2014 WSOP | DEALERS
Dealers received the Jury Prize in the
GPI European Poker Awards 2013
Poker dealers are crucial in every cash game and tournament.
They know the rules, they help out players and they make sure
that the game rolls along nicely. Unfortunately they are also
often forgotten in poker. You’ll more than likely be dealt a hand
by Shawn Lytle, Shaun Harris and Andy Tillman in your lifetime
– let’s see what’s on their minds…
How has dealing cards changed since your
first day? Do you feel players are better
educated now with regards to the rules
and regulations?
HARRIS: I think dealing poker has
significantly changed throughout my career.
I began dealing in 2004, and since then the
changes made (from a dealing perspective),
have done the industry wonders. Shuffling
machines have been added. This increases
the amount of hands dealt in an hour
(presuming the player doesn’t take three
minutes to make every decision). ‘All-in
buttons’ have made their way onto a lot of
tables. These buttons really alleviate any
issue of whether players declared have
themselves all in or not. I’ve had a couple
of instances where a player said ‘I’m calling’
and I thought he said ‘I’m all in’. The ‘all-in
button’ clears that up.
TILLMAN: Dealing poker has changed so
much since I first started dealing almost ten
years ago. When I first started dealing cards,
tournament poker was just hitting the
mainstream. I mainly dealt cash games with
the occasional tournament during the week.
Now, I am mainly dealing tournaments
around the world as I follow major events.
I deal cash as well but it has almost become
the secondary part of the job instead of the
main focus. Rules have also become more
organized and evolved with the TDA setting
up an almost universal set of rules for the
games. This helps a lot.
Poker dealers are vital to our game, in
general. How do you feel players treat
dealers at the tables?
LYTLE: I feel that the dealer is the most
important person at the poker table at any
given time. If you as the dealer run a good
clean fair game, the players will treat you
with the respect you earned.
TILLMAN: Players in general treat the
dealers fairly well and most are friendly with
us, even though there are a few that want to
take out the frustrations of the game on
dealers. Through the years I have met plenty
2014 WSOP
A BIG DEAL
of players that I have become friends with
and enjoy seeing at various stops and
events. It is a fairly rare moment when
players treat the dealers with a lack of
respect or really treat them terribly. I mean
everyone has their bad times and players
and dealers are human, so there are times
where things seem much worse than they
are. For the most part though, players treat
dealers much better than when I started.
There is much more of a feeling of general
respect for each other and that is good to
have when both parties are spending so
much time with each other, day in and day
out at the events.
Talk to me about the favorite hand you
ever dealt…
LYTLE: When l dealt my first year at the
WSOP I was dealing a $25/50 NL game filled
,
with pros. One hand had the biggest pot I
had ever seen. About $85K was pushed to
Joe Hachem, who had won the Main Event
the previous year. He tossed me a black chip
and said ‘good job, mate’. The other player
quietly pulled two $10k bricks from his
backpack and said ‘chips please’!
HARRIS: One of the biggest hands I can
remember dealing was in the WSOP Big One
for One Drop event in 2012. The buy-in was
$1,000,000! The blinds were 300k/600k/75k
ante… Sam Trickett opened for 1.2m, Brian
Rast called on the button and Antonio
Esfandiari called from the big blind. The
flop came 4-3-8, all hearts. Esfandiari
checked, Trickett bet 1.8m, Rast called and
Esfandiari folded.
The turn was the 10s. Trickett bet out
3.8m and Rast called. The river card was the
3s. Trickett moved all-in, Rast snap-called.
Rast had Ah-Jh for the nut flush… Trickett
turned over pocket Threes for QUADS!
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