Dealer Training - What is important to them?

In a separate thread, it was mentioned that the dealers are the most important individuals in selling a new game to players. I agree whole heartedly with this statement.

My question is what are the important items the deal staff want/expect from a trainer teaching them a new game? What do they need from a trainer to have the necessary tools and motivation to make it easier and more enjoayable for them to get new players to sit down and try a new game? Particularly a game the players may never have seen before?

In your response, assume that you are holding a training session for your favorite carnival game (TCP, LIR, BJ Switch, EZ Pai Gow, etc.) Using whatever game you know best, what features/rules/options, etc. would you stress in training new dealers about that game that would motivate them to effectively "sell the game" to new players?

Past my bedtime. Believe I am qualified as I played the part of a player as Stacey Perry was demonstrating streak in Colorado, Plus have seen dealers kill 2 trials, Let it Ride and Digital 21. Hopefully there will other posts on this thread by players and casino personnel. This is the purpose of the forum and not the petty bickering I myself have been guilty of !!

Quote: Paradigm

In a separate thread, it was mentioned that the dealers are the most important individuals in selling a new game to players. I agree whole heartedly with this statement.

My question is what are the important items the deal staff want/expect from a trainer teaching them a new game? What do they need from a trainer to have the necessary tools and motivation to make it easier and more enjoyable for them to get new players to sit down and try a new game? Particularly a game the players may never have seen before?

In your response, assume that you are holding a training session for your favorite carnival game (TCP, LIR, BJ Switch, EZ Pai Gow, etc.) Using whatever game you know best, what features/rules/options, etc. would you stress in training new dealers about that game that would motivate them to effectively "sell the game" to new players?

1. A game trainer has to know how to deal himself. A non-dealer who's training gets spotted immediately (by a glance at his hands dealing the game) and gets taken less serious on the game's procedure requirements by staff, management, and fellow dealers, having never run a live game in a casino environment himself. It might not be fair. Plus a non-dealer "looks bad" dealing, and by extention make the game look sloppy if he's dealing it sloppily in a demo. The trainer has to train the base dealing procedure, and any exceptional problem cases or situations that may occur for the game, to handle all circumstances of the game.

2. A trainer has to be very engaging, personable, entheusiatic, and has to have an infectious appreciation of the game, in order to sell the game and himself to the dealers who'll be dealing the game for the first time to real casino patrons. Really, the dealers on a new game install sell the game to the casino's customers and public, and they have to be converts to the new game in attitude.

3. The supervisory staff and the management has to be behind the game 100% also, and not be made like to feel like "some piece of crap" was foisted upon them. Supervisors and management have to know and feel why the game is better, why it's faster, why it's easier to deal, why it's more desirable to customers, and why it'll bring 'em in to play it. This positive attitude will permeate the game's launch.

4. Artwork on the new tables have to be attractive, appropriate, and uncumbersome, in the sense it doesn't interfer or detract from the base game, and makes dealing it easy and logical, in addition for it to be easy to follow by surveillance.

5. Promotional "How-to-Play" cards supplied with the game must be present, where players can glance and see how the game is played in a moments review.

6. The dealers, in manegable groups that are on break, or had come in for training, are to be run through the dealer procedures on the actual game; the better dealers who adapt to it and "get it" should be the front-line dealers who'll intro the game when it goes live. This is where the game and its specific game rules and procedures are really taught.

7. Management and dealers report up the command about problems or quirks that would be needed to be addressed with the distributors' support crew. The support crew should be very sensitive concerning push-back dealers and floormen for problems that have clean fixes.
8. Dealers should have asked and been exposed to hard questions, even concerning shot-taking postures or game protection weaknesses and solutions, So they can respopnd with simple responses that satisfty the customers' answers on playing the game, and eliminate ignorance, apprehension, and complaints from the customers.

9. Tables should be open in the prominent and accessible areas of the pit, have reasonable light, table limits, hours of operation, and have knowledagle and engaging dealers assigned to these tables, showing the support that management has in the purchase of these new games for their introduction.

Basically, what the installing distributor really needs from the dealer trainers is:
1, A trainer who can really deal the game;
2. A trainer really knows the game;
3. A trainer who appeals to fellow dealers enought to connect with them to learn/teach the game well.
4. Does the trainer have a co-ordinated training schedule work out and ready to go?
5. Does the dealer trainer cause any "pushback:" is he late, sloppy, unknowledable, and if not, does he truly connect to the crews he has to convert for the new game.
6. Does the trainers' end dealers now deal the game impressively, comfortably, and with entheusiasm?
If so, you got a first-class trainer who brought first-class training sessions that brought your game fully up to speed on the new product, only then are the taught dealers ready to hit on the floor with live tables.

Dealers sell the new game. They have to know it as well as possible, and have support in the game so that it shows to customers who walk up and buy-in at the table how good it is.

These are the qualities a dealer training effort must have to be successful in installing a new game trial at a casino.

I imagine it must be difficult at times. The casino has a business to run and sometimes that means a floorperson has to schedule someone who is there rather than someone who has been trained or who would be good on a new game. The dealers probably look forward to a novel experience but don't want it to be so novel that they come across to the players as totally ignorant. Dealers want the rules and the practical matters including how to generate tips rather than having all white chips being sucked away to side bets.

Someone's future may ride on what happens during a gaming trial yet the dealers and floorpeople have other games they have to attend to also.

Hopefully Switch will find some time to reply as I am sure his experience is superior to mine, I sat in as a player while Stacey Perry of Mao gaming trained the dealers in Streak. I was not there when training was done for Let It Ride and Digital 21.
But I was at the tables on a daily basis during the 60-90 day trial period for all 3 games. If you look in Wiz's strategy for Let It Ride you will see the short time special rules for Let It Ride at the Isle,

Let me say that Streak was a great success, Let it Ride survived for a while, and Digital 21 suffered a slow and painful death. That being said, let's review Dan's great advice step by step.

1. A game trainer has to know how to deal himself. A non-dealer who's training gets spotted immediately (by a glance at his hands dealing the game) and gets taken less serious on the game's procedure requirements by staff, management, and fellow dealers, having never run a live game in a casino environment himself. It might not be fair. Plus a non-dealer "looks bad" dealing, and by extention make the game look sloppy if he's dealing it sloppily in a demo. The trainer has to train the base dealing procedure, and any exceptional problem cases or situations that may occur for the game, to handle all circumstances of the game.

It may indeed not be fair, but dealers respect someone who can actually deal versus someone telling them how to deal.
The smoother the trainer can make the game itself look the more the dealers are likely to be receptive to having to learn another game.

Quote: FleaStiff

Someone's future may ride on what happens during a gaming trial yet the dealers and floorpeople have other games they have to attend to also.

EXACTLY! - YOUR game's Field Trial - live or DIE - depends TOTALLY on the support that the casino operator gives your game, and how their front-line dealers deal and pitch your game.

Does the field trial casino:
1. Place your game in a good location?
2. Have appropriate table limits on your game?
3. Assign Pro dealers (who deal it correctly) to it?
4. Assign friendly, engaging dealers with "good attitudes" to it?
5. Keep it open during the right shifts?
6. Work with you and your distributor in fixing/handling all the quirks, questions, and bugs that become come up?

They'll have to do a lot of work to show off your game properly. Are they really behind you in your effort?

I feel a field trial of one table at one "luck of the draw" casino is a very poor sample measure of a game's true performance, especially when brand new, and meeting the public for the first time.

2. A trainer has to be very engaging, personable, enthusiatic, and has to have an infectious appreciation of the game, in order to sell the game and himself to the dealers who'll be dealing the game for the first time to real casino patrons. Really, the dealers on a new game install sell the game to the casino's customers and public, and they have to be converts to the new game in attitude.

3. The supervisory staff and the management has to be behind the game 100% also, and not be made like to feel like "some piece of crap" was foisted upon them. Supervisors and management have to know and feel why the game is better, why it's faster, why it's easier to deal, why it's more desirable to customers, and why it'll bring 'em in to play it. This positive attitude will permeate the game's launch.

Dealers and pit bosses can kill a game they do not like .And I do mean KILL. Not out of spite either. I am talking about friendly and open-minded people. But this is their livelihood and chosen profession. Most take pride in their dealing ability, inherent
knowledge of games they are dealing, ability to make a happy experience for the customer's etc.
That being said I saw Digital 21 decimated. Better explain why thew dealers hated it before how they killed it. The dealer has very little chance to react with the customers. No peeking at a face down card on a DD situation, no cut card to offer ( instead just asking a player to say when ) Merely pushing a button to deal the digital cards. This was in 2000 or thereby and this product was rushed to market in my opinion. The method to detect that a chip was in play ( used real chips, not credits ) was not as accurate as needed as occassionaly would not indicate a bet. That would affect more than just one player.
I was playing at a full table when first base placed a chip on the betting spot and it was not recorded. This was the first round out of a digital 2 card deck. The other 6 players got their cards as did the dealer. BJ FOR THE DEALER. And he was wrongly blamed for hitting the button too fast. Another problem was sometimes the machine would lock up or some minor detail would have to be corrected by the dealer. Guess who had the key needed to do that ?? Give you a hint. It was not the dealer !!
Another flaw was the screen reduced a split hand to 1/4 size for each of the split hands, In anticipation of splitting to 4 hands if needed. I was playing multiple hands and between glare and my less than perfect vision hated that feature. Enough to email the developer who was already aware that and it was in the works to just go half size, thirds, than quarter size if needed.
He agreed with my other complaint as to double down hands . No need to look at the card at all after the dealer was done. The red or green light that flashed to indicate win or lose triggered before your down card was exposed. He was against this also, but the final decision was not his. As to the key, he had proposed a limited entry switch being part of the final design, but was again over ruled . The trainer were supposed to ensure that training emphacized the need for the dealer to have the key at the table. I imagine management decided they had to have the key. I suppose that while the dealer waited for his boss to deliver the key he could entertain the players but doing magic tricks with the digital cards LOL
This post is getting long. Will follow up with how easy it is to KILL a new game. Intentionally or otherwise !!

Quote: FleaStiff

I imagine it must be difficult at times. The casino has a business to run and sometimes that means a floorperson has to schedule someone who is there rather than someone who has been trained or who would be good on a new game. The dealers probably look forward to a novel experience but don't want it to be so novel that they come across to the players as totally ignorant. Dealers want the rules and the practical matters including how to generate tips rather than having all white chips being sucked away to side bets.

Someone's future may ride on what happens during a gaming trial yet the dealers and floorpeople have other games they have to attend to also.

Dealers generally don't have a problem with white chips and side bets. What they have a problem with is games with red chip betting and no whites in play. Some customer's will break a red for white's but a lot of the tips come from white's being brought into play. Say a payoff at 3-2 for blackjack with a $5 bet.
DAN if you are reading this what is your feeling regarding pink chips used at $5 BJ tables. I dealt in Colorado with $5 min and max bet and players would save 2 pinks to make $5 bet versus at least toking the quarters. Hell, worse place for dealers in Central City was Annie Oakleys. 4 tables jammed in a loft with quarter and dollar slots lining the 4 walls. Players did not even have to get up. You could swivel the chair 180 degrees while dealer shuffled and playoff your BJ silver. GRRRR

Quote: buzzpaff

DAN if you are reading this what is your feeling regarding pink chips used at $5 BJ tables. I dealt in Colorado with $5 min and max bet and players would save 2 pinks to make $5 bet versus at least toking the quarters. Hell, worse place for dealers in Central City was Annie Oakleys. 4 tables jammed in a loft with quarter and dollar slots lining the 4 walls. Players did not even have to get up. You could swivel the chair 180 degrees while dealer shuffled and playoff your BJ silver. GRRRR

I liked them. I broke in at the River Palms in Laughlin dealing BJ with pink chips, and made for nickel take-down dealer tips on a pink toke bet. I like them - great - fantastic - for BJ table payouts ($7.50, $22.50, etc), but were messy on crap tables because of base dealers having too many working stacks and oddball bets. (a $7.50 Horn bet?, Naah). Wonderful for Nickel Blackjack tables.

Would also be great for "pink" three card poker tables, too, but we didn't do that.
Jokers Wild on Boulder Highway has a $2 Three card poker table, works just as well.

Edit: as a dealer, I hated the sh]t out of using silver slot tokens for dollars on a table.

Dan I am talking about a $5 minimum and max table

Thanks for the input PaigowDan, Buzzpath & others.

Emphasizing the reasons the game is different/better than other games on the floor and what it offers the players as it relates to the volatility choice of various bets was what I was thinking was most important. I have built in payoffs that get white/dolllar chips in the players hands to address the tipping opportunities as I believe that is really important as well.

But from your responses, I realize I am going to need to work on my understanding of the mechanics of dealing the game. The correct way to deal cards from the shoe, proper placement of chips on winning wagers, proper stacking of chips in multiple unit payouts, etc. Maybe a basic course at dealer school is in my future, since, unfortunately, I am not a trained dealer.

My inclination was to announce that at the start of training sessions and acknowledge that the deal staff have skills and training "beyond my pay grade". I have come to appreciate how tough it must be out there on the front line of the casino, rotating from game to game and being able to do it all smoothly. These are not skills you perfect without lots of practice and experience.

Hoping the fact that I acknowledge my dealing deficiencies at the start will be a good start towards a relationship of mutual respect.

Again, your input is valuable and I appreciate you sharing it with the board.

Quote: Paradigm

Thanks for the input PaigowDan, Buzzpath & others.

Emphasizing the reasons the game is different/better than other games on the floor and what it offers the players as it relates to the volatility choice of various bets was what I was thinking was most important. I have built in payoffs that get white/dolllar chips in the players hands to address the tipping opportunities as I believe that is really important as well.

But from your responses, I realize I am going to need to work on my understanding of the mechanics of dealing the game. The correct way to deal cards from the shoe, proper placement of chips on winning wagers, proper stacking of chips in multiple unit payouts, etc. Maybe a basic course at dealer school is in my future, since, unfortunately, I am not a trained dealer.

My inclination was to announce that at the start of training sessions and acknowledge that the deal staff have skills and training "beyond my pay grade". I have come to appreciate how tough it must be out there on the front line of the casino, rotating from game to game and being able to do it all smoothly. These are not skills you perfect without lots of practice and experience.

Hoping the fact that I acknowledge my dealing deficiencies at the start will be a good start towards a relationship of mutual respect.

Again, your input is valuable and I appreciate you sharing it with the board.

Dealers school will awaken you to the fact just how much skill is required and how much friendly and efficient dealers can add to a table's drop. Unfortunately as your game is trialed, you will discover most of the casino's decision makers are short sighted and only evaluate the games by the increase in drop. No value added points for attracting new customers, offering a new game to existing customers, etc. Just what what the drop in that new game ? Not concerned with steady increase in play, like ability by players, just the bottom line.
Don't make the mistake that game developers and distributors do all too often. After a 6 figure investment, they go cheap when the game is finally in the casino. Saw no reps at all on Digital 21 or Let It Ride once trial started till games were removed. Stacey Perry flew out from Mississippi 2 weeks after installation and a month after that. Set up buffet in dealer's break room and sought feedback. Streak had a great run in Colorado for about 10 years till limits were raised to $100.

Quote: buzzpaff

....[[W]hat is your feeling regarding pink chips used at $5 BJ tables?

What about paying 7-to-5 for a BJ? It adds only about half a percent HA, and leaves two whites to toke the dealer.

Quote: NowTheSerpent

Quote: buzzpaff

....[[W]hat is your feeling regarding pink chips used at $5 BJ tables?

What about paying 7-to-5 for a BJ? It adds only about half a percent HA, and leaves two whites to toke the dealer.

Adding a new fractional payout to a game will cause operational difficulties to the game. Dealers have a hard enough time not making errors, trying to deal perfectly, and handle shot takers and cranky floormen also. Surveillance will be annoyed. If 7:5 were added to the game, they'd argue "why not use 3:2 - almost the same." If someone bets $87 dollars and gets a blackjack at 7:5, the dealer will be stumped and annoyed (it pays 121.8 dollars, rounded down to $121 or $121.50 if half-dollar peices are used), and will trash the game to all players and casino management. $87 on a regular 3:2 BJ game pays 130.50, but easy to do: $80 of the bet pays $120, plus the extra $7 pays $10.50, so it's a $130.50 payout, boom, done).
When creating a new game, the options have to be easier and faster - not harder and slower, for the casino house to consider a new game.
On regular games, Players can throw in a nickel chip ($5) at any time, and be dropped 5 white chips in a second - to tip the waitress or dealer.

Quote: Paigowdan

Quote: NowTheSerpent

Quote: buzzpaff

....[[W]hat is your feeling regarding pink chips used at $5 BJ tables?

What about paying 7-to-5 for a BJ? It adds only about half a percent HA, and leaves two whites to toke the dealer.

Adding a new fractional payout to a game will cause operational difficulties to the game. Dealers have a hard enough time not making errors, trying to deal perfectly, and handle shot takers and cranky floormen also. Surveillance will be annoyed. If 7:5 were added to the game, they'd argue "why not use 3:2 - almost the same." If someone bets $87 dollars and gets a blackjack at 7:5, the dealer will be stumped and annoyed (it pays 121.8 dollars, rounded down to $121 or $121.50 if half-dollar peices are used), and will trash the game to all players and casino management. $87 on a regular 3:2 BJ game pays 130.50, but easy to do: $80 of the bet pays $120, plus the extra $7 pays $10.50, so it's a $130.50 payout, boom, done).
When creating a new game, the options have to be easier and faster - not harder and slower, for the casino house to consider a new game.
On regular games, Players can throw in a nickel chip ($5) at any time, and be dropped 5 white chips in a second - to tip the waitress or dealer.

I see what you're saying. I thought of 7-to-5 as 3-to-2 (for all even-dollar amounts) + 1-to-1 (for the odd extra dollar), so I just thought it would be easy to think of $87 as $80 + $6 + $1, which would pay $120 + $9 + $1 = $130. Bang. Zip. But I'll concede that that kind of efficiency is something that would only come with practice, patience, and experience, which the younger dealers might lack. At 6-to-5, $87 = $50 + $30 + $5 + $2, which pays $60 + $36 + $6 + $1 = $103. Either way, I'd hate to see the use of "pinks" be a gateway to degrading the efficiency of payouts at tables because of an acquired expectation by naive players for "small-change-remainder" payouts: "Where's my 17 cents?" Then there's the wit that thinks he'll "bet around" the HA: thinking $7 will pay $11 or something like that.

Quote: Paigowdan

Quote: NowTheSerpent

Quote: buzzpaff

....[[W]hat is your feeling regarding pink chips used at $5 BJ tables?

What about paying 7-to-5 for a BJ? It adds only about half a percent HA, and leaves two whites to toke the dealer.

Adding a new fractional payout to a game will cause operational difficulties to the game. Dealers have a hard enough time not making errors, trying to deal perfectly, and handle shot takers and cranky floormen also. Surveillance will be annoyed. If 7:5 were added to the game, they'd argue "why not use 3:2 - almost the same." If someone bets $87 dollars and gets a blackjack at 7:5, the dealer will be stumped and annoyed (it pays 121.8 dollars, rounded down to $121 or $121.50 if half-dollar peices are used), and will trash the game to all players and casino management. $87 on a regular 3:2 BJ game pays 130.50, but easy to do: $80 of the bet pays $120, plus the extra $7 pays $10.50, so it's a $130.50 payout, boom, done).
When creating a new game, the options have to be easier and faster - not harder and slower, for the casino house to consider a new game.
On regular games, Players can throw in a nickel chip ($5) at any time, and be dropped 5 white chips in a second - to tip the waitress or dealer.

I see what you're saying. I thought of 7-to-5 as 3-to-2 (for all even-dollar amounts) + 1-to-1 (for the odd extra dollar), so I just thought it would be easy to think of $87 as $80 + $6 + $1, which would pay $120 + $9 + $1 = $130. Bang. Zip. But I'll concede that that kind of efficiency is something that would only come with practice, patience, and experience, which the younger dealers might lack. At 6-to-5, $87 = $50 + $30 + $5 + $2, which pays $60 + $36 + $6 + $2 = $104, compared to the ideal $104.40. Either way, I'd hate to see the use of "pinks" be a gateway to degrading the efficiency of payouts at tables because of an acquired expectation by naive players for "small-change-remainder" payouts: "Where's my 40 cents?" Then there's the wit that thinks he'll "bet around" the HA: thinking $87 will pay $131 or something like that. Maybe in this area is where virtual B.J. "slots" are superior?

Casinos could always require that bets be made in $5 increments - $5, $10, $15 etc. The player would still receive pink chips or white for the 6/5 game, but couldn't bet them until they add up to $5.