A Day in the Life of a Professional Poker Dealer

The odds of hitting a royal flush in texas hold'em are 649,740 to 1. I've dealt six in my first month and a half at the poker room. The odds for that are 3,898,440 to 1. Ridiculous, right? I talked to another dealer who had been dealing for 17 years and has dealt one... yes, ONE royal in his career. This has got to be some kind of record...

Today's was at a 2-2 table. I dealt a guy Kc-Qc and literally flopped him the royal -- Ac-10c-Jc. After the hand was over, I said, "alright, show the royal." he simply said, "alright". Boom, $250 bonus for him. Congrats man.

Dealt my fourth Royal Flush today (in clubs) at a 2-5NL table. By the turn I just had the FEELING this guy made the royal. The flop had come out Ac-Jc-rag and the turn came 10c. Everyone had checked the flop and everyone had checked around to this guy on the turn as well. He bet out the minimum $5 and at that moment I KNEW he had it. Just the way he bet it out... and sure enough when everyone folded to the measly $5 bet, I said "Show the Royal if you've got it!" and he did. Another $250 winner (and a very generous tipper too). He said it was his first time ever even SEEING a royal flush, not to mention his first time getting one. Congrats to him for sure. I'm still waiting on mine. Hahaha.

Today I dealt my third Royal Flush to a player.... which is actually kind of ironic. In under a month, I've dealt three royals, but in the amount of time I've played, for four or so years, I've never gotten one myself. I can never complain about dealing them though... you always seem to get decent tips from the free $250 they get for hitting it. The first one I dealt was in hearts, the second in clubs, and the third in hearts as well. What's so special about this one that's deserving of a journal entry? I called it out before I dealt the last card.

With three players all-in on the flop, all the hands were turned up. Ah-Qh-rag board. player shows 10h-3h in her hand. Turn comes Kh. At that point, she had won the hand, but I wanted to see the royal hit. I called out Jack of Hearts! BOOM, there it is. She came over and gave me a hug, tipped me a few chips for the pot and another few when I left the table. Gotta love that.

Today I had the unique opportunity of dealing to the 2004 World Series of Poker Champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer. For those who don't know who that is, I have provided a link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Raymer 

The table was set as a dealers choice game for small stakes. Each orbit of the button, a new game was chosen. During my down, we played two different games, double-board hold'em (same thing as regular texas hold'em, you just run two boards instead of one and split the pot equally between the boards) and crazy pineapple. I've gotta say that my impression of Greg, from the short time I was there dealing proved him to be a really nice guy. A genuine, very humble person with a good heart. Or at least that's what I got from him in thirty minutes. At the end of my shift, I was able to shake his hand after he had cashed out and was headed out. He'll be around the poker room for the next few days to a week or so, but it was really neat getting to meet a world champ. Just one of the awesome parts about my job.

Last table of the night (isn't it always the one that causes trouble?) and I'm sent to a $1-$2 limit table. The table that is at the smallest stakes for the least amount of money and is supposed to be rather tame. I push into the table and notice the festive light-up necklace that seat 5 is wearing for St. Patricks Day. I make a light-hearted comment and attempt to get the table into the best mood possible as I sit down. 

A few hands in, seat 9 begins stirring up trouble, attempting to tell seat 1 how to play his cards and that he is annoyed by the way seat 1 is playing his cards, raising every pot to its cap. Now it is rather obnoxious to an extent, but he has a right to play his cards however he likes and I defend his right to do so. Seat 9 keeps making childish remarks and jabs at seat 1, but nothing too extreme until I push seat 1 a decent-sized pot. "That'll buy him another twinkie" says seat 9, referring to the slightly larger player in seat 1. I immediately turn to seat 9 and tell him that his comment is unnecessary and rude. Simply uncalled for. He proceeds to make an argument with me and I just call the floor over, explain the situation, and he's interrupting the entire way. "I want to file a complaint on the dealer for being rude and condescending! He's unprofessional, sitting down making jokes and taking five minutes just to get out the first hand (which is not true, by the way). The situation is simmered by the floor momentarily and I put on my best "Professional face" for the asshole in seat 9. The game stops being fun for everyone and several players get up to leave. After several more hands, there is an argument by seat 9 on where the button should go. I tell him EXACTLY where it should go and why, but he insists on arguing again and the floor makes their way to the table again. That's when things erupt. The game breaks, the asshole in seat 9 decides to definitely put in a formal written complaint on me for whatever he felt that I did to insult his fragile ego and my night ends.

Here's my advice: #1 Don't tell people how to play their hands. #2. Don't insult other people at my table (or any other for that matter). #3 If you have a problem with a player or just have a bad attitude, rack up your chips and leave. No one wants you there, especially me.

(Oh, and just to add insult to injury, I dealt the player in seat 8 a royal flush in hearts (while he was all-in, no less) right before the game ended up breaking, winning that player the promotion of $250 for a Royal. First one I've dealt too.)

Last table of the night, sitting at a 2-5 NL table. Decent players and a couple good tippers too. Sitting in the 7 seat a player tells me as they always do, 'Alright dealer, I need a hand to go all-in on. I need a winner.' And as always, I respond, 'Here it comes sir. Your winning hand.' The player looks down and mucks it. 'I can't do it' he says. 'Not with that.' 'What are you doing?' I respond, 'You just folded the winner!' He tells me, 'Alright, if that was the winner, I'll give you $30. I had 6-9.' And now I'm motivated. Praying for something to connect (though I don't think he'll actually pay me), I deal out the flop. BINGO. 6-9-A rainbow flop. Hahahaha. Sure enough, he looks in disbelief for a moment, disgusted with himself for tossing a flopped two pair. Of course neither of us could have POSSIBLY known it was actually going to be the best hand, but sure enough, he follows up on his promise and tosses me 6 red birds. Nice guy. I of course thank him properly and again when I get up from the table. He was obviously having a rough time and even still, tipped very well each time (even on a $15 pot he threw me four or so). Needless to say, I hope to see him again next time he's in the room. Will have to get his name for sure.

Winning and losing in a poker room in inevitable. You are either going to win or you're going to lose (or if you want to get technical, you may break even, but then your opponent(s) will either win or lose). The difference is in the way you handle it. If you get furious and start lashing out at people when you lose, gambling is definitely not for you. This is an example, I will call Yin:

I pushed into my last table of the night around 3:30am on Saturday, March 10th. There was a guy in the 7 seat who was pretty upset. (I later found out that he made a really terrible call on a hand from the dealer before me, but I didn't know why at the time.) Every so often, I heard the 'F' word come out of his mouth. It wasn't loud or directed toward anyone in particular, but it was still audible enough to be heard by people around him. I asked him nicely to try and watch the language (as I've done to several players before at my tables). He responded with a 'What?!' so I repeated myself in a genuine polite way. He huffs and slouches back in his chair. I hear him chatting with his (I assume?) girlfriend behind him and a couple more times, the 'F' word comes out. I remind him to please watch the language and he takes it very offensively spouting off at me, "I'm not even talking to you! I'm not talking about anyone here! Why are you listening to my conversation? This isn't anything to do with you!" "Even still," I replied, "You cannot use that kind of language." He gets super pissed and yells back at me, "What are you going to do, dealer? It's freedom of speech! You gonna kick me out? Huh?" I tell him, "No, but I will call the floor over if you continue to use that kind of language and they will." He starts spouting his mouth off at me again and I call the floor person over to my table. I tell the floor guy, "The gentleman in seat 7 will not stop cursing at the table." and the floor repeats exactly what I told him. "Sir, you cannot use that kind of language in the Poker Room," beginning to explain that it is in the house rules. The guy gets up, and shouts off, "F*CK YOU!" and the floor guy simply states, "SIR!" as the player shouts and points at each player, F*ck you! F*ck you! F*ck you! all the way out the door to other floor managers and tables as they throw him out for good.

That's the negative side. However, there is also the complete opposite. Take the gentleman at my second to last table today. This guy is sitting at a 2-2 NL table (that's $2-$2 No-Limit Hold'em for those of you that don't know) with $11 in front of him. He pushes all in and five players call him down. He shows up pocket queens at the end and luckily, no one sucked out on him. Then it gets better. The VERY NEXT HAND he gets pocket aces and doubles up again! Two hands later he flops two pair (6-10) and turns a boat on two players who had a straight, taking their entire stacks and raking in approximately a $400 miracle pot that grew from $11. Ridonkulous. Needless to say, his tip to me was more than the original $11 he had to begin with.

Two extreme cases of winning and losing and two crazy days of work. I just started my weekend and I can't wait to go back to work on Tuesday. It's gonna be a long time before this job gets old, hahaha.

Today was the day. Excited as all hell, I don't even know how I managed to get to sleep, but I woke up prepared for the practice day. I had been looking forward to this since I found out about it. The day I was supposed to practice in my new poker room for the real live thing. I got dressed and arrived for my scheduled shift about a half-hour early... and to my surprise, I wasn't the only one there! I had to practically convince myself to stay home until an hour before my shift so that I /wouldn't/ show up so early and here were some other dealers already ahead of me.

I waited until 10 minutes before my shift to clock in, as instructed to do and about 15 after, one of the floor managers comes into the room full of new dealers and asks, "Who wants to deal for real?" Of course, tons of dealers raised their hand cause everyone was ready to deal the practice day, but he repeated, "No, no, I mean for real. We need a couple of dealers over at Orange Park." My hand stayed raised with a couple others and luckily, I was picked to go!

I was practically bouncing out of the poker room. Here I was, ready to practice, and they were going to let me go to the Orange Park room and deal for real!. Apparently, the poker room got slammed and they needed dealers over there badly. I hopped in my car and sped all the way there. Originally, they were going to have two strings, one for the experienced dealers, and one for the newbies. They only had a certain number of limit tables though and not all of us got a table to push into. I told him that I was ready, I didn't need a limit table to go to, and so he gave me a 2-2 table to start. Baptism by fire. I love it. I push into the table and immediately get confused by the rack in front of me. We are going to be having floating racks at the room I'm gonna be at and this wasn't the case here. I just hoped the rack was right because I forgot to ask how much was supposed to be in it! AHH! I just trusted that the guy before me had it right and pushed in, acting like I'd been there for years.  Luckily, it was right.

When I finally figured out the rack, I started checking it over the dealers shoulder before I pushed in each time. I ended up catching a $10 variance on a dealer I pushed and of course, was super-excited that I caught it (cause otherwise, I would have had to pay it and I'd be at fault!). I dealt for almost 8 hours today and had a fantastic time doing it. I even had one guy tell me, "I've always wanted to do your job." I simply told him, "Me too."

Had a jerk or two that didn't tip on even huuuge pots, but I'm not concerned too much about it. I really feel like I did well today and am excited to deal more when the new room opens on Thursday. I've definitely found my lifetime career. I love this job!

My life took several turns after quitting my job at Ocala but I never stopped wanting to be a dealer. Struggling with finances and the ability to survive and be happy, I struggled to find my place. I almost joined the Marine Corps, almost left my home to be with my (now ex) in another country, and ended up doing what every hopeless person ends up doing when they are down and out - waiting tables. I continued to put in applications at the Poker Room, but not once did I hear anything that would even hint at the fact that my applications didn't go straight into the garbage. For years I desired this job, but my expectations at this point for actually getting it were next to nil. Even with my certification, I couldn't even get an interview or audition. So I took a different path, I made new goals, I moved on, and I kept my dream at the back of my desires.

It was the day I learned of the new poker room that my desires were re-awakened. Maybe I can get another shot at this. Maybe they'll have a job fair like the last one. I'll camp out for a week if I have to to be first in line! But they didn't have a job fair... they didn't even announce when the new room would open until just recently. But I dove at the opportunity anyway. Maybe I would get lucky. I asked for information from the floor managers each and every time I went to the poker room to play. I put my name on the list for the dealing classes they were holding for the new room. There were hundreds of names on the list, but I had to at least try, right? I never got a call. They said they'd be opening the new room sometime in the beginning of 2012, it was now January, and I hadn't received a call for the class. They'd started it, and I wasn't high enough on the list. But I went for it anyway. I got more information, talked to a few people (including the poker school owner) figuring out just who I needed to talk to and I went in, certification in hand.

I don't know if he was having a good day, if I was extremely lucky, or what, but I walked in that poker room, expecting to be turned down yet again (though hoping not!), and walked out with an invitation to an audition the following morning. I was ecstatic. Even if I failed the audition, I had at least GOTTEN one. After YEARS of trying, I was going to get an audition! I went straight to the poker school I was trained at and requested practice... a LOT of practice as I hadn't dealt in YEARS. >.< They said to come back that night, that I could sit in on the class they were having - they were practicing Omaha. How PERFECT! I drove home, practiced for a couple hours, went to the school, sat through the class, practiced, then went home and practiced some more. From afternoon to night I was honing my skills, preparing.

And then I went to the audition. At first I was nervous, but as soon as the first dealer got into the box, I lost every bit of that and it melted to excitement. These other dealers... these other people invited to the audition... mistake after mistake after mistake. There was no way I wouldn't shine through them! Now I'm not the best dealer by any sense of the word, but after all that practice and the extreme lack of abilities of these dealers... I was sure to be in the top three at least!

Sure enough, the next week, I was hired. My dream had come true. I wasn't getting hired as a chip runner to be eventually promoted, I was getting hired as a full-on dealer. It was a fantasy in the making. Some people call me crazy. Some people wonder why I could want this job as much as I do. Why I want this CAREER. Why I want to make it my career. Why it's my dream. I'll tell you... if you don't understand the passion, the job is not for you. Dealing, while not extremely difficult, is not for everyone. It's a love, a passion, a lifestyle in its most raw form. To be a dealer... it's everything you make it... and more.