Top 10 Ways to Get on Your Dealer's Good Side

1. Don't crowd the dealer. Seats 1 and 10 border the dealer's work area. We can deal better, faster, and make fewer mistakes if we have room to see and maneuver. Spread out please!

2. Don't pick up any cards until both cards have been dealt. We don't constantly update the list in our heads of who at the table is in the game and who is not. The first round of cards we look at chip stacks, the second round we look for the first card. If you pick it up then you better not whine about misdeals.

3. Don't hide your chip stacks! Don't put your chips next to another player's chips. Your chips should always be up against the padding as close to you as possible but ON the table. No dirty stacks. Don't put your hands or anything else in front of your chips. They need to be clearly visible and countable to all the players and to the dealer.

4. Keep your cards on the table and don't block the dealer's line of vision to your cards. If you do, we just might skip you. Even if we don't skip you it's a royal pain the butt to have to remember who may be hiding their cards and have to constantly make an extra effort to look for them for every round of betting. Sitting next to the dealer also increases the odds of us not seeing your cards because objects you have on the table are closer and take up a higher percentage of our field of vision.

5. Don't move or hide the dealer button. Players moving the button throws off our rhythm and causes confusion.

6. Pay attention! When we have to tell you to put your blinds out 5 times and you still don't do it, then we have to reach over and put your blinds out FOR you, and then you still take them back and we have to put them out again, and then we are completing the first round of betting and you fold because you STILL don't realize you are a blind, and then you get mad at us because we didn't tell you even though we told you over and over again... Yeah, don't do that.

7. Realize that we are not choosing your cards. We are not out to get you and even if we were we still are not choosing what cards come out. Stop blaming us for your bad luck. We hate that! Don't blame us for your failure to make good decisions either. 90% of the time when players complain about bad luck it was actually a bad decision on their part. Don't blame the dealer for your failure to pay attention to the game. You lost with 3-of-a-kind? That sucks, but how did you not see the straight draw and flush draw on the board? How is it our fault that it never occurred to you that one of the 3 players who raised before you might have something better than your 3-of-a-kind?

8. When you flip your cards flip them in front of you. Don't put them in the middle of the board or keep moving them around. We go by process of elimination to determine the winner. Once we determine the winning hand we then determine who it belongs to. If you flip your cards in the wrong spot then don't be surprised when your chips go to someone else.

9. The muck pile is off-limits to everyone. No one should ever look at folded cards, not even dealers. The one time dealers may make an exception is for teaching purposes for new players.

10. Don't be a habitual tanker. Be ready to act when it is your turn. You don't have to take a long time unless it's big decision. It's not a big decision every time it's your turn to act. This is called tanking and it is extremely poor poker etiquette. Most of the time you should already know what you are going to do, so just do it already.