Typical rakes, times and drops around the country

Las Vegas 

Ordinarily, casinos in Las Vegas take a rake by percentage of the pot, or on a fixed schedule, for games up to about $20-$40. Casinos may charge 5% or 10% of the pot, with a maximum of $3 or $4. The rake may be taken in increments of a dollar, fifty cents, or quarters. Rakes vary widely in Las Vegas, so be prepared for whatever schedule or method is used in the casinos where you intend to audition.

Time is typically charged for games $30-$60 and up, and is taken every half hour, when the new dealer comes into the game. $7-$10 per half hour are typical time charges for games $30-$60 and up. There are a few casinos around the country that take time in smaller games as well. 

California  

Card rooms in California usually take a “drop on the flop” or a dead drop on the button. In drop on the flop games, the amount of the drop, typically $3 taken from the big blind, is positioned on the drop slot before the cards are dealt. A jackpot drop may be taken from the big or small blinds as well and positioned in the same manner. If the hand goes to the flop, the drop is immediately taken. If there is no flop, the money is returned to the winning player. In “dead drop” games, the player on the button posts a dead amount taken before the cards are dealt, which is immediately dropped. In stud type games that have a drop, the drop is normally taken from the antes. 

Other locales 

Most card rooms around the country use either Las Vegas or California as a model for their rakes or drops. 

Time Pots 

In some casinos, particularly in high limit games, a “time pot” may be used rather than charging each player time individually. In a time pot, the price per player is taken out of the pot and then dropped by the house. Prior to the deal, the dealer announces, “This is a time pot.” The appropriate amount is taken out of the next pot where a flop is dealt.

Tracking the Rake

As a new dealer, you will almost inevitably be dealing a raked game. Learning to monitor the pot appropriately and take the correct amount at the right time will be one of your biggest challenges on your way to becoming a professional dealer.

Here are some techniques for keeping track of the rake

1. In my experience, the easiest way to keep track of the rake is to count the BETS as they come into the pot, and then convert them to dollar amounts. Add in any dead money that may be in the pot, as well (e.g., folded blinds).

Example:

Five people see the flop for a raise in a $2-$4 limit game, and both blinds fold to the raise. That’s ten small bets, or 10 x $2 = $20. Add in the $3 in dead blind money, and you’ve got $23 in the pot. As soon as you gather the pot and deal the flop, you take the appropriate rake.

2. Take the rake after every betting round. Here’s the beauty of taking the rake right after every betting round – you can basically forget the dollar amount in the pot except for the carry-over amount, because you’ve already taken the rake, and the rake is sitting right there on the drop slot to remind you of how big the pot is! You only need to remember the amount carried over from the last round that was too small to rake. Even if you completely forget the pot size and carry-over amount, you’ve still got the rake in the drop slot to remind you of how big the pot is. If you forget to take the rake, and you forget the pot size, you’re now in a position of having to guess (not very accurate) or count down the pot (even worse). So take your rake every round!

Example:

Suppose the rake is 10% for the scenario in (1), with a $4 max, taken in increments of fifty cents. After you deal the flop, take $2 and position it on the drop slot. You’re going to add on the extra $3 in “carry-over” to the total of the next round’s betting.

In this example, it’s impossible for you to be wrong about the total by more than $4, because you’ve already positioned the rake for this round on the drop slot.

3.Track the carry-over from the previous round.

Example:

The pot was $23 and you’ve got $2 positioned on the drop slot after the second round of betting in scenario (2). Suppose now that one person bets and two people call. Now you’ve got three small bets ($6) plus the carry-over ($3) from the previous round, for a total of $9 in unraked bets. Since the rake is taken in half dollars, you will add $.50 to the rake for $5 of unraked bets and are left with $4 to carry-over to the next round.

4. Free your mind when you reach the maximum rake.

Example:

Continuing with the example above, let’s say that on the next round of betting, one person bets, another raises, and the first person is the only caller. That’s four big bets, or $16, plus the $4 carried over from the previous round. Since the max rake was $4, you have more than reached the correct pot size to take the maximum rake (the pot has $45 in it, right?). Position $1.50 more onto the drop slot, and you’re done. You no longer have to keep track of the pot size for this particular hand.

5. Drop as few coins as possible. Not only are coins heavy (a pain for security), but you’re going to run out of coin faster if you keep dropping them unnecessarily. You should place coin that hasn’t been dropped yet in front of the drop slot, and only put chips onto the drop slot, until the end of the hand. The reason for this is that you’re going to keep adding to the total, and thus the amount of coin to be dropped is going to keep changing. It saves time and effort to just keep the coin in front of the slot until you’re done with the hand. Also, you make sure to drop a minimum in coin by doing it this way. Some dealers place the coin on top of the slot mechanism, behind the actual drop slot. While acceptable, I personally feel that it is better to place the coin in front rather than on top, because you can simply slide the coin, rather than having to pick it up.

As a new dealer, you will almost inevitably be dealing a raked game. learning to monitor the pot appropriately and take the correct amount at the right time will be one of your biggest challenges on your way to becoming a professional dealer. Most casinos require that you get the rake perfect during your audition. Card rooms have different rake schedules, so you be prepared for the rake at the casino where you audition. Also be aware that many casinos have different rake schedules for different size games. For instance, $5-$10 might be raked at 5%, while $2-$4 and $3-$6 might be raked at 10%. This is very common, so be ready for it. Spend some time watching their games and calculating the rake before your audition, because you don’t know which game they are going to put you into for your audition.

Chapter 6

Table stakes