Hey folks, let's be nice to our dealers

I found myself playing Omaha Hi/Lo at a local card room this week, and as any of you who have played Omaha Hi/Lo know, there's never just one dealer per table - there's always 11.

Once the cards are turned over, the barking begins like market traders haggling over the price of frozen orange juice concentrate. Screams of "Lock low!," "He has hearts!," "Two lows, one high!" bellow from all corners of the table (if you can work in a "live deuce!" shout you make the short list for Backseat Omaha Dealer of the Year). All of this insanity carries on while the poor dealer - the only one who should be making such declarations - struggles to separate fact from fiction, and then swallows a bottle of Tums as he prepares for the eventual "Why don't I have a low?!?!" cries from those who really, really should pick a far simpler game in which to lose the Social Security check.

All of this brings me back to my experience this week, when I found myself feeling really bad for a very nice dealer who obviously struggles to understand the complexities of Omaha Hi/Lo. I certainly don't fault him - there are few games more difficult to deal, especially if you don't play it often. His only knock was that he took his time, followed his training and eventually figured it all out, even if it wasn't on the timetable of the players in the hand.

So I pose this question: What dealer would you most like to have at your Omaha Hi/Lo table? The one who quickly dispatches with awarding the pot, and in his haste may overlook the true winner, or the one who painstakingly considers all four cards from all seven or so players and arrives at the correct determination?

I know which one I'm choosing.

- SCOTT

Comments

[Erik]

I'll take the one who takes his time and figures out the pot correctly. It's not a tournament, take all the time you need to get it right.

[gadzooks64]

Absolutely I want the one that gets it right in the long run. Period.

[Ron]

I'll take the guy who takes his time & gets it right, but he better not be dealing on a table with a timed rake.

[Zerkaboid]

I'd say it depends on what kind of rake you have. If you're in a reasonable poker room that takes the rake from the pot, I'd say I want the dealer who meticulously figures out the proper hands every time. But, if I'm being charged $5 every 30 minutes, it may be worth it to have a quick and dirty dealer.

[Clever Moniker]

I fail to see why it boils down to these two choices. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a min level of proficiency in a dealer.

[Chi-Guy]

I'd be shocked if anyone wanted a dealer who made mistakes, especially after my last run in Vegas. This is exactly why I doubt I will play Omaha hi/lo in a live casino any more. Yes, there are alot of fish who have no idea of how to play the game and are willing to give away alot of money very very quickly if they don't understand the game...... I agree.

However, a several things can happen. Those bad players can cost you money in the short run, if they are quartered with you and they don't understand it. I got 1/6th this last weekend because two idiots couldn't slow down. I lost of huge piece of my stack there and I'm not good enough to lay down my nut high when I know three of us have Broadway.

Second, playing good Omaha requires even more patience than Hold 'em. There are very few quality starting hands, relative to Hold 'em. So you should be waiting longer to enter pots. Third, since you are waiting longer to enter pots, and each hand takes forever, you are really waiting a long time. I played for three hours last weekend and I had 4 quality starting hands, I got 1/6th-ed once, got 1/4ed once, split one pot for a win of $12, took one bad beat on the river and then the game broke apart.

Be kind to the dealers. They will work quicker if you shut up. I can play on-line. Those dealers rarely mess up and it takes less that 20 minutes for each hand. It is easier to be patient. In the long run, I know I could win in Omaha. Problem is that the long run could take more than a weekend. Gimme two cards and let me splash around with different fish.

BRF

[Mike F.]

I have yet to sit in an O8B game anywhere -- Vegas, AC, Tunica, St. Pete, Foxwoods -- where there wasn't at least a couple disputed hands per hour. Everybody is an "expert." I will confess that the concept of a "live" deuce (or whatever) eludes me. I have to count down from high to low manually to determine my low hand. The problems always arise when someone has, say, four low cards and two of them are counterfeited, and someone else has two lows cards and neither of them are counterfeited, and there are, say, four low cards on the board. NIGHT MARE. Oh sure, I know if I'm holding A3 I need a deuce to fall to make the nuts, but after that it's iffy. LET'S PLAY RAZZ!

[Blazman]

The best dealers always know what both nuts are, it make figuring out the winners much easier. They also stack the chips in even stacks as the hand is being played. Unfortunately most of them dont do either and just hope that the players tell them what to do, sounds like this "create 2 stacks, not take that stack, no not that one, yeah that one, and split that into 3 equal stacks. Followed by the dealer breaking the whole pot into 3, and everyone saying no no no..

-Blaz

[daedalus]

I pick the dealer that's not dealing PLO8. Imagine how slow that would be adding on the 'pot' computation to every street.

O8 is a slow enough game, but with slow dealers I agree I'd be thinking of how much timed rake I'm losing.