How to Deal Poker – Deal Texas Hold’Em Like a Pro

When learning how to deal poker, you need to memorize the rules of the game before getting started.

Once you’ve got to grips with how to play poker you’ll need to know basic dealing methods and techniques. After that, you’ll be ready to deal poker hands at just about any game in the country.

The Job of the Poker Dealer

Whether you’re at a casino or a casual home game, the dealer’s main job is to run a clean and fair game. They ensure that the game runs as smoothly as possible, they are accountable for the action, and they make sure that chips are counted and paid out correctly.

Dealing Texas Hold’em

Shuffling

No matter what, unless you are using an automatic shuffler, you must shuffle the cards between each and every hand. Each casino will have specific guidelines as to how to properly shuffle the cards, something you will have to practice until you get it perfect before you start dealing.

Before a game starts and with every dealer change, a dealer must do a complete wash shuffle. This means the dealer must fan out the cards and ensure that there are 52 cards in the deck.

You must count the number of cards before you start your dealing responsibilities. Then you scramble the deck all over the table and “wash” them around for a while before organizing them back into the deck.

Then you properly shuffle the deck and then get ready to distribute the cards.

Distributing Cards

When learning how to deal Texas Hold’em poker, you need to first ensure that the button, a marker used to indicate the player who is dealing, is where it’s supposed to be.

Make sure the appropriate players put up their blinds and/or antes, if applicable.

After that, following the shuffle, make sure that the bottom card is completely covered by a cut card or your hand, whatever method the casino approves of.

You then pitch a card to the first player to the left of the dealer button and then pitch cards, one at a time, clockwise, until each player has two hole cards.

Give a nod to the player to the left of the big blind, as they will be the first player to act. During the betting round, collect all of the mucked cards immediately, acknowledge everyone’s actions, distribute change if necessary, and then deal the flop.

On all future streets, action will start with the first player to the left of the button. Always acknowledge whose turn it is and ensure that nobody acts out of turn.

Burn & Turn

When dealing the flop, you must tap the table and then “burn” the first card. This means you place it face down in a separate, discard pile. This is an anti-cheating measure that benefits everyone at the table and protects both the dealer and the casino.

After you burn, you immediately take the top three cards from the deck, put them face down in an organized manner, and then flip them over, showing the first card and sliding the rest to reveal the other two community cards all in one smooth motion.

After the next round of betting, you burn a second card and deal the fourth card, called the turn. Another round of betting ensues and then you burn a third and final card and deal the fifth street, called the river.

Keep Track of Bets & Monitor the Pot

If a player is the first person to bet, then a single chip without verbalizing their action is the size of their bet. When a player wants to make a raise without verbally announcing their bet, placing one chip of any denomination is considered to be a call.

If they use multiple chips without being vocal about their bet, then their raise is the exact amount of the chips that they put in front of them unless the amount of those chips are less than half of a legal raise (otherwise, it’s a call).

Should the player verbalize their raise before putting out any chips, then that raise is binding regardless of the amount of chips that they put out.

It’s a dealer’s responsibility to know what the current bet is and to make it clear using their voice for each player who requests the information.

Some dealers will tell each player what the action is, when it is their turn, while others will only verbalize the action when the bet and/or raise is made. A dealer must be vocal about the size of the bet/raise in order for the rest of the table to know this information.

It is also the dealer’s responsibility to distribute accurate change for every player when the betting round is over.

If there is not enough change in the pot, then they will have to take a chip from the pot and get change from a player with plenty of the smaller chips in order to make change quickly and efficiently.

Finally, it is important that the dealer protects the pot. While this is usually not something that will worry a dealer, they must still ensure that players keep their hands out of the pot and that players do not “splash” the pot.

Only dealers can physically take chips in and out of the pot, don’t be fooled by what you sometimes see even in the best poker movies which can include incorrect cliches.

Determine the Winner and Pay

If all but one player folds, you take the chips that are in the pot and push them to that player.

If there are multiple players still in the pot after the river betting round, then you must determine who has the best five-card hand based on the poker hand rankings table and pay that player.

Of course, if multiple players have the same best five-card hand, then you have to bring all the chips into the middle and split the pot in half, giving one half to each player. Should there be an odd number of chips, then the out-of-position player (the first player to act) is awarded the extra chip.

Different Dealing Rules for Poker Variations

How to Deal Omaha

Dealing Omaha poker and Texas Hold’em is virtually identical except that you have to deal four-hole cards to each player instead of two. The other huge difference is that the large majority of Omaha games are of the Pot-Limit variety, meaning that players can only bet or raise up to the size of the pot.

When it comes to the maximum size of a raise, it is equal to what’s in the pot plus the amount you had theoretically called. For example, if you’re playing with 100/200 blinds and face a call and a raise to 700, the maximum amount you can raise is 1,900 (100+200+200+700+700).

You’ll need to know how to play Omaha poker, before you can deal this type of game.

How to Deal Three-Card Poker

Three-Card Poker is different from Texas Hold’em and Omaha Hold’em games because it is a table game, where the players play against the house. Three-Card Poker also ranks poker hands differently, with a straight beating a flush.

You can get clued up on specific winning hands with our poker cheat sheet, which explains all you need to know.

Players must place their wagers prior to the cards being dealt. Pair Plus and Ante wagers are separate wagers and it’s correct poker etiquette to ask the player whether they would like to bet both before they play their first hand.

Starting from left to right, the dealer will deal the top three cards off the shoe and distribute them to each player before dealing themselves three cards face down.

Then players will decide whether to continue or fold. Should they continue, they must make the Play wager, which is making another bet equal to the ante wager. If a player only has bet the Pair Plus wager, then they cannot fold and do not require any additional action.

Once wagers have been completed, then the dealer will collect all forfeited wagers and cards before revealing the dealer’s three cards.

The dealer will announce the hand and whether or not they “qualify”, which occurs only when the dealer has at least queen-high. Should the dealer not qualify, then the Play wager is not paid out.

The dealer will then, starting with the player to their immediate right, reveal the players’ cards and pay according to the pay table, which will be located on the table itself.

The ante wager and the play wager are always paid at 1:1 while the Ante Bonus and the Pair Plus bets are based on a sliding scale. The Ante Bonus and Pair Plus bet is always paid, whether or not the player wins the hand.

The dealer will pay players their Play bet first, their Ante wager second, and, if applicable, their Pair Plus bet third. They do so by placing the winning chips next to the wagered chips.

Once all players have been paid out, the dealer will gather the cards, put them in the shuffler, and deal the next hand after allowing ample time for players to wager again.

Poker Dealing Jargon Explained

Dealing poker not only requires skill, concentration and understanding of rules, but also getting to know poker terms that are regularly used. Here, we’ve explained some of the most common terms you might come across.

Where to Play Poker Games

While a casino or your local poker room is going to be your best bet, you can either get with your friends or make new ones and head to a home game.

While home games may have little-to-no rake, they do not have security measures and may be illegal, depending on where you go. So make sure that you’re playing with people that you trust, preferably in a legal jurisdiction or at the best online poker sites in the US.

How to Play at a Casino

Depending on what type you want to play, you’re going to have a couple different options. If there is a poker tournament available at your casino, you will have to go to the tournament cashier, show your ID and/or casino card, and pay the entry fee.

You will be able to do this anytime before the tournament up until the end of late registration.

If you want to play a cash game, you either can go up to the designated area and put your name on the list or, if the casino is on the emptier side, you can walk right up to the table.

Some casinos allow you to buy chips directly from the dealer at the table, while others will require you to buy from “the cage”. Ask a floorperson what the protocol is before you sit down to play.

Alternatively, you can always play online with the best offshore poker sites available to players in the US.

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