Dealers in a major tournament in Las Vegas are using the slide dealing technique for the first time ever in a World Poker Tour (WPT) event that takes place in the United States.
The $5,000 WPT Venetian Las Vegas Fall Championship, a $2 million guaranteed tournament, runs from Nov. 5-10, with the final table livestreamed on PokerGO.
Players competing in the tournament at Venetian are already noticing a significant difference in how the cards are dealt.
Slide Dealing in a World Poker Tour Event
Dealers at Venetian last month were required to stop the traditional pitch technique in favor of slide dealing. No other card room on the Strip had ever used this method, which isn’t new to some casinos around the world. South Point, earlier this year, became the first poker room in town to start slide dealing.
With Venetian’s dealers trained, the current World Poker Tour event is using the slide dealing technique. So, what is slide dealing and what is its purpose?
Dealers slide the hole cards to players as opposed to the traditional method of tossing, or pitching, them around the table. The purpose of this method that is new to the US is to help prevent against cheating. If the cards are pitched carelessly, an observant player could sneak a peak at the cards while they are being dealt. But if the dealer slides the cards across the table, the bottom of the cards won’t be visible.
A recent World Poker Tour event in Sydney, Australia featured dealers using the slide dealing technique. By all accounts, dealing of the cards went smoothly and without complaints from players.
The WPT Venetian kicked off Thursday in Las Vegas. Cherish Andrews bagged the chip lead on Day 1a, which saw 103 players compete. Andrews is among 32 players who have already secured a bag for Day 2. Day 1b takes place on Friday at 11:15 a.m. local time, followed by the final opening flight on Saturday.
Las Vegas’ Venetian Poker Dealers Transition to Slide Dealing