Making some changes
If you haven’t read the first blog entry of this series you know that I came down to Atlantic City to build maturity as well as bankroll. I knew I would encounter some hard times, but I knew that staying tough and dedicated to getting better would get me through them. At this point, I have only been living on my own for a little more than 2 weeks, but it feels like months. I have no income, I am eating less, I am not working out, I have no friends here, my grandmother passed away suddenly, and like I explained in my last blog, dealing isn’t as easy as I thought. This is close to the lowest I have ever felt in my whole life.
I knew I could be a good dealer if I worked hard. Also, I didn’t see a logical solution to fix all my other problems unless I got myself a dealing job. I would have an income, I could afford to eat more, I could afford gym fees, and I would meet more people my age. I needed to go through some changes in my life after my grandmother also, but those changes I would like to keep personal.
Back to work
The weekend leading into week 3, I worked really hard on all the things we learned in the first two weeks because I knew if I made most of those procedures (the down/up pitch, reading boards, pulling in money/mucked cards, and a few other things I am sure I am missing) second nature I could really work on the more advanced stuff this coming week. I parked my ass (and my poker table) right in front of my television and practiced from about 10am to like 6:30pm, on and off of course. I was getting a decent pitch and was really getting comfortable with the basics. This sort of work ethic really needed to be pulled out of me—I knew it was there, but it was difficult to get it out.
I never realized that...
The skills stated below are things you may have noticed the dealers do but never understood their importance. Everything I will explain in these remaining sessions is essential to get a dealing job. If you do not perform these actions you will never find yourself in the box.
Will you guys quit talking! I’m trying to count!
We started the week off talking about limit hold’em. I am assuming I don’t need to go over structures, betting limits and blinds that go along with 2/4 Hold’em (a very popular game in Atlantic City cardrooms). The first thing we went over was counting the “stub.”
The stub is what the poker world calls the remaining cards in a dealer’s hand after the last card is dealt out. In order to make sure that there are 52 cards in the deck that you are using, you count the stub. Most players have noticed their dealer counting the cards after the river was dealt out but probably don’t now why he does it. Most rooms require that you count the stub at least 2-3 times in your ½ an hour in the box (aka your “down”) at each table. You MUST count the stub on your first hand dealt, without slowing the game down, of course. If you cannot finish counting, you can do it the next deal, but you want to know if the deck is short ASAP so you can inaudibly bring it to a floor person’s attention.
In hold’em, once the river card is dealt out you simply take the cover card off the bottom of the deck and place it next to the rake. Then you begin to count the cards in your hand. How many cards do you need in your hand to know you have 52? If you deal in 10 players pre flop and the hand was played to showdown you should have 24 cards in your hand. If there were less than 10 players dealt in pre-flop simply add 2 for each player less than 10 for your count. For example, 9 players will leave you with 26 cards in the stub.
Omaha is the easiest for counting the stub. The cover card procedure is the same. You are simply looking for a multiple of four in your hand. If you do not have a multiple of four your stub is short and you will be required to change decks after a floor person is notified.
Stud is clearly the most difficult game to count the stub in so I will try to go into some detail. The cut card procedure is the same. This time you are required to count all the mucked cards too. To do this you take the stub place it on top of the muck and straighten out all the messy cards (FACE DOWN, do not reveal the mucked cards). Start counting away, ten at a time so if you need to stop you can come back to a number you will easily remember.
We will start with four players to showdown because the number that you should have is 20. How do we know this? Here is the math: with 4 players left to showdown, you have 7 x 4=28 + 4 (burn cards) for each street after the door card = 32, and 52-32=20. Twenty is our magic number because any time there are any more or less players to showdown we can simply add 7 or subtract from that number easily. How can the number be twenty if you probably initially dealt more players in the pot that mucked? This is the reason that we count the mucked cards.
I am sure this was probably a little confusing at first, but if you read over the stud section a couple of times it will make sense. The most difficult part about counting the stub is to refrain from slowing the game down. With some practice you will be able to count without looking at the cards and you can call out the action and take in bets accordingly.
Don’t forget the church…
Now that we are through that we can go on to the most important thing for the house, the rake. Basically for every game in A.C. besides 1-5 stud and high-limit games (1-5 stud rakes $.5 or every $5 and high-limit games are time collection), you take $1 for every $10 that is in the pot. This means you HAVE to know how much is in the pot or you are going to be taking too much (players hate you so no tips) or too little (boss hates you so you’re fired). This basically just takes a lot of practice.
The community board games help because you have to announce how many player are in the pot on every street so you multiply the bet by the number of players and add it to whatever was in the pot on the last street. This is the “easy” part because a little repetition in the seat will make this much easier. The harder part is taking it at the right times.
The best dealers take the rake so the players don’t even notice it was taken out. The house thinks it looks bad if you bring attention to the fact that they are taking money out of YOUR pots so the dealers are instructed to be sneaky about it. You should take the rake right after you instruct the first player to act that it is his turn. At this point players are no longer looking at the pot or the community or board cards (in stud the other players cards), they are paying attention to who is betting or checking. This is when you take it, but be quiet about it don’t slam the rake on the rake area just place it nicely and quietly.
All you can eat, baby!
All-ins were the next order of business. These are pretty easy after some reps as well. When two players move in and it’s obvious who has more don’t count unless the player who is thinking of calling asks for a count. If they don’t simply run the cards out, take the rake (you wont be able to be too sneaky in these situations) and showdown the cards. If the shorter stack wins count out the stack and pay him appropriately.
When there are side pots is when it becomes a bit more difficult. You look at the smallest stack and take that from each of the remaining players in the pot and put the remaining money in the side pot, which will be in front of the player who is all in. This is because he cannot bet anymore, and it makes it obvious to the other players and you that he may not continue in the action remaining.
Now that you have the side pot(s) created, you showdown the hands that can win the last side pot first. Any players that were all in unless they have money invested in the last pot cannot showdown yet. You will go from pot to pot starting from the last and ending with the main pot. Often you will have just one side pot and three players involved. Showdown the two players’ hands who were betting on the side first, then ship their pot, then showdown the all-in player’s hand with the winner of the side pot and ship that pot to the winner. That was easy, right?
Can you control fate?
There were a few other procedures that we covered, but if you do these correctly at the same time with having a decent pitch and shuffle (I will go over the shuffle in the next installment), you will have no problem getting a job.
That was a lot of content, but I want to end this part with something that just hit me today. My definition of “grow” involves many things—I wanted to grow as a person, in wealth, maturity, confidence and so on. I gave myself the opportunity to do this, although throughout my life I was given opportunities so similar to this one constantly. People are going to reach out to you about your flaws. You are going to walk into a situation where nobody knows you and you can project yourself in any way you like. These opportunities give you a chance to better yourself, or even be the person you always wished you could be, but never had the confidence (or whatever it was that was holding you back) to be who you want to be.
I don’t want to get into religious discussion, but I believe God gave us all a tremendous amount of potential that only we can get out of ourselves. Coaches, teachers and parents can only scratch the surface of that potential that you possess. You have to first recognize it, find situations to extract it and work hard. I think you can take this advice and implement it anywhere in your life. Week 3 taught me a ton of things about myself and about life, I hope my recap of it did the same for you. Good luck at the tables.