After working as a poker dealer for many years, Dan became an instructor in Las Vegas. Not satisfied with the instructional materials then available, The Poker Dealer's Handbook was born. Starting as a booklet of fifty pages, the text evolved as new situations and questions came up in class that were not covered. In 1995, the second edition of the booklet, with eighty pages, was self-published by Dan.

In 1997, 2 Plus 2 Publishing contacted Dan about expanding the handbook into a full size book which was published as The Professional Poker Dealer's Handbook in 1998. This 238 page text is a gold mine of information and is considered a standard in the industry. It is the ultimate book for anyone interested in a career as a professional poker dealer. 

CasinoDealers.Net : Thank you so much for for your participation in this new section of our site Dan. I love your book. It was well thought out and presents a very surprising detailed format that is easy and fun to read. In your book why do you tell your students not to be friendly?

I don't recall putting it quite that bluntly, Scott, but most players primarily want a fast game with no errors. The dealer should be courteous, but not overtly friendly. In low stakes games it's common to use players' first names if you know them. Also, you may sometimes be dealing a table where the players are there as much to socialize as they are to play poker; in that case it's OK to converse with them while you're shuffling, but as soon as the first card is dealt the dealer should be business-like, answering questions if necessary, but carefully avoiding any appearance of helping a player with his/her hand.

The nice thing about dealing poker is that one can be very selfish; that is, everything the dealer does that realistically improves his/her tokes are the very same things that make the players happy (an honest and efficiently run came), the card room manager happy (because happy players come back to play again) and the casino happy (more action means more money in the drop box). Note my use of the word "realistically." Soliciting tokes only annoys people and is actually more likely to reduce than to improve your tokes.

You mention low stakes games. What about high stakes games?

In most medium and high stakes games, as well as tournaments, nearly all players just want the dealer to "Dummy up and deal." These players are serious about their money and are generally not there to have fun. The dealer should say only what is necessary to announce and run the game (first to act, bets and raises, etc.). Tokes are not nearly as good in these games as in low stakes games, but attempts to socialize will only make matters worse.

One of the things your book attempts to accomplish is to establish standards in professional poker rooms. Are there any rules that are currently standard?

One of the differences I've noticed between casinos is the number of raises allowed. Is there any standard for that?

From what I've seen, it appears that most casinos that have all or mostly low limit games allow a bet and three raises each betting round, while casinos with higher limit games often allow four raises. These seem like good limits to me. The argument I've heard for allowing four raises in high limit games is that those players tend to "cap" the betting (put in that last allowed raise) more often when the limit is three raises.

I've seen a few rooms that allow five raises. Personally, I won't play in such a game because this seems to condone collusion play; that is, a player with a strong hand signals his partner, and they raise back and forth, trapping an unwary novice between them. The partner with the weak hand discards it on the fourth or fifth raise so he doesn't have to show the hand.

I see. And are there any other rules that you object to?

Many cardrooms have one or more rules that I think are silly or just plain outright stupid, but these are usually isolated cases, so I won't go into details here. There is one policy in some areas, however, that I think is very bad. In most California cardrooms, and probably some other places as well, the dealer's bank is owned by the dealer instead of by the casino. The dealers simply put their tokes into their rack, which they carry from table to table. The problem is that this gives the dealer an incentive to short-change a player or the pot when making change, since the resulting increase in the bank ends up in the dealer's pocket.

Why might a prospective dealer choose to learn poker rather than the pit games such as Blackjack and craps? 

I can think of several reasons:
You get to sit down while working. This may be especially important for someone with hip or leg problems.
You don't have to pool your tokes with poor dealers. In the pit, the worst dealer gets the same percentage of total tokes as the best dealer. (I understand, however, that tokes are pooled in Atlantic City.)
You're not constantly being scrutinized by the camera. You're working from a fixed bank, and you're responsible if it's short when you're pushed, so the casino is not as concerned about errors or theft. You "prove" your actions to the players instead of to the camera.
In low limit games, you can socialize some with the players.
You deal a variety of games every day, which I find more enjoyable than dealing the same game all day.

When you say tokes are pooled in AC, do you mean they are pooled within the poker room or pooled among all casino dealers?

As I understand it, they are pooled among all dealers, including pit games, but I'm not sure if that information is current. Can someone in AC give us the current scoop?

Do you see more of an interest in cross training pit dealers lately or are most of your poker students at the school entry level candidates?

I don't know of any major casino in southern Nevada that uses the same dealers for both poker and pit games. The only "cross training" interest is that in some casinos it is easier to get into the poker room of you are already an employee of the casino. In Las Vegas, for example, one of the best poker dealer jobs (in my opinion) is at the Flamingo Hilton. Some students have gotten in there by learning blackjack, breaking in at O'Sheas (next door to and owned by the Flamingo), transferring into the Flamingo, and then putting in for a transfer into poker.

I sometimes get a student that is already working in the pit. Usually their desire to change to poker is due to backaches or leg cramps from standing so much.

You say you deal several different games. What are the most common games?

All cardrooms offer seven card stud, typically with low limits starting at $1-$4 or $1-$5. This is the only casino poker game that a majority of home-game players are familiar with, so it is their first cautious try into casino poker.
Nearly all rooms offer Texas Hold'em, which is now becoming more popular because of the World Poker Tour series on the Travel Channel.
Other popular games include Crazy Pineapple (a variation of Hold'em where you get three cards instead of two, and discard one after the flop) and Omaha (another variation of Hold'em where you get four cards, and you must use exactly two from your hand and three from the board to make a 5-card hand).
These last two games are frequently played as high-low split, with an 8 or better to qualify for low. Seven card stud is also sometimes played high-low split.

The dealers we see on television, such as World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel, are they working independent of the host casino or do they actually deal at these properties?

I'm not sure about the dealers on the World Poker Tour, but the dealers in the major tournaments I've seen are a mix of dealers currently working in local casinos, retired dealers, and "contract" dealers. A contract dealer is one who travels all around the country (or the world) just dealing tournaments. They often share travel and lodging.

The old standard shuffle sequence is scramble, riffle shuffle twice, box (strip shuffle), riffle shuffle once again, then cut the cards and deal. In some rooms, they shuffle twice after the strip shuffle instead of before it.

As you've noted, some rooms have eliminated the scramble, presumably to speed up the game by shortening the shuffle sequence. Is that a good trade-off? I don't think so!
I feel that the scramble is the most important part of the shuffle sequence as it mixes the cards quite randomly. You can prove this for yourself if you like. Take a setup -- that is, two decks of cards that have been sorted by suit and rank. With one deck, do a scramble as described in the book and in the procedures section of this site. Three times around is enough. Square up the deck, and set it aside without any further shuffling. Then take the other deck, do not scramble, and do a shuffle, shuffle, box, shuffle sequence. Now spread out both decks face up, and see which is most randomly mixed. You will probably find that the scramble by itself mixes the cards at least as good as the much longer sequence without the scramble.

My recommendation: If a cardroom manager wants to speed up the game by shortening the shuffle sequence then one riffle shuffle should be eliminated. That is, the complete sequence would be scramble, shuffle, box, shuffle. This would take about the same amount of time as shuffle, shuffle, box, shuffle, but would randomize the cards much better.

I see your point. And what do you think about the new shuffle machines now in use in some poker rooms?

These machines use a random number generator to mix the cards, so I feel confident that the result should be as good as for the best dealers, plus there are two other benefits. First, two decks are used so that during the play of one hand the other deck is being shuffled for the next hand, thus speeding up the game considerably. Second, the machine also counts the cards, making it impossible for a player to hold out a card undetected.