Poker Dealers Love Their Work

You might think the job would get old after a while. Dealing, shuffling, settling table disputes and then a re-deal.

But it doesn't. Poker dealers love their work.

Sometimes you find poker dealers who change their casinos, but not their jobs.

I make it a practice to talk to poker dealers. Their stories of how they decided to learn to deal poker vary. Some of the dealers play poker on their off-days, while others are content to watch the players play.

It's intriguing to me that poker dealers don't always make good poker players. Some of them play very poorly, not profiting from the lessons they pick up at the poker table. They over tip, play bad cards while hoping for miraculous flops, and generally lose their chips.

Before poker became a television game and politically correct, dealers had very few rights in the poker room. Dealers were subject to abuse. The House spoiled the players in order to keep the games going. In order to be banned from a game, a player would have to do something outrageous. Puggy Pearson, for example, once was banned from Binion's Horseshoe for urinating on a poker dealer's foot.

Puggy never quite apologized for the incident, by the way. He just explained it away by saying, 'Hey, I'm a redneck and that's what redneck poker players sometimes do.' Sure, Puggy.

I questioned a female dealer named Rebecca about her job the other days. Becky, as we call her, is in her late 20s and has been dealing for six or seven years. I asked her if she ever got bored with dealing.

'Never,' she said, shuffling the cards. 'I enjoy coming to work and seeing you guys try to win. I like my job.'

'And the money from the tips?'

Her grin increased. 'That, too. The tips are okay.'

Dealers enjoy dealing tournaments as well as cash games. They especially love it when one of them deals a bad beat jackpot. With one hand, a dealer can earn enough money in tips to cover a month's wages.

Some dealers object to the way they are treated by management. Several have talked to me privately about forming a union. I don't know if that would work for dealers, but it probably wouldn't hurt the industry to try it.

A dealer is a free-as-the wind employee who has a lifelong profession. You can work in many different countries, on cruise ships, and enjoy foreign locales. As long as poker exists, you will have a job. And it doesn't look like there is any danger of poker collapsing because of lack of interest. Let the games begin.

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).