Guides · At the table
Almost every home game deals for itself, and almost every home game has had the same argument: whose blind was it, and did the button move?
Rotating deal, or one dealer?
Rotating is the norm and it is free. Each player deals their own button. It is slower, hands get misdealt more often, and the person dealing is also playing — which is fine, and is how most games run forever.
A dedicated dealer makes the game noticeably faster and cleaner. Worth considering if someone is happy to sit out, if you are running a bigger tournament, or if your group has drifted towards more serious play. The cost is one seat.
If you rotate, one person should still be the agreed authority on rulings. Dealing and deciding are different jobs, and the list of house rules should say who does the second.
How the button actually moves
The dealer button moves one seat clockwise after every hand, without exception, whether or not that player is still in the game.
The small blind is immediately to its left, the big blind after that. Betting starts to the left of the big blind before the flop, and to the left of the button afterwards. Once the button is right, everything else places itself.
Use a physical button. A poker chip or a coin is enough. Nearly every “whose blind is it?” argument is a game where the button lives in somebody's memory.
When a player leaves mid-game
Move the button as if they were still sitting there. Skipping a seat shifts the blinds onto someone twice and they will notice.
A player joining should either wait for the big blind to reach them or post it to come in immediately — agree which, once, in advance. More on seating a late arrival here.
The small things that go wrong
- Dealing before the blinds are in. Post first, deal second.
- A card exposed while dealing. Standard practice: the exposed card is replaced and becomes the burn. Agree your version beforehand.
- Forgetting to burn. Harmless if consistent, an argument if it happens sometimes.
- Dealing out of turn after a break. Look at the button, not at who is holding the deck.
It has nothing to do with the money
Worth stating, because new hosts conflate the two: the person dealing does not need to be the person running the bank. They are separate roles and it is often better if they are separate people — there is a guide on the banking side.