If you have never been to a casino or public poker room before, your first trip can be filled with excitement, anticipation, and exhilaration. It may also cause you a little fear and apprehension. This article gives you a few pointers and some information about how things work in most casinos and public poker rooms. Let's get started with a major part of any casino experience -- the staff.

One of the most important things to remember is that the staff of a casino or poker room is there to make your visit as comfortable as possible because they want you to come back. If you can't find the card room or if you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask a staff member.

Take the card between your thumb and pointer of your dominant hand, and using your middle finger, gently flick the card toward the player to whom you are dealing. Use the deck almost like a ramp, and the edge of the card should be on your fingernail – your finger should be all that forces the card to move. As the name implies, the dealer button designates which player in the game is the nominal dealer. In some home games, it designates the actual dealer as well, but in casino poker it's kind of an. Feb 18, 2012  The poker dealer is the referee of the table. Poker dealers must have high integrity and make sure that what happens at the table is what was supposed to happen at the poker table by enforcing the.

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The dealer is also part of the staff. If you are sitting down at a poker game in a casino or card room for the first time, tell the dealer that it is your first time and ask them to please keep an eye on you to make sure you aren't doing anything incorrectly. You may be amazed at how helpful and useful someone can be when you show them a little respect and ask for their help. Many times, especially at the lower-limit tables, other players are also helpful.

Also, most poker rooms have a place to sign a waiting list for a particular game. Some have a white board with the games and limits available along with the waiting players' initials. Others will just have someone who writes initials or names on a sheet of paper. The card room calls the next person on the list when a seat becomes available. Simply ask whoever is in charge of the board -- or a staff member -- to place you on the list for all of the games you are willing to play. If you are in a small poker room with no visible sign-up area, ask a dealer how to enter a game.

Well, now that you've found your table and you're ready to play, here are some general tips for casino poker:

• Wait for the big blind (The big blind is the largest forced bet at the beginning of a game designed to stimulate betting. The player who has to contribute the big blind rotates one position to the left after each game.) to get to you before playing. Use this time to watch your opponents, and get a feel for the way they are playing. It's amazing how much some players reveal if you just pay attention.
• Most players tip the dealer when they win a pot. This is not required, but if the dealer is doing a competent job, you should tip. Dealers are like waitstaff in that they make most of their money from tips. A sample plan would be to tip the dealer .50 on average size pots and possibly $1.00 on larger pots if the dealer is doing a good job. Also, you can watch what the other players are tipping to get an idea. Remember though that every dollar that goes to the dealer is reducing your winnings. You should be able to come to a happy medium with experience.
• Act when it's your turn. Never act before your turn. This is very poor etiquette and can change the outcome of a hand. The other players will understandably get upset with you.
• Make sure your cards are in plain sight.
• It is a good idea to place a chip on them to show that they are still live and protect them because the dealer won't take them when the chip is on them. If you leave your cards unprotected, the dealer might muck them (mix with discards) by mistake, and there is no way you can retrieve them. Most players keep their hand on their cards.
• When you win a pot (the total amount of money bet in a single game), don't reach for it. Let the dealer push the pot to you. Do not surrender your cards until the pot has been awarded to you on a winning hand.
• If you aren't sure whether you have the best hand at the end of a round, turn your cards face up, and let the dealer read the hands. If the dealer makes a mistake, it can often be corrected. If you throw your hand into the discard pile (often called the 'muck'), you are not eligible for any of the pot even if you made a mistake and had the best hand.
• Don't throw your chips into the pot (called 'splashing' the pot). Place all bets in front of you, and let the dealer pull them into the pot.

For more information on playing poker and other casino games, try the following links:

• To see all of our articles on poker rules and advice, go to our main article on How To Play Poker.
• Learn How to Play Texas Hold 'Em Poker, and you'll be ready for the most common poker game.
• If you think you're good enough, you might want to test your skills in a high-pressure situation. Be sure you know How to Play Poker in a Tournament before you ante up.
• As long as you're in the casino, you might as well drop a few bucks on some other games. Keep these Casino Gambling Basics handy.

Ed. note: For those who might have missed it before, we're reprising Robert Woolley's series of articles for poker players who are new to live poker. The series is great for newcomers, and likely useful as well to those with experience playing in casinos and poker rooms.

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The previous articles in this 'Casino Poker for Beginners' series were all about poker chips. Now let's move on to talk about another category of equipment that you will find distinguishes casino poker from both home games and online play — a bunch of buttons.

By 'buttons' I mean that variety of marked disks that the dealer places on the table to denote events, locations, or game conditions to which the attention of the dealer, the players, and/or other casino personnel needs to be called. How many different buttons are there? I asked my Twitter followers for help in compiling a list, and together we came up with a total of 14 different buttons that you might encounter.

Today we will begin by talking about just one of them — the dealer button. Except where specified otherwise, everything that follows pertains to cash games only. https://ninmeme.netlify.app/wind-creek-casino-online-application.html.

The Dealer Button

The 'dealer' button is the largest and most frequently manipulated button of the bunch, in both tournaments and cash games. In fact, it features so prominently in the game that it is usually just called 'the button' — as if there aren't a dozen other kinds of buttons.

As the name implies, the dealer button designates which player in the game is the nominal dealer. In some home games, it designates the actual dealer as well, but in casino poker it's kind of an honorary title. You won't be expected to shuffle and deal the cards, which is a relief — but on the downside, you don't get to keep the tips, either!

A dealer button is used for all forms of poker in which the opportunity to act last in each round of betting — a distinct advantage when it comes to poker strategy — rotates around the table. For all practical purposes, this means we are referring to all variants of poker except the stud games. (In those, the order of play is determined by the players' 'up' cards.)

The dealer moves the button clockwise one position between the end of one hand and the beginning of the next. This process is usually completely straightforward. However, there are complicated rules to cover how it should be moved, or not moved, in all sorts of strange situations, such as when players enter or leave the game, when players change seats between hands, and so on.

In such cases, the button may need to stay put for two hands in a row, or move past two or three players at once. If you pay attention, you'll eventually figure out the patterns that govern those oddball situations, but as someone new to live poker it's not something you need to worry too much about. Just trust the dealer.

But as soon as I say to trust the dealer, I also want to add that it's worth independently keeping track of where the button is. Mistakes in movement of the dealer button are perhaps the single most common form of dealer error, and one of the most common reasons that a game crashes to a halt while it gets sorted out.

Frequently, nobody can remember who had the button and who paid the blinds in the hand that just ended a few seconds before. This might seem incredible at first, but after playing for a couple of hours, the hands of poker blend into each other like mile markers on the freeway — even though you just passed one, you really didn't notice what it was.

Players often contribute to the dealer's errors in moving the button themselves. Many players, trying to be helpful, will slide the button one spot to their left at the end of the hand. However, if the dealer's attention is elsewhere when this happens, a few seconds later he or she will move the button again, and suddenly there's a problem that has to get sorted out.

How To Deal Poker Games

For the most part, it's best to leave the button alone and just let the dealer push it as needed. Of course, if it's a large table and/or you have a dealer who has difficulty reaching the button, especially when it's at the end of the table, by all means go ahead and move it on to the next player.

Before you do move it, though, wait until the dealer is indicating that it's time to do so, or when you do move it make a clear verbal announcement ('Button moved') and make sure you get an acknowledgment, so that you avoid having it moved twice.

How To Deal Holdem Poker

Players depend on being able to see the button in order to know the order of action. After a while, it becomes completely habitual to scan the table for the button, then scan clockwise from there until you find the first player with live cards, in order to know who is going to act first on each round of betting. This important function of the button is disrupted if it is not left in an easily visible position on the table.

How To Deal Poker Instructions

Why would it not be? Unfortunately, some players think they're entitled to treat the dealer button as their own personal toy to play with while it's in front of them. They'll try to get it to stand on edge, roll it around, make it spin like a top, scoot it from one hand to another like a hockey puck, put chips they're betting on top of it, or pull it in close to them and use it as a card protector.

https://ninmeme.netlify.app/different-online-casino-softwares.html. Furthermore, Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware have recently legalized online casino software and gambling, with California, New York, and Illinois currently considering similar legislation. Fortunately for the millions of online casino enthusiasts living in the USA, a number of positive developments have removed previous stigmas associated with the industry.In December of 2011, for example, the Justice Department issued a revised interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act, ruling that this longstanding law applies only to sports betting over the internet, and not gambling on casino games or poker.

Such antics prevent other players from using the button as a visual marker of where the action is to begin. These little games are inconsiderate of the other players. They slow down the action, and cause people to play out of turn. So please raise your right hand and repeat after me: 'The button is not a toy, and I will not treat it as such.'

In the next article, we'll move on to start discussing some of the other buttons that get used in casino poker games.

How To Deal Poker Cards

Robert Woolley lives in Asheville, NC. He spent several years in Las Vegas and chronicled his life in poker on the 'Poker Grump' blog.

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Learn How To Deal Poker

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