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Dealers at the $5,000 WPT Venetian Las Vegas Fall Championship are using a new card-dealing technique never before seen in a US World Poker Tour event. The $2 million guaranteed tournament runs from Nov. 5-10, with the final table set to air live on PokerGO.
Players at the Venetian have already noticed the shift away from the traditional pitching method, where cards are tossed around the table. Instead, dealers are now sliding hole cards directly to each player.
The change was implemented last month, making Venetian the first card room on the Las Vegas Strip to adopt slide dealing. The technique had already been introduced at South Point earlier this year, marking that property as the first in Las Vegas to use the method.
Slide dealing is designed to reduce the risk of cheating during card distribution. When cards are pitched, the undersides can sometimes be briefly visible, giving an attentive player a chance to glimpse the card’s identity. Sliding the cards across the felt eliminates that exposure.
The technique is not new globally and was recently used during a WPT event in Sydney, Australia, where it reportedly ran smoothly without player complaints.
The Venetian tournament began Thursday with Cherish Andrews bagging the Day 1a chip lead among a field of 103 entrants. Andrews is one of 32 players advancing directly to Day 2. Day 1b begins Friday at 11:15 a.m. local time, followed by the final starting flight on Saturday.
