Johnny Chan Academy: Casino Dealer School

Who’s Johnny Chan?

He’s a professional poker player, born in Guangzhou (Canton), China in 1957 and now living in Las Vegas, Nevada. His name in Traditional Chinese is 陳強尼. Yeah, I’m international like that.

He’s got 10 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, two WSOP championship titles (1987 and 1988) and founder of online casino ChanPoker.

What’s the Johnny Chan Academy about?

The classes teach subjects such as how to shuffle correctly, how to handle cheques (chips) in the right way, dealing the game, and proper casino procedures. They give you intimate knowledge of whatever game you choose (poker, blackjack, baccarat, etc), tips on how to be a professional when hairy situations arise (like crazy players), and assistance and knowledge on how to find a casino job.

Poker dealer training

The poker classes teach you Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and 7 Card Stud, how to fan the deck, rake procedures, table fees and using the table bank. It also teaches you how to regulate player betting procedures, and how to handle yourself in the dealer’s seat, plus the ever-important security issues you need to be aware of as a casino dealer.

Blackjack dealer training

Blackjack dealer classes teach you about the opening shuffle and wash, shuffling procedures, performing the strip, the lace, the roll, cutting the deck, burning cards, setting up the Blackjack Shoe, player’s wager placement, card deliver, doubling down, splitting hands, player breaks, hitting the dealer’s hand, clearing the layout, proper cheque cutting techniques, fast adding, taking and paying cheques, proper card reader procedures, Ten Value procedures, Ace procedure, Blackjack procedure, insurance, coloring in, conversions, dealer relief procedures, pacing the game, rack maintenance, opening and closing a table, folls, credits, markers, “No Mid-Shoe Entry” games, tokes, minimum and maximum bets, Super Sevens, and multi-action Blackjack. Yeah, that’s a lot. And that was a huge run-on sentence.

Baccarat dealer training

Looks like they forgot to write anything for this section. D’oh! Probably goes into valuation of hands, variances, etc.

Making the money

Supposedly you can make $40 dollars an hour in hourly salary through the Academy. They have “immediate openings for poker dealers in New York, West Virginia, Las Vegas, California, and Indiana casinos”.

I wonder how it’d be like to be a casino dealer for a day. Make some money, get involved in some games. Might be fun.

UPDATE: The Johnny Chan Academy is no longer operational. For poker tips, techniques, and strategies from Johnny Chan go to Chan Poker and then click on Poker School.