The Complete Guide › Module 1: Shuffling, Pitching & Chip Mechanics

The Poker Pitch: Mechanics & What Can Go Wrong

True Poker Dealer · Module 1, Lesson 2

Pitching is the motion that gets cards from the deck into players’ hands, and it’s worth learning correctly the first time — the right mechanics let you deal more hands per hour, which is good for you, the house, and the players, and they protect your wrist and shoulder from the kind of repetitive strain that builds up over years behind a table.

The setup

Keep your elbows tucked in by your sides — not flared out to either side. Your palms face the ceiling for most of the motion; you can tilt them slightly, but tilting the deck itself gives every card you take off a small chance of flashing its face, and some dealers end up flashing every card without realizing it. Hold the deck angled slightly rather than dead flat, which makes each card easier to pull, but not so angled that anything becomes exposed or the motion gets choppy. Your forefinger protects the front edge of the deck — low enough that the card comes off flat instead of bending upward as you push it.

The primary pitch

Push the top card slightly off the deck and grab its upper-right corner between your thumb and forefinger, without pushing it too far off. Your middle finger finds a small, comfortable “divot” against the card — everybody’s divot sits slightly differently — and that finger is what actually projects the card: it moves from a bent position to fully open, using the card beneath it as a small ramp. There’s no wrist action and no arm motion involved at all. The whole motion is: push the card out, open your hand. That’s it. Expect to miss sometimes while you’re learning this — that’s normal, not a sign you’re doing it wrong.

A second grip — grabbing the card closer to its center instead of the corner — projects the card with more distance and more force, useful when a felt is slow or sticky and a card won’t glide on its own, or when an obstacle means you need extra reach. It’s slower than the corner grip, which is why it’s worth learning second, once the primary pitch is solid. A professional dealer eventually knows both.

If you need to pitch toward a seat off to your side rather than straight ahead, a swivel chair lets you turn your body in the chair and pitch in that new direction rather than always reaching across yourself. Staying centered to the table as much as possible, and adjusting your body rather than your motion, keeps the pitch consistent seat to seat.

When things go wrong at the table

Every pitch needs to be verified — confirm the correct player actually secures the correct card, using your peripheral vision if you need to, because a perfectly good pitch can get snatched up by someone not paying attention, or by someone who doesn’t like what they were just dealt. If a card lands short of the player it was meant for, slide it to them; delivering the card is part of the job, not optional courtesy.

Avoid “helicoptering” — pitching a card up and over an obstacle in an arc instead of keeping the pitch low and direct. A helicoptered card has a higher chance of flashing as it wobbles through the air, and a higher chance of getting flipped up by hitting something or someone’s hand on the way down. When something is genuinely in the way — a big chip stack, a player’s hands — reach out and around with your arm, twisting in your chair if needed, rather than pitching over the top. If a seat is truly difficult to reach cleanly, it’s fine to get a little creative (sliding a card sideways, for instance) as long as you stay within the rules of the game and never pitch from behind the rail.

Sometimes it’s correct to stop the pitch entirely — if a card bounces somewhere unclear, pause and ask that player to grab it rather than guessing or continuing blind.

Box cards and exposed cards — and why they’re different

If a card in the deck was accidentally face up when you pitched it, that’s a box card. Take that card back, put it face up on the deck exactly where it was, and call your supervisor — this is different from an exposed card, and a floor supervisor will typically send it straight to the muck as if the deal hadn’t happened.

An exposed card is any card that flashes in the air, or lands face up, before it’s been secured by the player it was dealt to — whether it happened because you flashed it, it hit a chip stack and flipped, or it hit a player’s hand and flipped before they could cover it. The correct handling: leave the exposed card face up in front of that player, finish pitching the rest of the hand, then bring in the burn card to replace it, announcing the exposed card’s identity to the table out loud. If two or more cards end up exposed during a single deal, that becomes a misdeal, not a simple replacement.

A card that lands on top of the rail is fine. A card that goes below the rail or off the table entirely is a supervisor call — make sure the player doesn’t pick it up themselves, since only a supervisor or other poker-room staff member should handle it, and it gets treated like an exposed card from there.

Why this matters more than the mechanics

The dealer is the only person at a poker table who represents the room at all times — you are the referee of the game, the same way every sport has officials who maintain its integrity. That means never looking away from a flash just because it was your own mistake. If a card flashes, the players nearby saw it (or had a real chance to), whether or not they say anything, and it’s your job to treat it as the exposed card it is regardless. Verifying correct cards to correct players, and calling out anything that compromises the integrity of the hand, isn’t a side detail of dealing — it’s the core of the job.