Venetian Adopts Slide Dealing on the

Venetian Becomes First Strip Room to Use Slide Dealing

The Venetian poker room has become the first property on the Las Vegas Strip to implement slide dealing, a change that took effect after the room completed retraining its dealing staff. The Venetian operates 50 tables and ranks second in size among Las Vegas poker rooms, making it the largest Strip room to move to the technique so far.

Tommy LaRosa, the property's director of poker operations, oversees the room where the change has been rolled out. The adoption places the Venetian ahead of other Strip operators that have not yet announced a switch to the method.

What Slide Dealing Actually Is

Slide dealing is a dealing technique in which the dealer delivers cards by sliding them across the table surface rather than pitching them through the air. The method is intended to reduce the chance of exposed cards and to keep the deck under tighter control during the deal.

In a typical implementation, the dealer keeps the deck low and pushes each card forward along the felt toward the player. Because the card stays in contact with the table, it is harder for a card to flip face-up in flight or to be deflected by a player's hand or chip stack. Rooms that adopt the technique generally retrain their entire dealing staff before it goes live on the floor, since the motion differs from the traditional pitch.

Why Rooms Consider the Change

• Fewer exposed cards during the deal, which reduces the need for a misdeal or a reshuffle
• More consistent card delivery across the dealing staff
• Tighter control of the deck, which supports game integrity procedures
• A dealing motion that some rooms find easier to teach to newer dealers

These are the general arguments made in favor of the technique. Individual rooms weigh them against dealer comfort, speed, and the preferences of their regular players.

South Point Trained Dealers First

South Point had already begun training its dealers in the slide dealing technique before the Venetian's adoption of the method was announced. That earlier training effort made the technique a live topic among Las Vegas dealers and room managers well before the Venetian's floor change.

Support From Prominent Voices

Support for slide dealing has come from prominent figures in the poker community. Daniel Negreanu expressed his backing for the technique during an appearance on a PokerNews podcast episode, adding a high-profile endorsement to a change that had until then been discussed mainly among dealers and room staff.

Endorsements of this kind do not by themselves change how a room deals, but they can accelerate the conversation. When a well-known player speaks in favor of a procedural change, rooms often find that players arrive already familiar with the idea and more willing to accept it at the table.

Timing Ahead of the WPT Fall Championship

The Venetian's move comes ahead of a major tournament at the property. The $5,000 WPT Venetian Las Vegas Fall Championship is scheduled to begin on November 5, 2026.

Running a large tournament schedule puts pressure on a room's dealing procedures. Tournament fields move quickly, tables break and re-form, and dealers rotate frequently. A dealing method that reduces exposed cards and keeps the deck controlled can matter more in that environment than in a slower cash game, which is one reason a room might choose to retrain staff before a major series rather than during one.

What to Expect at the Table

Players sitting down at the Venetian should expect cards to arrive along the felt rather than through the air. In practice, the change is procedural rather than strategic: it does not alter hand rankings, betting rules, or the structure of the games offered. Players who are used to catching a pitched card may simply need a moment to adjust to the new delivery.

A Strip First, Not a Las Vegas First

The Venetian's distinction is specifically as the first room on the Las Vegas Strip to adopt the technique. Slide dealing has been used elsewhere, and South Point's dealer training shows that interest in the method extends beyond the Strip. Whether other Strip rooms follow the Venetian's lead is an open question, and no broader adoption across the Strip has been announced.

For now, the Venetian stands as the largest Strip room dealing cards this way, with a major tournament on its calendar and a retrained dealing staff already on the floor.