"The Art Of Dealing Poker: A Guide To Dealing Poker Games"

The art of dealing poker is like texas hold em, it takes MINUTES to learn, but YEARS to master.

Even after years of practice, some people still don’t do either one perfectly (dealing/playing poker games). With enough practice, you should come pretty close though!

Dealing and playing poker games go together. Doing one will benefit the other.

But dealing poker (or at LEAST knowing what it requires) will benefit your poker game more than vise versa.

Read how to deal poker professionally (page 1) and how to deal poker (page 2) for more dealing info!

Poker dealer etiquette is also a must read.

When you’re dealing, you gain all the benefits of sitting in a poker game, without any risk. Part of the art of dealing poker is...

Your eyes watch each player as they peak at their cards and throw chips in the pot.

Your hands grab chips and put them in the pot, while catching a players reaction.

Your brain adds up bets and keeps track of them.

Your mouth tells players how much the bet is, and gauges the players feeling.

Your ears hear what players say and how they say it.

Every artist has tools, and uses them. The dealer’s eyes, brain, hands, mouth, and ears, are all tools used in the art of dealing poker.

We’ll go over each one and how it applies, not only to dealing, but also to playing poker.

The eyes are the most important tool in the art of dealing poker. A dealer can deal poker without the use of hearing. Take away sight, and it’s impossible.

A dealer uses their eyes non-stop when dealing. You have to look to see who has cards, who doesn’t. Has anyone raised and how much? Has anyone called? How many players are in the pot? How much did…

Your eyes gather this information, and send it back to the brain for storage. While the hand is being played, this information may need to be recalled.

For instance someone didn’t call the turn, but you scooped all bets into the pot.

You’ll need to know exactly how much should be in the pot, then count the pot out. If the current pot amount doesn’t match what it should be, you have a short pot. No one likes to play for a short pot. If you’re watching the game, this won’t happen.

The biggest benefit to you as a poker player is: you get to see all this information on how poker players play, FOR FREE!

You’ll witness a player turn over their hand, and recall something they did prior to turning their hand up.

Maybe the way they put their chips in the pot. Or a certain thing they did with their chips.

The point is that thing the player did, is called a tell. This tell gives the strength of their hand away. And you just got it for free. Actually you made money (if they tip you)! It could also make you more (or save you money) if you play with that player at some point.

You might be able to apply it to other players too. Most tells are universal.

Always use your eyes to keep track of action in the game. Try to pick up tells when ever you can. As long as it doesn’t interfere with the speed of the game. This is the art of dealing poker.

Hands are crucial in the art of dealing poker.

They shuffle and cut the cards. Distribute them to the correct player. Your hands grab chips, making sure there is the correct amount before placing them in the pot. The hands generally handle cards and chips.

They can also control the action of the game.

Politely motion your hand towards a player when it is their turn. You can stop a player from acting if it’s not their turn.

Hands are very useful tools in the art of dealing poker.

Unfortunately they provide little use to a poker player. Other than using them to pull wads of cash from your pockets to buy-into the game, and put bets in the pot, you should use them only when you have to.

Remember a few paragraphs ago I mentioned tells? Hands can give away some very big tells.

Mainly when you’re about to fold or play your cards.

You’ll catch players with cards in hand, ready to throw them in the muck. Way before it’s their turn to act! And sure enough, into the muck their cards go. Or they’ll have chips in their hand ready to raise! These kinds of players are the ones you want to play against.

Either way, make sure your hands are not giving your opponents a tell.

That’s not to say your hands should be stiff and lifeless when at the poker table. Swing them around, play air guitar with them, just don’t let your hands give away the strength of your hand!

Your brain is a very complex organ. It’s vital to the art of dealing poker.

It’s the one tool you really can’t live without. It tells all the other tools what to do. Its importance is invaluable.

Your brains capacity to remember what happened during the play of hand is also important. As you need to remember how much money is in the pot. How many players are in the pot. Who has cards. If any player(s) is all-in. How much the bet is.

Once the hand is over, you can wipe your memory slate clean. Make room for the next hand.

As a poker player, the ability to recall a hand and how an opponent played it, is huge. Being well practiced at remembering things in detail, will improve your game. Also the ability to make the correct decisions based on your recollection of an opponent, is very important.

Maybe you’ll remember the way someone played a hand. The way they play it will give you an idea of the strength of their cards. When you know this, you can play accordingly.

Your mouth, or at least your words, are essential to the art of dealing poker.

Dealers constantly have to announce, to the table, the action that is taking place.

Think of it as being an in-game-commentator. You have say when a player calls or raises. You have to say how much the bet is. If a player is all-in, you have to announce this. Just let the table know what is happening at all times.

Sure players should pay attention to the action, but the dealer announcing it, helps the game run smooth.

The dealer also controls the table with their words. Another art of dealing poker.

If players are using foul language or threatening other players, the dealer should tell them to watch their language. If not the player will be told to leave. Playing poker in a card room is a privilege. If players want to abuse it, then they shouldn’t be allowed to use it.

This goes for home games too. Maybe even more so. Situations can get out of control faster in a home game than in a poker room. And without the benefit of security guards, these situations can end ugly.

If it’s all close friends, it doesn’t matter much. Use discretion in the company of un-familiar faces.

Hearing is at the end of our dealers-tools list. Not because it’s less important. But because you can deal poker, without your hearing.

Some players announce what they’re about to do, even though they’re not required to. Announcing your own action makes it crystal clear, what you’re about to do.

A dealer listens for these announcements with super sonic bat ears. This is the art of dealing poker.

Listening is also important, for the reason that, verbal statements made by a player are binding. VERBAL STATEMENTS ARE BINDING.

If a player states “raise”, they must raise the bet made before them. They cannot say “Oh, I mean, I want to call”. “I’m sorry, you announced a raise, you must raise the minimum”. Those will be the dealer’s exact words. If the player argues, the floor will be called.

Here comes the floor person.

“What happened?”

The dealer will explain. The floor person will say "That’s a raise".

Players must choose their words carefully, while at a poker table.

As a player you just picked up a tell. That person gave the strength of their hand away. They’re weak. They don't care much for thier hand.

Another key point of speech, words and the mouth: Table talk. It's always happening. This table talk is information in disguise.

As a poker player, doing the opposite of what someone at the poker table says, will be the correct decision.

When someone says “you should fold”, that immediately says, at the very least, call.

If someone says “RAISE ME!”, you should fold.

Do the opposite and you’ll see results.

There are few more keys to the art of dealing poker.

They are knowing proper dealing procedure. This includes knowing how to...

· spread the deck

· wash the cards

· correctly shuffle

· strip shuffle

· cut the cards

· and pitch the cards

Spread the deck.

Take the deck in your hand with cards face up. Spread them face up on the table, making sure each card is visible.

Once you’ve made sure that all 52 cards are there, turn them all face down.

Wash the cards. This is when you spread the cards all over, so they get scrambled out of order.

Shuffle the cards. The shuffle to use is called a riffle shuffle. The deck is split in half. Both thumbs simultaneously lift up both halves of the deck and let the cards fall on top of one another.

It’s important that players cannot see the faces of the cards as the shuffle happens. This takes lots of practice.

A strip shuffle is when you take a clump of 15 or so cards from the top of the deck, and place them on the table, so that they are now the bottom of the deck. This is done a few times.

Cut the deck. Place a cut card in front of the deck. Take the top half and place it on the cut card. Then take the bottom half and place it on the top. This has to be done using one hand.

Pitch the cards. This is the most difficult part of dealing. It's also the true art of dealing poker.

At first practice pitching cards to one spot on the table. Try to get as many cards to this spot as possible. Then practice dealing to two spots, three spots, four…

Until you’re pitching to every seat at the table. The key word here is PRACTICE! It’s the only way you’ll get good enough to deal in a card room.

When starting at a poker dealer school that’s the first thing you do, pitch cards all day. For eight hours! You get good really quick, or quit.

Dealing poker is more than knowing procedures. Its knowing how to deal poker professionally!

When you can put all of these together you’ll be a master at the art of dealing poker.

Keep practicing and don’t give up.

Good luck!