In modern day poker we are seeing more and more events, card rooms and poker room managers imposing their individual ideas and procedures on the delivery of the game. The TDA was borne in an attempt to standardize the rules and procedures from a playing and managing perspective but it seems there has never really been a standard set of procedures when training dealing staff. Having said never, however, that’s not strictly true. When poker games are first invented it seems that most of the details on the rules and procedures and how best to implement them were actually fairly well thought out. Tried and then tested with an eventual edited version of the original ideas on the delivery of each game written down and practiced for the years to come. Of course I cannot deny that perfection was ever achieved from the outset, but what I have noticed over the years, as edits are made to the original procedures for these games, is that changes are being made without careful consideration to the reasons the original procedures were laid out in the first instance.
An example of this has recently come to light where a well-known major poker event company has decided to shy away from the original procedure, during stud and draw poker games, of placing the pot in the center of the table and insisting that the dealer now place the pot to the left of center where one might place the pot during a board game. I did speak with an authority at the said poker event during the summer of 2017 and ask why they had decided to change this procedure. To my amazement the answer I was given was that it is to keep the display of the poker table looking “consistent”. In fact, because all of my students were arriving at the audition of this event and placing the pot in the center of the table, during stud and draw games, I received a phone call from the said authority and was asked why I was advising my students to set the pot in this way and why I was ignoring the guideline for this procedure that is clearly printed in their dealer handbook. As I considered their explanation for changing the procedure for Aesthetic reasons I gladly obliged with my response.
First and foremost, I said, the procedure of setting the pot in the middle of the table has been around since these games were invented and it is not something that I decided upon. I simply follow the procedure because I agree with it and it makes sense to do it this way.
Why does it make sense to put the pot in the middle of the table? Well, in stud and draw games, more often than not, there are either 6 or 8 players in the game. That being said there will always be free table space directly in front of the dealer because there is no player sitting there. Therefore there will be ample room for the pot to grow, it will not interfere with a player sitting there and there will be no up-cards delivered over the pot. Whereas with the pot to the left of the dealer it will ultimately be growing in front of the player in seat number 3 or 4 and there will be no room to deliver the up-cards to that player. More importantly, however, placing the pot in the center of a game that does not require a community board will remind a tired dealer not to lay out a flop mid-way through a stud or draw game.
I have seen this done a number of times. In fact one of the most embarrassing times was at the WSOP in a $75/$150 RAZZ cash game with a number of high profile players at the table. The unfortunate, tired dealer at the end of his 14 hour shift had his pot to the left, as suggested by the event, and he proceeded to deliver a flop on 4th street. I guess he burned the first card, delivered it under the pot to his left and muscle memory kicked in and he laid out 3 cards for the flop. Well needless to say all hell broke loose at the table.
The point of this blog is to raise awareness to those who are in a position of influence to seriously consider all the implications and consequences before engaging in changes that may have catastrophic effect. All too often we see managers wishing to impose their authority and justify their existence, but quite honestly I like to adopt one of these two notions.
“There is no reason to re-invent the wheel”
“If it isn’t broke, don’t go looking to fix it”
Good Luck!
