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The 57th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) is just a fortnight away, and ahead of the kick-off, the WSOP have announced a new innovation designed to reward the best dealers.
A massive $100,000 has been allocated to a new dealer reward system, with top rated dealers in every single bracelet event winning $500. In each of the 100 WSOP bracelet events, the dealers who are rated first, second and third will earn $500, $300 and $200 respectively.
Across the seven weeks of WSOP action, hundreds of dealers will work long hours in demanding conditions in an attempt to make the poker action flow smoothly, diffuse any tensions at the table, and protect players from pitfalls, the rules, and sometimes even themselves.
The WSOP have decided that the best people to rate the dealers are players, and via the WSOP+ app, those who pay to play at the felt will be able to score their dealer.
Is it a good idea? We canvassed the opinion of some of the players who’ll be at the felt.
Will Players Just React to Bad Beats?
Before we go any further, check out the official announcement made by Jeff Platt as the WSOP’s newest permanent addition broke down how the innovation will work on X.
Many players looked at the star-rating idea as flawed because they assumed that players would be negative about losing to bad beats. On the surface, this theory has legs.
After all, we’ve all been at the poker table when a player has taken out their bad beat – or more often bad play – on the person dealing the cards. This is, of course, completely unfair and logically flawed. All the dealer did was… well, deal.
The balancing out of bad beats is not perfect, after all, it’s not just players who will walk into Las Vegas dreaming of a stellar seven weeks where they get dealt the best cards. Dealers themselves don’t want to be known as the Grim Reaper of the felt – something Jeff Platt knows all about.
However, over time, the bad beats should become more evenly spread, bringing down the power of the bad beat. Bob Mather was one player who believed the new rate the dealer function won’t be a disaster.
Table talk is brutal. Online comments are savage. “Players will just 1-star dealers after every bad beat.” I get the fear…Iif they acted on ratings hourly or daily, it would be toxic. But over a full week or the entire six-week series? They will be statistically insignificant. One tilted 1-star gets buried under hundreds of real ratings.
According to Mather, that data would then become powerful enough to achieve what it set out to do, i.e., reward the best dealers with bonuses and the best tables to deal to. In theory, the best dealer should end up dealing the final hand of the WSOP Main Event. Mather believes that the business model makes logical sense.
Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb made this model work, he goes on. WSOP is finally doing the same. Dealers already grind the hardest job in poker. I’m all for anything that recognizes the great ones and improves live poker for all of us.
Another two-time WSOP bracelet winner wanted to remain anonymous with us but largely agreed.
I think it’s overall a good idea with the caveat that I hope there’s a requirement to add notes and that the system doesn’t get abused. Overall, I’m a fan of data in general and the more data the better.
Could Ratings Lead to ‘Lack of Empathy’?
One player who knows all about the WSOP at a stressful time for dealers is David Lappin. The PokerStars Team Pro was famously snapped looking casual while all around lay madness on the bubble of the WSOP Main Event a few years ago. It turns out that the Irishman is not keen on the app’s dealer-rating function.
I have a lot of issues with the ratings system that WSOP have proposed. Dealers should be assessed by floor staff. At a push, choosing a group of trusted players within the community to anonymously rate dealers would provide better quality feedback. Mostly, though, I just loathe ratings systems.
Lappin’s issue isn’t solely that players will be in control as a power group over the dealers’ ability to possibly receive financial bonuses or deal the best events.
It is well established that the act of rating others leads to a decrease in empathy, as users focus on the score rather than the person behind it, he says. It is dehumanizing, and long-term, I think that fosters a more combative and hostile environment with people more comfortable with being punitive.
Certainly, the idea of rating systems can pose problems. Could more likable dealers be rated above those whose skills at the felt are more competent? It’s a possibility, just as with any system.
The TV writer and former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Matt Salsberg considers the idea to have its flaws in this regard.
This seems particularly insane to me and actually cruel, he wrote on X. Dealer makes a blunder, eight people whip their phone out, shaming/embarrassing someone already very stressed. This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard, unless we get to rate their body and face too, then I’m OK with it.
The Proof Will Come This Summer
While player feedback has generally been slightly against the innovation, interaction with those who will come to the WSOP and put thousands of dollars down in the name of fighting for a bracelet is clearly important to the oldest and largest brand in poker.
Dylan Linde, who found himself at the heart of a recent controversial subject in poker, namely the repayment of debts owed to him by David Peters, is not a fan and raised it in the comments online.
Honestly seems like a cruel idea. So many new dealers and so many unkind players.
Jeff Platt jumped back into the conversation to explain his personal feelings on the matter.
I get that. I think it’s designed more to elevate the good dealers (since we know so many low ratings can be more emotionally influenced).
I hope so, Linde replied. The problem I see is that it’ll turn out like rating a dentist. People expect proficiency and only circle back to leave negative feedback. Let’s be real. The prevailing issue with WSOP has never been the worst [dealers] getting fired, it’s the best quitting due to work conditions [or] compensation.
While many other players felt this way, not everyone did. YouTube and cash game star Johnnie Moreno said he was ‘surprised at all the backlash’.
I look at it like the Uber rating system. Seems fine. Reward dealers who consistently receive great feedback. Feels like a nice innovation.
Whether the dealer rating system is a positive or a negative remains to be seen, with the World Series of Poker kicking off in a fortnight’s time in Las Vegas.
However the new innovation goes, we’re bound to see more of it as the action begins at the felt on May 26th. Just remember, if you’re at the tables at the 57th annual WSOP, and you get one-outed on the river… it wasn’t the dealer’s fault.
