn to bet, I raised to $30, which was three times the big blind. I got two callers.

The flop was 5 6 10. When it was my turn to bet, I lead out with bet of $65, about 2/3 of the current pot. The two players called and the turn was a 7. Not a good flop for Kings. The pot now had about $280 and I bet out again with $160 and this time I got one caller.

The river card was an eight, a terrible card because this could complete a straight for my opponent if he already did not have one. I checked, he raised and I folded. I know my opponent and he does not bluff much, so I saved the rest of my chips for later.

My next two hands were uneventful except that I was dealt a 4 7 off suit one hand and a 7 4 off suit the next. Then I was dealt a pair of pocket Aces, AA. There were two players ahead of me that called the minimum bet of $10.

When it was my turn, I bet out $40 or four times the big blind, hoping to get only one caller. But the two players that had limped in quickly called my bet. The flop was 4 5 6 offsuit. This was not a good flop. The two players ahead of me checked. I thought it over and decided that the board looked two scary to allow either of theses players to stay in the hand and catch up to my pair of Aces.

I decided to go all in and force them to fold. Well that worked for the first limper. But as always is the case, when you get called in these situations, it is usually by somebody with a better hand.  My opponent turned over 7 8, showing a straight on the flop.

My only hope was for either of the two remaining Aces to hit the turn and the river or for an Ace and a card paring the board to give me a full house. Otherwise I would be out of the tournament.

No miracle cards hit and I was out. Just like that.  I had lost 40% of my starting stack with KK and the rest with AA.  I did not feel too badly about my play. At least I made decisions that I felt gave me the best chances based on what I thought my opponent had. I was wrong, but I could accept what had happened and not let it bother me.

In less than 10 minutes from the start of the tournament, I was out. And I was not going to reward myself with dessert.

Do you play with a plan for every hand? Do have ideas on what you will do pre-flop, flop, turn and river?  Do you also take into consideration your position at the time?

Diane and I have been going to The Poker Room in NH.  Check out their FaceBook page by clicking this link.

Diane’s account of our Father’s Day outing is slightly different than mine.  See it at MomPopPow.com later today.

Our results in the prior visits were not too good. We lost half or more of our initial buy-ins at the limit table.

Getting used to playing Limit Hold’em when you have worked hard to play No Limit Hold’em correctly is a bit tricky.

Some people have even renamed Limit Hold’em to “No Fold’em Hold’em” and for good reason.

You see, some players will call all bets or raises right to the river with any two suited cards, no matter how small.

I have seen a player stay in the hand with a 3 4 of hearts even on a flop of A K Q of hearts and they would win, reinforcing their behavior that they did the right thing. After all, they won didn’t they … and that is all that counts, isn’t it; the number of chips that you have at the end of the session, regardless of how you had gotten them

So both Diane and I were victims of not having enough Limit Hold’em experience. But we were learning. The last time there, Diane had lost only 20% of her buy-in and I had lost only 51% of mine. As Charlie Sheen would say: #winning .

For Father’s Day, Diane suggested that we go to the poker room and who was I to say no. She was being kind to me.
You see, her idea of gambling is putting a $20 bill into a change machine and getting back $20′s in change. So going to the tables is not exactly her idea of fun and enjoyment.
On the tables today, I had actually won $21 more than my buy-in. She was not as fortunate.

At our table there were two brothers who were hoping to play a Sit N Go tournament. They needed more people to register in order for the table to start up. The buy-in was $40 and Diane suggested that I give it a try. So I did.

A Sit N Go, unlike a tournament, would last only an hour or two. It was a 10 handed No Limit Sit N Go and the starting stack was $4,000. The blinds started at $100 and increased every 10 minutes. This event was geared to move quickly. And it did. Four others busted out before I did.

The brothers were playing fine together until … The older brother was upset with his younger brother, because the younger brother bet his hand against his older brother. I guess the older bother did not know the unspoken rule,  ”there are no friends at a poker table”. But that is another tale for another time. Eventually the two brothers were gone.

At one time I was down to less than $1,600 hundred in chips and went all-in with A 5 of spades. Luckily I was called by someone having an A 3 and I doubled up. But the blinds were now at $2,000 and $1,000 and I would only have chips for one or two more cycles of play before I ran out of them.

Again I was down to about 1,600 in chips and I went all-in with 10 10. I was called with someone having King 9 off-suit. The flop contained a King and no tens appeared to help me out and I was out in fifth place. Only three winners would receive money.

I watched the remaining four players until only three players remained. I left and felt happy with my play, although I was not happy that I had lost. Time to go home.

Thank you Diane for a great day and allowing me to play some Father’s Day poker.

How did you spend Father’s day? Did you spend it with family and friends? Did you play some Father’s day poker?

Image via Wikipedia

I am currently trying to cash out of all but two sites and so far only PokerStars has settled with me.

I am waiting for Bodog, DoylesRoom and TruePoker to “show me the money!”.

I cannot request funds from Poker Host and Carbon Poker because I am below the minimums that they allow for withdrawals. So either I deposit more money so that I can withdraw it (that is not going to happen). Or I need to win enough or lose enough to resolve those issues. I am trying the latter, winning.

As far as UB (formerly known as  Ultimate Bet) is concerned, I am probably going to lose my funds there. Maybe even FullTiltPpker will not be able to payoff their US players, although it seems like they are trying to settle up.

I am currently playing on only two sites, LuvinPoker.com and BlackChipPoker.com. LuvinPoker.com is the site chosen by Railbirds.com, a group of which I am a member.

BlackChipPoker.com has a deal with Dusty Schmidt and I got a good bonus and three free poker books to add to my 60 plus collection already. See Dusty’s blog for more details.

I really love poker and need an online poker outlet. My local poker room has only limit games and I cannot seem to beat those yet. So I have two sites left and hope that I can continue to play there, withdrawing my earnings as I go along. Hopefully.

Oh yes, I am still playing on FullTiltPoker.com. I am playing Omaha 8 on the Rush Poker Tables. I am only using play money and have built my play money bankroll to 100,000 from the 1,000 that they started me with.  I will probably continue to play at FTP as it works on the Droid phone and I can play in the middle of the night.

How are your post “black friday” plans working out for you?  Have you had any luck cashing out? What are your next steps?

No surprise if you are an online poker player, but our options of playing online have effectively been taken away from us. The UIGEA law enacted in 2006 made it illegal for banks and financial institutions to transfer funds to and from online Poker sites.

On April 15, 2011, the DOJ used that law and stopped all online play by US players from occurring on two or three of the major US facing online poker sites. This event was named “Black Friday”. US players were no longer allowed to play for cash on either PokerStars or FullTiltPoker. These sites were charged with fraud and money laundering.

These charges are basically true because credit card companies and banks were restricting the transferring of money to and from poker sites. So the sites got creative and coded the transactions so that it appeared that the product or service being purchased was not “poker”. As in all creative accounting ventures, they eventually got caught. Well, actually the person who taught these companies how to process the money ended up as a government witness against them, or so the story goes.

The DOJ has made it hard and even next to impossible to withdraw our funds from these sites. It may take several weeks or even months before US players can even request their funds.

In all likelyhood, it will probably be two or more years before we will be able to play on an online poker site for cash legally.

Yes, I know that Carbon Poker, Cake Poker skins and others online are available., but we still have the same problem of legally depositing and/or withdrawing our funds. We know that the DOJ will be watching and going after the next largest violator of the law. In reality none of the offshore sites will be truly safe for US players until there is legalized online poker in the US, regulated by either the State or Federal government.

So in the meantime we need to contact our local and national government officials and let them know what we want to see happen to online poker in the US. This is not an easy task but we must all do our part. Bickering and complaining about won’t help. Even organizations like the Poker Players Alliance needs to step up their efforts and work for us in an effective manner. They should be thinking about more than just public relation efforts to support our cause.

I still have funds on Bodog, Carbon Poker, DoylesRoom, PokerHost and TruePoker. I will play on those sites and I will withdraw whenever I have $250 in profits. I may take a shot at playing larger tourneys or higher level cash games if the games look beatable. I will certainly start withdrawing any winnings on these sites before they are also locked out to us.  But I will certainly try to keep my risk of loss as low as possible in any case.

The next few years won’t be easy and they will not be as fun as they were prior to April 15, 2011.

I will not be making anymore deposits until online poker is legal in the US. This is getting easy because there are practically no deposit options left that I can use. There were online payment processing companies that allowed you to either deposit by credit card or bank transfers from your banks. Then you could transfer the money to the poker sites. Most of these companies have had their funds seized.  This was very similar to what happened with NetTeller a few years ago. But at least with NetTeller, I was able to get my money back after about a year wait. This time, I lost all that I had on account with the two payment processor that I was using.  One of them offered to wire transfer my money to me but were going to charge me a $50 processing fee which was more than I had on the account.

I will probably visit my local New Hampshire poker rooms three days a week or more.

What are your future poker plans since “Black Friday”?  Where do you go from here?

I don’t often talk about bad beats but sometime you just can’t help yourself. While traveling from Fremont to Amesbury, I discussed the hand with Diane. She videotaped the following:

What was your worst experience?