Can a dealer help and tell players their outs

Question

Skip to the very end for the actual questions, the long paragraphs are the specifics of the scenario.

During a hand 2 players went all in on the turn, hands were tabled and the players showed A-K of diamonds and 9-10 of clubs. the board reads Q-J-8-5 with 2 diamonds, a player says only a diamond can save the player with A-K and the dealer corrects them saying a 10 would also save him.

This caused a dispute on the table from a player claiming that the dealer was in the wrong for doing so, the dealer should just be turning cards and passing pots. The dealer mentioned there was no more action and didn't think that letting a player know more information about the hand without influencing action when the hand action is over was against any rules.

This is a small club which has regular customers but no poker pros who play there regularly. The managers and dealers are on first name terms with most customers and the competitions regularly have first time players for the small buy in tournaments who need some help from the dealers to follow casino specific rules. The dealer in question is on first name terms with most of the table and the player who didn't understand his outs was a new player who did not know the dealer. The game is in general very friendly and some allowances are occasionally made by the cardroom supervisor for genuine mistakes by players or misunderstandings.

Is the dealer in the wrong for letting a player know their outs or should they be silent when the action has finished? Are they allowed to mention outs during a hand or just show the winning hand and pass the pot when its over?

Thank you for your time, I can't find any specific rules on dealers.

Answer 1

In this specific case, my opinion is that the dealer didn't do anything wrong. Especially because there was no more action, but also because he was just trying to be helpful to the new player.

The rules for dealers are enforced by the floor, and if the player really had a problem with the dealer, calling the floor over would be the best course of action. Dealers normally do not break rules, especially if they can change the outcome of a hand because they will have to deal with the consequences (firing or other punishment).

The player causing the dispute could have been trying to get a cheap way to guarantee himself/herself the pot, but in general it seems odd to me that a player would have an issue with that.

Answer 2

The key factor in this case is that the betting is over and the hands have been tabled. Once you get to showdown "cards speak", and everyone at the table has an obligation to ensure that the correct hand wins. OK so the hand hasn't technically reached showdown yet but the principal still applies.

Answer 3

So technically the hand was over nothing the dealer did influenced the play of the hand so no big deal. Does not warrant disrupting the game for a floor decision, if the complaining player wants they should go talk to the floor away from the table.

The player who complained he seems to be a piece of work so to speak. Obviously he is not in charge of customer service at this place, nor should he be. He has had one bad beat to many and just can't stand the thought of all that easy money from a newbie in the game and all the work it takes. He would rather grind in nice predictable ways.

Having said that, and not being there so maybe I am off on this particular incident. It is not a good ideal generally for a dealer to be teaching players the finer points of poker at the table. I have a rule for myself is that I am not there to protect players from themselves. I think teaching poker to a player violates that rule.

Answer 4

I believe just an ego issue here. Nothing wrong with dealer telling the player, when there is no action left behind.

Answer 5

Usually the dealer can't really do much to help a player. It would be an incident if the dealer was actively helping a player in anyway.