Is dealing Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) hard?

F

FoBreeze

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Total posts
132
Chips
0
I recently had an interview for becoming a poker dealer and they asked if I knew anything about PLO. Well I've played it a few times and understand it, but I haven't played it a lot.

Do you think it's a hard thing to deal? I mean how often does someone actually bet the pot? Is seems like it would be hard to memorize all of those numbers in your head especially in the final betting rounds am I not correct?

Anyone have experience playing or dealing this game at a casino? Has there ever been instances where the dealer has to count out the pot to figure out what the max bet can be? If so, how often does that happen?

Thanks!
 
T

tsm26

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Total posts
53
Chips
0
ive been at tables that requested a switch to plo. a few of the dealers that rotated through admitted they weren't super familiar with it. the dealer really should always know what the pot is or be extremely close anyhow, youll be fine. play it some more and get use to how it rolls. theyll teach you what you dont know if youre hired. its a good job
 
F

FoBreeze

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Total posts
132
Chips
0
ive been at tables that requested a switch to plo. a few of the dealers that rotated through admitted they weren't super familiar with it. the dealer really should always know what the pot is or be extremely close anyhow, youll be fine. play it some more and get use to how it rolls. theyll teach you what you dont know if youre hired. its a good job

Dude your a dealer! lol can you give me all the information that you can't find on the internet like how much money they make?
 
blitzenfish

blitzenfish

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Total posts
383
Awards
1
Chips
1
I dealt it a dozen or so times last night at a HG. Stack the chips after every betting round is completed and knowing how much is in the pot is easy for everyone to see.
 
F

FoBreeze

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Total posts
132
Chips
0
I dealt it a dozen or so times last night at a HG. Stack the chips after every betting round is completed and knowing how much is in the pot is easy for everyone to see.

How much do you usually stack the chips? Stacks of 5s or 10s?

Where do you two deal? I really want to be a poker dealer. I have to wait patiently until the end of the month to get the yes or no. If I get the yes then I will be so happy. Otherwise, I'm not sure what to do because there's not many casinos that are close and the ones that are aren't always hiring… If you want to share how you became a dealer it would be very helpful..

Thanks for the info.
 
guicor30

guicor30

Visionary
Silver Level
Joined
Mar 16, 2013
Total posts
548
Chips
0
wow dealer.

that's something I do not like.

rather be the poker player.
 
P

PAYtheLEGEND

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
Feb 6, 2015
Total posts
18
Chips
0
would be easy if you knew the rules
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Total posts
8,586
Awards
1
Chips
1
Mechanically it's no different to dealing hold 'em - you just have to remember to give everyone all four cards. Sounds basic, but more than once I've been at a table where the dealer has rotated in from NLHE to PLO, dealt everyone just two cards then asked the UTG player what their action is :p

Tracking the size of the pot is obviously the biggest challenge, basically you just have to be sharp with your mental arithmetic.

Stacking the chips in the middle is something you could do, I guess... I think it looks awful, AND it's slow, but if the casino lets you get away with it then all power to you. But it won't save you from the hardest part, which is knowing what the pot / maximum is in the middle of a betting round.

It's all well and good to know that there was $100 in the pot at the start of the round. If the first player to act bets pot, easy, that's $100. But what if they bet $60, someone else calls and then a third player says "pot"? How much are they putting in? You can't just pull their chips into the middle and stack them up too, you need to be able to do it in your head and quickly.

A "stack" is 20 chips by the way. But the casino should teach you chip skills, as well as pot tracking (which you need for all cash games that take a percentage rake BTW, not just PLO)
 
dj11

dj11

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 9, 2006
Total posts
23,189
Awards
9
Chips
0
I sometimes play S8 at the casino, and it is normal for the dealer to be stacking the chips during the hand. Good dealers will minimize how that affects the flow. At showdown those efforts pay off with an easy split, and the next hand gets under way faster.

I would think stacking the chips in a PLO game would be considered normal. There is no easy way to eyeball a ragged pot to tell what a pot bet would be unless it is the first bet.
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Total posts
8,586
Awards
1
Chips
1
I sometimes play S8 at the casino, and it is normal for the dealer to be stacking the chips during the hand. Good dealers will minimize how that affects the flow. At showdown those efforts pay off with an easy split, and the next hand gets under way faster.

I would think stacking the chips in a PLO game would be considered normal. There is no easy way to eyeball a ragged pot to tell what a pot bet would be unless it is the first bet.

I kinda get it in a split pot game since you're going to be physically splitting the chips anyway on a lot of hands. You don't get as many split pots in PLO though so you're not saving that much time.

You're definitely wasting time if you need to physically count the chips in the pot and stack them up every time someone needs to know the pot size in PLO though. Now you're right, there's no easy way to eyeball a random pile of chips and know how much it adds up to. But the point is a good, well-trained casino dealer should already know in their head what the size of the pot is, based on the action.

Maybe we're just spoiled with better dealers than I thought here? :p
 
dj11

dj11

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 9, 2006
Total posts
23,189
Awards
9
Chips
0
Other than a HORSE tourney I played live, I have not played PLO live. I'm gonna guess that in Omaha games particularly PLO, that the (regular) players will have a much lesser tendency to splash their bet into the pot. They know that splashing = a hassle.

A dealers tendency to scoop bets into the pot might be counter productive in PLO, where a few extra motions to maintain the small bets in the small stacks that players usually put out stacked, would end up being a time saver.

It is also common that the collective alertness of the players at the table will come into play. Sometimes it confuses things but usually it clarifies things, like how much a pot bet is worth.
 
TheCol

TheCol

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Nov 30, 2011
Total posts
68
Chips
0
I have played PL Omaha at the local poker room and being the dealer would be a pretty tough job. The dealing part is really the easy part but when they have to keep up with the bets from everyone and still calculate the rake with the pot growing after each bet would just be pretty tough. Even in texas holdem its pretty impressive to see the dealers calcuate the rake for the casino like its nothing.
 
H

hffjd2000

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Total posts
2,329
Chips
0
Same rules about holdem. The difference is four cards and limit bet is the pot.

You can arrange the center chips or stack them up maybe by ten to make counts easier.
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Total posts
8,586
Awards
1
Chips
1
A dealers tendency to scoop bets into the pot might be counter productive in PLO, where a few extra motions to maintain the small bets in the small stacks that players usually put out stacked, would end up being a time saver.

...unless they're mentally keeping track of the pot size. Then stacking and restacking chips between betting rounds is a complete waste of time. Especially when the pot gets large, and you remember that they're supposed to be doing all of this stacking one-handed (because they deck stub isn't supposed to leave their other hand).

I know mentally tracking the pot size sounds really hard to the layperson, but for a good dealer it should be second nature. Most should be used to it for calculating rake in other non-pot limit games anyway. And mental arithmetic is a huge part of a dealer's job. Hell, if they've got other games as well like craps or roulette then tracking a hand of PLO mentally might even be easier.

But then like I said, maybe we're just spoiled here. The times I've played PLO live I don't think I've ever seen a dealer have to physically count or stack the chips to know how much is in the pot or what the max raise is. They just tell you the number, because it's already in their head.
 
F

FoBreeze

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Total posts
132
Chips
0
...unless they're mentally keeping track of the pot size. Then stacking and restacking chips between betting rounds is a complete waste of time. Especially when the pot gets large, and you remember that they're supposed to be doing all of this stacking one-handed (because they deck stub isn't supposed to leave their other hand).

I know mentally tracking the pot size sounds really hard to the layperson, but for a good dealer it should be second nature. Most should be used to it for calculating rake in other non-pot limit games anyway. And mental arithmetic is a huge part of a dealer's job. Hell, if they've got other games as well like craps or roulette then tracking a hand of PLO mentally might even be easier.

But then like I said, maybe we're just spoiled here. The times I've played PLO live I don't think I've ever seen a dealer have to physically count or stack the chips to know how much is in the pot or what the max raise is. They just tell you the number, because it's already in their head.

Where are you from? Are you a dealer? How do you know the industry so well?
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Total posts
8,586
Awards
1
Chips
1
Where are you from? Are you a dealer? How do you know the industry so well?

I'm from Australia and I'm a dealer, but not in a casino (I work for a company that does private / corporate poker functions). So my job is slightly easier than a casino dealer's because I don't have to calculate rake and I almost never have to deal anything other than NLHE (as a matter of pride I learned how to deal all the variants, but aside from the occasional Manilla game, all anyone wants is NLHE).

Aside from that I work with loads of current and former casino dealers. And like most of us I've spent plenty of hours playing in the local casino card room too :p
 
F

FoBreeze

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Total posts
132
Chips
0
I'm from Australia and I'm a dealer, but not in a casino (I work for a company that does private / corporate poker functions). So my job is slightly easier than a casino dealer's because I don't have to calculate rake and I almost never have to deal anything other than NLHE (as a matter of pride I learned how to deal all the variants, but aside from the occasional Manilla game, all anyone wants is NLHE).

Aside from that I work with loads of current and former casino dealers. And like most of us I've spent plenty of hours playing in the local casino card room too :p


How long have you done that? Have you thought about working for the casino as well? Are the casinos in Australia like the casinos here in America, where the dealers get tipped or do dealers not get tips there?
 
jayrock334

jayrock334

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 15, 2014
Total posts
87
Chips
0
dealing pot is pretty hard especially the police hahahahah
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Total posts
8,586
Awards
1
Chips
1
How long have you done that? Have you thought about working for the casino as well? Are the casinos in Australia like the casinos here in America, where the dealers get tipped or do dealers not get tips there?

I've been dealing in this role for about eight years (as a side job, then full time for the past three years). The hours can be difficult (lots of late nights and Saturdays) but it's a heap of fun, I work with good people, and it pays pretty well.

I've thought about working for the casino but never actually wanted to go through with it for all sorts of reasons:

- It pays OK, but not that well. And no, by law australian casino workers aren't allowed to take tips. There's a (valid, IMO) concern it could compromise the integrity of the game. We don't have a huge tipping culture here anyway.

- If you go to work for the casino, you get taught the games they need you to deal, not the ones you want to deal. I could want to be a poker dealer, but if they need baccarat dealers then that's what they're gonna teach you and that's what you'll have to deal. And I think I'd want to kill myself if I had to sit through even one night of idiots trying to make baccarat exciting by squeezing the cards...

- The hours are awful (say goodbye to your evenings and weekends), so are the conditions. They're constantly restructuring the place to do more with less people, and screwing the ones that are left.

- The punters are, in a lot of cases, also awful.

- And last but not least, if you work in the casino obviously you can't play there. And since there's only one casino in town... n'yeah, I'm happy right where I am thanks :)
 
Top