‘Check or Bet’

You may recall my writing that it’s natural to want to be a participant, and that in order to be a successful player, you have to fight this natural human emotion. I believe that this also pertains to the dealer. It is natural for the dealer, as it is for any other human being, to want to be the center of attention. But this is not the right way to deal poker. The game is about the players and the money, not the dealer, just as contests such as football, basketball, and boxing are not about the referee. A good dealer tries to be as inconspicuous as possible. An excellent dealer can run a game without making you aware that he is even there, assuming that the players are reasonably experienced.

I have ranted a number of times about dealers who treat the players in a condescending way, as if you learned how to play poker just last week, or are unfamiliar with no-limit hold’em. I recently received an e-mail on this subject, as follows:

“A few years ago, you wrote a column in Card Player on the subject of prompting by dealers. Maybe it’s my age, but I am getting more and more annoyed by these dealers. Do you have any suggestions as to how to deal with them? I’ve been thinking of communicating with either them or their bosses that I will not toke a dealer who prompts me. Have you heard the latest prompt? As soon as the flop is out, they say to the first player, ‘Check or bet.’ It drives me nuts, but I am mostly concerned that it may be affecting my play. It definitely is not good for my game to be upset with the dealer. Maybe I should just learn to live with it and concentrate on the poker. What do you think?”

The type of malady described here is the bane of anyone who has ever been a teenager. A teen will likely tell you that the thing that bothers him the most is still being treated like a little kid after having grown up. (In fact, it has been said that a boy becomes a man two years after he thinks he already is one, but three years before his parents think he is.) No one likes to be treated like a rookie — even a rookie.

Here are some of the dealer comments that drive me (and my correspondent) up a wall. After each comment, I provide my sarcastic thoughts regarding what was said.

“Check or bet.” (Thank you for telling me my options when the button is in front of the player on my right and the flop has been delivered.)

“He bet.” (So, that’s what happened when my heads-up opponent moved half of his stack into the pot while I was watching the cocktail waitress.)

“Your turn.” (Sorry, I was daydreaming about playing the card game “flush” in Katmandu, where the action goes counterclockwise. I am glad that you made things perfectly clear by pointing at me when you said that, because just looking at me when you were speaking would have been insufficient for me to realize that you were talking to me, even though my turn had come.)

The examples I have used so far are very crude. However, the principle of dealer noninterference actually spills over into many other poker situations. Here is a question that a cardroom manager asked me in an e-mail — and my somewhat surprising answer.

“Don’t you think, as a player, that you are entitled to an exact count of how much money an opponent is playing when you are in a hand with him?”

I replied, “It seems like a no-brainer ‘yes,’ but that is not so. For example, when the player who bet obviously has the contemplating player covered, counting the bettor’s chips holds up the game for no valid reason, even though the contemplating player is (eventually) entitled to it if he insists. Normally, an approximation is sufficient.

“If I desire a count, I’ll ask the player, ‘How much did you bet?’ The last thing that I need — and it gets me hot every time it happens — is for the dealer to jump in there right away and start counting chips. He was not invited into my business, and should show some restraint. I asked the player how much he bet. The dealer should not interfere as soon as the question is asked. I want to hear my opponent’s voice, and watch him cut his chips, if possible.

Maybe I can deduce something about his hand that will help me make a better decision. If the player does not want to do it, I believe that he has the right to ask the dealer to count the wager, but the dealer should butt out until he is obviously needed. In fact, if I am in seat No. 1 and the bettor is in seat No. 9, the dealer will be blocking my view of the opponent for some time if he jumps in there right away to count the wager. Also, maybe all a player wants is an approximation, so the dealer’s hasty action is detrimental to house revenue.

“Another point is that if the dealer miscounts the amount and gives me false or highly misleading info, and I err on account of it, is the house going to reimburse me for any of my loss? I will not hold my breath waiting for the money. The least a dealer can do is not jump in there and screw up the situation when no one has invited him to stick his nose into what is going on.

“The bottom line is, when a player asks the dealer how much was bet, the dealer should first give an approximation and see what happens. When a player asks the bettor how much he bet, the dealer was not invited into the conversation and should say and do absolutely nothing. Of course, his services may be needed later, but no one has said a word to him yet. A dealer should speak and take action only when spoken to, unless it becomes obvious that he is needed.”

There is another reason for the dealer not to be reaching into pots to handle chips unnecessarily, especially in cash games. Some dealers are dishonest. Palming a chip is not unheard of, so less chip-handling is always best. I have many times seen dealers rearrange a wager when it was totally unnecessary. I have made a bet of $500 with four even stacks of five $25 chips each, and had the dealer reach into the pot, restack all of the chips into five stacks of four $25 chips each, and think he has done something brilliant. Actually, he was just a distraction.

The less active the dealer is, the more focused the players will be on the game, which is the way it should be. Please be generous with a dealer who runs a game well; of course, the opposite also applies. Cardroom managers, please pay attention.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert’s Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.