07-18-06, LearnTexasHoldem:
Home Dealer Question
I have a couple of questions about home game dealing, I know you give tips on mostly how the play, but if you have time to answer this question on dealing it would be appreciated. Every week I have a game at my house with a bunch of friends playing .50/1.00 NL Holdem. We used to pass around the deck and have everyone deal and use the deck as the "dealer" button, but it was getting too hard because many of them are not the best dealers so I started dealing every hand and we used a real dealer button. I also played in the game, but everyone agreed that it was best if I dealt ever hand because I was quick, fair, and dealt well. I have had my share of mis deals or improper flops, but I have tried to make it as smooth as possible. First off I was wondering what is the best way to shuffle for a home game. I just do a standard bridge shuffle a couple times. I have read 7 times makes it total randomized, but on TV they just take all the cards and move them around with their hands on the table until it is randomized. Next, sometimes we have a problem with people folding because we do not know if they are in or out. Where is the standard place to put fold cards when you have a full table of 10 (table is a real felt one). Third, are people allowed to fold out of turn. People do this all the time and I think that since its a home game its different then a real game and I dont wanna make it un fun, but sometimes folding out of turn can change peoples decisions preflop. Any other tips on home game dealing also would help.
Matt
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1. The standard way to deal is to first scramble the cards. A scramble is when you place the cards face down on the table and swirl them around with both hands. Then the deck is shuffled twice. Then the dealer moves part of the middle of the deck to the top of the deck a few times (another type of shuffle technique). Then the deck is shuffled once more and cut and the cards are dealt. You don't have to do it this way, but I think this ensures randomness.
The only thing I would be worried about in home shuffling is shuffling the deck two or three times in a row without any other shuffling technique in between. Think about what happens if you do a perfect shuffle twice in a row -- the cards would be close to where they originally were. The reason the dealer scrambles the deck is to prevent what is called "lacing."
A laced deck is one in which the previous hand's cards are in close locale throughout the deck; this is why in auto-shufflers at cardrooms, the dealer is supposed to do a little scrambling before the cards go in the machine; otherwise all the mucked cards are in one area and all the flop and player cards are in another.
2. People folding out-of-turn is a serious problem -- more so than the deck not being shuffled right, since that doesn't favor anyone. You gotta make sure in your game that people know they can't just throw their cards away whenever they like. You hit the nail on the head why this is a problem: it can change the way hands are played if you know how players behind you are going to act.
Let me give you an example of how this affects the game. At middle and upper limits, the standard way to look at your cards is in turn. You do this because you want to see what players before you are doing and also because you don't want to give away any info when they are acting. Everyday though, I see players behind me get bored and they don't wait to look at their hands; this gives me a big edge. I intentionally wait a second and look out of the corner of my eye to see what their reactions are. Are they about to fold? A sure sign of folding is if they are holding their hand off the table (even and inch) and the cards are horizontal with their chips -- a fold posture. Notice how this information improves my position.
Often times a hand may be a playable hand if you had the button, but with three players behind you, you can't know whether they will all fold. By them not acting in turn now I have enough information to turn a marginal hand into a raising one. Note: this isn't "acting of of turn" really, but the effect on the game is the same, just to a lesser extent. Now obviously your game isn't this tough. Instead, you are more worried about people literally just throwing their hands away.
I would make it clear to everyone that they must act in turn. If they don't act in turn, they first get a warning, then they have to take a timed penalty break (15 minutes).
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