The Venetian and WPT Introduce Slide Dealing to Tournament Tables

^{The WPT Fall Festival at the Venetian is the first U.S. World Poker Tour series to require “slide dealing.” With the method spreading, cards are being delivered out of sight by any tiny digital eyes. (Screenshots via World Poker Tour on Instagram)}

LAS VEGAS – As the WPT Venetian Fall Festival concludes this week, it has the distinction of being the first World Poker Tour series in the United States to make slide dealing the standard.

Running Oct. 28 through this Sunday, Nov. 15, the festival featured nearly $4 million in guaranteed prize pools, including a $2 million guarantee for its championship event. Overall, the series attracted hundreds of players to events with buyins ranging from $400 to $5,000.

Slide dealing has emerged as a point of debate within the poker community, with Las Vegas entering the conversation in August when the South Point poker room became the first in the city to adopt the practice. The Venetian followed suit in October, making it the first Strip property with slide dealing.

Casinos.com spoke with players, a poker vlogger and WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage about the switch, and they told us transition is proving effective, despite some pushback online.

“All reports have been positive from the players,” Savage said.

“Everything looked pretty smooth,” poker pro Jeremy Ausmus said, noting that Venetian dealers had been slide dealing for only a month. “I didn't see any cards flipped up or cards ever exposed at all. The dealing didn’t seem any slower.”

^{As WPT Executive Tour Director, Matt Savage had a front-row seat to the pros and cons of introducing slide dealing to tournament play. (Photo: World Poker Tour)}

New Sliding Technique Spreading

At the WPT Venetian tournaments, rather than “pitching” cards in the conventional method, the dealer slides each card face-down across the felt to the individual players, reducing risk of exposing cards.

Savage explained that all dealers were provided an apparatus made by a 3D printer to hold the deck.

“The only real negative feedback I’ve heard is from the dealers,” Savage said. “That is the hardest challenge because there are so many fantastic dealers in the industry and they pitch low.”

But he also acknowledges this is the future “for game integrity,” in a day when high-resolution cameras the size of a pinhole are capable of capturing information no one’s supposed to see.

“In the race against technology, slide dealing is just safer.”

— Matt Savage, World Poker Tour

The Venetian became the first American WPT stop to go to slide dealing because that’s the house policy for the host venue. He said he is not, however, expecting it at the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, which starts later this month and runs through Dec. 21.

Though Savage says when host properties are ready to change, the World Poker Tour will be ready.

Battle Against Cheating Technology

Brad Owen, WPT Ambassador and poker vlogger, says the threat of technology-enabled cheating is real. He recalled a story of a two-man operation that hit multiple locations.

Supposedly one of the players had a tiny concealed camera on the felt capable of seeing underneath the cards as they were dealt. Then an accomplice watched a real-time video feed and relayed the opponent’s hole cards back to the player at the table.

“A lot of dealers pitch cards way too high, making it easy to see opponents’ hands,” Owen said. “It’s become a large issue and I welcome any change that mitigates that possibility.”

Slide dealing, Owen said, “completely eliminates the ability for anyone to get away with that type of cheating.”

Ausmus concurred, saying, “there are lots of sloppy dealers in the States, so I think this is a really good idea to implement this, and I'd like to see it in more venues.”

Owen noted, however, that it’s impacted how he’s able to create his vlog at the tables.

“It’s caused me to have to change the way that I film,” Owen said. “Due to cheating [capabilities], new policies have been implemented at different properties to keep phones and other electronics off the felt.”

He said that if more places had slide dealing, this wouldn’t be necessary.

“I was pleasantly surprised that WPT implemented sliding,” Owen said. “I’m proud to be associated with an organization putting players first and progressing the game like that.”