The procedure of American-style dealing of poker cards is that the dealer holds the card deck in his hand and using his thumb and index finger takes the cards in a pinching grip at the front right corner. Starting from the topmost card, al cards are held in this fashion and thrown to the player by the dealer’s wrist motion. The way a dealer throws the cads to the players using his wrist is important as the cards are kept low to the surface of the game table so that none of the players can see what the underside face of the cards show. It will be observed that a dealer distributing the cards with his right hand may find it uncomfortable to follow this particular style while dealing cards to the player or sometimes two players seated immediately to his left. In this case, he may use a different hand motion during dealing.

When dealing in the European-style, the dealer only touches the top surface of the cards and pushes them from the deck to the game table just to his own front. Then the dealer pushes the cards to the individual players using a spinning motion.

In community card poker games, the dealer burns the top card by putting it on the discard pile since this particular card can be visible to the players during the preceding round of betting and using it in the game can give a dishonest player an undue advantage. Professional dealers are trained so that they turn the burn card(s) by holding the card deck low and the to-be discarded card(s) are kept level to the surface of the game table. This process prevents unintentional exposure of the burn cards to players by flashing. This turning of the cards method is also used to simultaneously deal the three flop cards during a community card poker game.

Before card dealing can begin, the poker card dealer needs to shuffle the cards so that the basic arrangement of the cards within the deck gets spread. The casino house has a specific guideline, following which the shuffling of cards is done. The first and foremost thing to do is spreading out all the cards in the deck on the game table and push them all around in an arbitrary manner. This action is termed the scrambling or washing of cards. Next the scrambled cards are all collected and stacked in the deck. A very common form of shuffling activity that often follows this is the sequence of riffle, riffle, box, riffle. In casinos, where professional dealers are involved, the shuffling cards, halved into two smaller card decks are kept low to the game table. The next stage in poker card dealing is the card cutting, though it is not essential in all variants of the game. If it is a part of the game’s rules, a cut card is put on the game table by the dealer who then cuts the card deck against the card. It is a common rule to place the cut card at the bottom of the card deck while the hand of play in progress which prevents the bottom card from being revealed to the participating players.

Casino dealers are given a minimum take-home pay by the house and so, it is not the regular salary that is the dealer’s primary income generating source but what he gets from the patrons as tips. This kind of income contributes considerably to a dealer’s earnings if he is quick and efficient, so such dealers are often chosen by the house to deal in games played for high limits and stakes.

There is a procedure before one can expect to be selected by a casino as a dealer. If someone has previous experience of dealing in poker games, then he may apply to be a part of a casino’s regular staff and he is generally required to undergo a four to six week long training course at a school teaching dealing in poker games. A dealer’s life is hectic and work hours are often long and he is required to be on duty on holidays as well when larger numbers of patrons turn up to play. A common problem faced by dealers during games when players become hot-tempered and violent, starting to abuse and being difficult to mange. Most large poker tournaments take on dealers on a temporary contract basis for the duration of the competition, which may run for a few days or a few weeks. Such dealers are generally required to bear their own cost of travel whereas room and board may be provided to them, depending on the tournament policy or the management’s discretion.

Interestingly in limit poker games, if several calling stations are playing together, some decisions taken by these players become less wrong by an effect called schooling. So, although it is not the right decision to draw when having an inside straight as the chance to make the draw is low and the action of calling bet does not seem profitable enough, if several calling stations are playing, the pot size will automatically build up and suddenly the decision to draw seems not that bad.

When rebuys are allowed in poker tournament, calling stations do not hesitate to call with les than decent hands in an attempt to make a better draw than the other players and make a chip profit. In case they lose, they have the option to play again by staking their fresh buy-in. Since this builds up chip stock on the game table and there is no risk of elimination, even veteran players sometimes use this tactics.

The only counter-strategy available for players pitted against a calling station is that they must not indulge in deception play and rather play aggressively when they have strong hands and take care not to go on betting when their hands are not too good.

So, when a player has put all his stock of chips in the pot, he is given the all-in button. If a player has left the table for sometime for some reason and misses paying the blind wager stipulated to him, then a button is placed before the stack of chips of the absent player and this is the missed blind button. The player has t pay his due blind immediately to enter the game again or wait till his turn to pay the blind comes by rotation.

The no player button signifies a player has gone away for a considerable period of time and the seat is lying vacant. Since a casino house dealer changes every 30 minutes, whenever a new dealer joins the table and the player is still absent, a fresh no player button is put before the seat. Some casino houses allow two or three such buttons to pile up, and if the absent player still does not return, the buttons are taken away and the place is given to a new player. The third man walking button is for that poker player who absents himself from the table at a time when two players are already not in their seats.

When a player has committed to return soon and left the table, his place is marked with the reserved button, so that no new player can join seeing the seat empty. If a player wants to change his position he can ask for a seat change button which gives him the priority to change his seat at the first opportunity to do so. The kill button, denoting the player to pay the kill blind, is unique as the two faces of the disc show the signs – ‘Kill’ and ‘No Kill’.