Dealers at the WSOP
Are really bad. I am the first person to stick up for the dealers and I take good care of them, but it is tough when they make mistakes on almost every hand!
In the three days that the Convention Center has been open to action, I have had no less than five dealers tell me it was their first day ever dealing live poker. One poor dealer’s hands were shaking non stop for the half hour he was with us - we probably saw about 10 hands during his down.
This is really trouble for everyone involved. Poker players are generally not the most pleasant of people, especially when it comes to dealers, and nothing tilts me more than dealer abuse, even when the dealers are bad. I have found myself screaming at a player or two for berating the dealers already even though I can see why it is so frustrating for them. Dealer errors I have seen so far include:
-Thinking the $2 blue chips are the same as $1 white chips and double-raking every single pot for an entire down(!)
-Not knowing the rules that the Rio is enforcing (talking on cell phones, posting into a game, showing cards face up while heads up, etc.). This one is very commonplace as the floor is not consistent with its rulings since so many floormen have just arrived from various parts of the country and are usually just enforcing their home casino’s rulings, which are all of course different
-Calling out a fake string bet (note: this cost me $100 when I snap called a guy who bet $125 verbally, but pushed a $25 stack out first before going back for the next $100)
-Not knowing what a straddle is
-Not being able to read the board and ship the pot to the correct person
-Miscounting chips in an all in pot (several times, several different dealers)
-Making change for the rake, then putting it in the tray instead of the drop
If you’re down here playing cash games, remember it is your responsibility as a player to ensure that no dealer mistakes occur during a hand. Be sure to mentally count the chips you put in the pot and that the chips your opponent calls with are the correct amount! And if you see a dealer mistake, try to be patient; many of them are just getting into the groove of dealing and will get better.
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What’s worse is that the experienced dealers avoid WSOP like the plague, because they know that WSOP dealing is not exactly a lucrative summer job.