Ask Tangam: Does Rack Layout Affect Dealer Output?
Does Rack Layout Affect Dealer Output i.e. can having too many high denomination chips on a low limit table slow the game down?
This question may refer to either:
- Tray management while dealing the game (during the game's activity the quantities of chips increase/decrease at different speeds for each denomination).
- Rack denomination mix by design (what is the highest denomination contained on a specific table float)?
Let’s look at tray management while dealing the game first.
Dealers should be trained to make payments to the playing action of each player, providing payouts with an appropriate mix of denominations according to the players’ betting patterns.
When the float is depleted of low-value chips, the Dealer will try to preserve quantities and pay as much as possible with high-value chips. The effect will be that this increases the number of color changes between rounds and slows down the game, as players will continually ask for lower denominations to be able to bet on side bets, etc. This may also affect the overall House Edge in play as well. As the Dealer is trying to preserve the lower-value quantities and is paying with higher-value chips - this can influence some players to decrease their participation in side bets (for the player, the effort of constantly asking for color change might be perceived as greater than the potential reward).
When the float is significantly depleted of high-value chips (or not provided by design), the incidence of paying with low-value chips increases beyond the actual players' needs, and the table will experience too many fills. This will slow down the overall game-pace, due to frequent interruptions for the table fills.
However, the game pace can also be negatively affected by the over-zealous table Supervisor reacting to the fluctuations of chips quantities during play and ordering too many fills for the table during their shift. This is identifiable by frequent fills with low totals. The rack doesn't have to be 'neat' and 'optimal' at all times. The expertise of ordering the fills at the right time and for the right amounts/denominations can influence the overall game pace.
On the flip side, there may be the Supervisor not paying attention to the stacks in front of players when ordering fills (these chips should be considered as belonging to the rack, as will be either lost to the float, or colored-up as winnings). As a result, the Supervisor orders oversized fills, and often there is a need for a table credit shortly after a fill, halting the game again.
Rack denomination mix by design.
This is an opinion, and although some could debate it otherwise: it might be counterproductive to have the highest denomination in a rack at a value that exceeds the allowed Table Maximum for that table. For example, having by design a rack containing $1,000 denomination chips when the Table Maximum is $500. Avoiding denominations that are unplayable as a single bet for the table is preferable. This does not affect the game pace but can affect customer service and player behavior – as the high denomination chip not playable as a single bet on the table becomes just a cheque for a trip to the cash cage.
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Author(s)
With nearly 20 years of casino experience, Victor has worked at various Canadian casinos where he trained staff and managed both table games and slots operations. At Tangam, he helps clients all over the world implement data-driven management of table games spreads and pricing on the gaming floor to achieve their revenue management objectives. Victor holds an MBA from University of Newcastle, a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor Degree on History & Philosophy from the University of Bucharest.