Time Management Skills

How you manage your time while dealing on the game could determine whether your toke count goes up or down. That topic is next on the list, which is step number 10, Time Management Skills. I realize that I spent half of this lecture, telling you that you need to spend time interacting with the customer, but on top of that I’m asking you to keep your hands per hour up. Which means keep the game moving at a fast pace while still talking to the player.

Getting your hands per hour up doesn’t necessarily mean dealing faster, because this can lead to sloppiness and mistakes. It’s the dealer’s job to deal as many accurate hands per hour as they’re capable of. Sometimes this can be a challenge when you have slow, old grumpy men at the table. But look on the bright side, at least the next time you’re at a friend’s party, you can tell people your work challenges you and it’s definitely not a boring cubicle job. If you do have slow people on your table, then first use body language to move them along. I would hold my hand out, palm open and facing upward and pointing right at their bet. I would also try to grab their attention with eye contact and a quick nod towards their hand. If the player is still confused, because let’s face it, we give them alcohol; then I would say, “Sir, it’s your turn” or “What would you like to do, sir”. This usually keeps the game moving. If you’re able to achieve a high amount of hands per hour, while still connecting with the guests, then you’ll see a noticeable increase in your tokes. What are some things that you guys do to keep the game moving while still being friendly?

Another dealing procedure that can increase your tokes is shuffling. I explained how dealing more hands per hour also gets you more tokes per hour. Well, you’re not getting any tokes if your shuffling at a snail’s pace. Work on getting your shuffling speed up and this will increase your toke numbers. If you need to, you can practice at home on an ironing board while watching TV.

Dealers are just another cog in the machine and everyone has to be on time in order for it to work like a well-greased machine. That’s why it’s important for dealers to be punctual and dependable; not only getting to work on time, but arriving back from break on time as well.

The last Time Management Skill we’re going to talk about is answering the customer in a timely manner. Usually the reason why we’re late getting back from our break is because a player stopped us with a question. So let’s talk about how to answer that question quickly, so that you can still be on time. If you know the answer, then you can quickly tell the guest, point them in the right direction and be on your way. Don’t sit there and engage in small talk. If the guest has a million questions or they just have the personality where they can talk for 3 hours without stopping, then direct them to the security booth. If the guest asks a question and you don’t know the answer to it, then direct them to the closest floorman. The reason why employees take so much time answering questions is because if they don’t know the answer to that question. Instead of finding someone who does, they’ll sit there for 5 mins trying to think of an answer, second guessing themselves and in the end the guest is more confused than they were to begin with. We can save a lot of time if we just direct the guest to someone who knows the answer.