Every couple of years, it seems, I have to publicly let off a little steam by
writing a column about things that irritate me. So, I’ll get right to it by
telling you about the first thing that bugs me.
It seems that every time I turn on the television and start surfing, I see
a poker tournament on some channel. Almost all of us in the poker
world would agree that that is a good thing. It is what else that is
shown on these telecasts that is really beginning to annoy me. What I
am referring to is the part of the telecast where they explain how no-
limit hold’em is played. They go through the two cards facedown part,
the flop, the turn, and the river. They also explain the blinds and the
antes. Now, I know they must do this because so many of the listeners
are new to poker and must be educated.
So, knowing that this is a necessary evil, I have tried to be patient
during this part of the show. But, truthfully, I remember the early days
of when they started televising NFL football, and I don’t remember ever
hearing that you have four downs to move the ball 10 yards, and so on.
I also never remember anyone explaining that in basketball, you must
bounce or dribble the ball with every step you take. And, even though I
have never been a hockey fan, I have tried to watch a few games, and
never once have I heard anybody tell me what the blue line is for.
I will say that I won’t argue with whatever they have done to get all of
the new viewers interested in poker, and maybe my complaint is done
mostly tongue-in-cheek. I just hope that someday before I die — say,
10 or 20 years down the road — I will tune in and watch a poker
tournament being televised without getting the Poker 101 lesson.
Another complaint I have is on a more serious note. The main reason I
will go into it is that maybe enough people will agree how annoying it is
that tournament directors will make an effort to educate dealers.
It is such a simple thing that many new players and many low-limit
players may not even notice it. In fact, part of the problem stems from
the tremendous influx of new players into poker. This influx has created
a natural demand for more dealers. I am not sure what these new
dealers are taught in school, but since they will first be dealing in small-
limit games to get experience, you would think the mindset would be
geared mostly to teaching them how to deal those small-limit games.
In small-limit games, there are many new and inexperienced players, so
part of the dealer’s job is to keep the game going at an satisfactory
pace. Obviously, the house and the dealer both do better when more
hands can be dealt. Plus, most players like a game that moves along. I
have no problem with dealers trying to get as many hands dealt as they
can.
My complaint is that these new dealers don’t understand that dealing in
higher-limit games and tournaments is a different animal. They
invariably fall into that trap of trying to speed up the game. At every
tournament I have played in the last couple of years, I have watched
many of the dealers deal the cards out, and then once the last card has
been dealt, prompt the first player who’s “under the gun” to act. This is
done by outstretching their arm and opening their hand, palm up. They
are trying to say, “It’s up to you!”
OK. I can almost deal with that, but it doesn’t stop there. As it becomes
each player’s turn, the dealer is there with that outstretched hand,
prompting each player. Most of the time, the player hasn’t hesitated two
seconds. This is needless prompting, and I usually complain by saying
something like, “Please don’t prompt the players unless they slow down
the game.”
It gets even worse, though, because so many of the tournaments are
now no-limit hold’em. Recently, in a couple of cases, I actually had to
leave my seat in complete frustration. Here’s why: We are two-thirds of
the way through a no-limit hold’em tournament and the blinds and
antes are high. It is a very critical time in the tournament. A player
opens the pot for a raise, two or three players pass, and the next
player hesitates. Now, to me, as it should be to the dealer, too, it’s
obvious that the player is thinking. He’s not looking off into space or
eating his hamburger. He is trying to decide what to do. Three or four
seconds go by, and out pops the dealer’s arm. The hand opens up, and
without saying a word, it feels to me like the dealer is screaming at the
player, “It’s up to you!”
Could there be anything more annoying to real poker players? Well, yes,
as a matter of fact. It happened in one of the last no-limit hold’em
tournaments I played. The dealer had gently been prompting the
players during the entire time he was in the box. No one had said
anything — mostly because the players had been playing quickly, with
no hesitations in their decision-making. Then, a heads-up pot
developed. A fairly big bet was made and it was called before the flop.
After the flop, the dealer prompted the first player to act. The player
checked, and the dealer prompted the last player to act. He checked.
After the turn, the same thing happened. The dealer then dealt the river
card and prompted the first player. He bet, and the last player hesitated
a few seconds. Out came the dealer’s hand with the prompt. Where, I
wondered, had this dealer been during the hand? He certainly must not
have been paying much attention; otherwise, he would have realized
that both players knew what was going on at every point in the hand
without one prompt, let alone several.
I couldn’t believe a dealer could be that out of touch with what he was
doing.
Before I undertook writing on this subject, I decided to make sure it
wasn’t just me, so I asked well-respected Tournament Director Dave
Lamb about it. He assured me that good, experienced dealers do very
little prompting. He said they pay attention, and only if someone slows
the game down or appears not to know that it’s up to him will they
prompt a player.
Cheri Dokken, the tournament director at Commerce Casino, told me
that she instructs dealers to point or prompt with their eyes. Only if
someone slows the game down or falls asleep at the switch should any
motion or gesture be given. I think Cheri’s instructions are perfect. I
wish all dealers could learn to point with their eyes.
Last but not least, when I asked my favorite tournament director,
Roland Waters of the Wildhorse Casino, to look my column over, he
agreed with what I had said. He even said he would ask all of his
dealers to read my column, in order to prevent unnecessary prompting
in the future. (I hope all new dealers take the time to read this column.)
For what it's worth …
writing a column about things that irritate me. So, I’ll get right to it by
telling you about the first thing that bugs me.
It seems that every time I turn on the television and start surfing, I see
a poker tournament on some channel. Almost all of us in the poker
world would agree that that is a good thing. It is what else that is
shown on these telecasts that is really beginning to annoy me. What I
am referring to is the part of the telecast where they explain how no-
limit hold’em is played. They go through the two cards facedown part,
the flop, the turn, and the river. They also explain the blinds and the
antes. Now, I know they must do this because so many of the listeners
are new to poker and must be educated.
So, knowing that this is a necessary evil, I have tried to be patient
during this part of the show. But, truthfully, I remember the early days
of when they started televising NFL football, and I don’t remember ever
hearing that you have four downs to move the ball 10 yards, and so on.
I also never remember anyone explaining that in basketball, you must
bounce or dribble the ball with every step you take. And, even though I
have never been a hockey fan, I have tried to watch a few games, and
never once have I heard anybody tell me what the blue line is for.
I will say that I won’t argue with whatever they have done to get all of
the new viewers interested in poker, and maybe my complaint is done
mostly tongue-in-cheek. I just hope that someday before I die — say,
10 or 20 years down the road — I will tune in and watch a poker
tournament being televised without getting the Poker 101 lesson.
Another complaint I have is on a more serious note. The main reason I
will go into it is that maybe enough people will agree how annoying it is
that tournament directors will make an effort to educate dealers.
It is such a simple thing that many new players and many low-limit
players may not even notice it. In fact, part of the problem stems from
the tremendous influx of new players into poker. This influx has created
a natural demand for more dealers. I am not sure what these new
dealers are taught in school, but since they will first be dealing in small-
limit games to get experience, you would think the mindset would be
geared mostly to teaching them how to deal those small-limit games.
In small-limit games, there are many new and inexperienced players, so
part of the dealer’s job is to keep the game going at an satisfactory
pace. Obviously, the house and the dealer both do better when more
hands can be dealt. Plus, most players like a game that moves along. I
have no problem with dealers trying to get as many hands dealt as they
can.
My complaint is that these new dealers don’t understand that dealing in
higher-limit games and tournaments is a different animal. They
invariably fall into that trap of trying to speed up the game. At every
tournament I have played in the last couple of years, I have watched
many of the dealers deal the cards out, and then once the last card has
been dealt, prompt the first player who’s “under the gun” to act. This is
done by outstretching their arm and opening their hand, palm up. They
are trying to say, “It’s up to you!”
OK. I can almost deal with that, but it doesn’t stop there. As it becomes
each player’s turn, the dealer is there with that outstretched hand,
prompting each player. Most of the time, the player hasn’t hesitated two
seconds. This is needless prompting, and I usually complain by saying
something like, “Please don’t prompt the players unless they slow down
the game.”
It gets even worse, though, because so many of the tournaments are
now no-limit hold’em. Recently, in a couple of cases, I actually had to
leave my seat in complete frustration. Here’s why: We are two-thirds of
the way through a no-limit hold’em tournament and the blinds and
antes are high. It is a very critical time in the tournament. A player
opens the pot for a raise, two or three players pass, and the next
player hesitates. Now, to me, as it should be to the dealer, too, it’s
obvious that the player is thinking. He’s not looking off into space or
eating his hamburger. He is trying to decide what to do. Three or four
seconds go by, and out pops the dealer’s arm. The hand opens up, and
without saying a word, it feels to me like the dealer is screaming at the
player, “It’s up to you!”
Could there be anything more annoying to real poker players? Well, yes,
as a matter of fact. It happened in one of the last no-limit hold’em
tournaments I played. The dealer had gently been prompting the
players during the entire time he was in the box. No one had said
anything — mostly because the players had been playing quickly, with
no hesitations in their decision-making. Then, a heads-up pot
developed. A fairly big bet was made and it was called before the flop.
After the flop, the dealer prompted the first player to act. The player
checked, and the dealer prompted the last player to act. He checked.
After the turn, the same thing happened. The dealer then dealt the river
card and prompted the first player. He bet, and the last player hesitated
a few seconds. Out came the dealer’s hand with the prompt. Where, I
wondered, had this dealer been during the hand? He certainly must not
have been paying much attention; otherwise, he would have realized
that both players knew what was going on at every point in the hand
without one prompt, let alone several.
I couldn’t believe a dealer could be that out of touch with what he was
doing.
Before I undertook writing on this subject, I decided to make sure it
wasn’t just me, so I asked well-respected Tournament Director Dave
Lamb about it. He assured me that good, experienced dealers do very
little prompting. He said they pay attention, and only if someone slows
the game down or appears not to know that it’s up to him will they
prompt a player.
Cheri Dokken, the tournament director at Commerce Casino, told me
that she instructs dealers to point or prompt with their eyes. Only if
someone slows the game down or falls asleep at the switch should any
motion or gesture be given. I think Cheri’s instructions are perfect. I
wish all dealers could learn to point with their eyes.
Last but not least, when I asked my favorite tournament director,
Roland Waters of the Wildhorse Casino, to look my column over, he
agreed with what I had said. He even said he would ask all of his
dealers to read my column, in order to prevent unnecessary prompting
in the future. (I hope all new dealers take the time to read this column.)
For what it's worth …
No Prompting, Please
By Vince Burgio
By Vince Burgio
