Button (poker)
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- "Pass the Buck" redirects here. For the 1978 United States TV game show, see Pass the Buck (game show). For the pricing game from The Price Is Right, see Pass the Buck (pricing game).
In poker, the buck or dealer button is a marker used to indicate the player who is dealing or, in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal (who would be the dealer in a home game). The term button is also used for a variety of plastic discs, or lammers, used by casinos to mark status of players.
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[edit] History
When poker became a popular saloon game in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, the integrity of the players was unreliable and the honor codes that had regulated gambling for centuries became inadequate. Because the dealer has the greatest opportunity to cheat (by manipulating the specific cards that players receive, or by inspecting the dealt cards), the players would take turns in this role. To avoid arguments about whose turn it was to deal, the person who was next due to deal would be given a marker. A knife was a common object used as such a marker, and the marker became generally known as a buck as an abbreviated reference to the buck's horn that formed the handle of many knives at that time.
When the dealer had finished dealing the cards he "passes the buck". According to Martin, the earliest use of the phrase in print is in the July 1865 edition of Weekly New Mexican: "They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the buck.". The phrase then appears frequently in many sources so it probably originated at about this time. Fred M. Canfil, United States Marshal for the Western District of Missouri and a friend of US president Harry S. Truman, saw a sign visiting the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma in 1945. He thought it would appeal to the plain-speaking Truman and arranged for a copy of it to be made and sent to him. Truman's use of the slogan "the buck stops here" in speeches, and on a sign on his desk, derives from the adoption of the phrase "passing the buck" as a metaphor for avoiding responsibility.
The use of other small disks as such markers led to the alternative term "button". Silver dollars were later used as markers and it has been suggested that this is the origin of "buck" as a slang term for "dollar," though by no means is there universal agreement on this subject.
[edit] Dealer button
Today, a white plastic disc with the word "Dealer" is typically used as a dealer button in casinos and home games. Beyond marking the player in the dealer position, some games use the button to signify transitory details about the hand being played—for example, a game with a kill may use a button with the word "Kill" on only one side, which is turned up during a hand that the kill is in effect; or a dealer's choice game at a casino may use a placard with the name of the game selected by the player in the dealer position. Harrah's Entertainment has begun utilizing the space on the button for advertising; all dealer buttons at the 2005 World Series of Poker featured the logo for Degree antiperspirant.
[edit] Other buttons
In a cash game in a casino, the chip tray may contain an assortment of plastic discs, or lammers, that the dealer may place in front of a player's seat under certain conditions. The following table lists some buttons and their significance:
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Button Use Missed blind Placed in front of a chip stack on the hand where the seat is due for one of the blinds, but no player is present. The player will have to make up the missed blinds to reenter the game, or else wait for the deal to rotate around the table until it his big blind again. Third man walking Marks a player that left his seat when two other players were already away from the table. No player Used to mark a chip stack where no player has been present for some duration of time. Typically each time a new dealer comes to the table (every half hour) another "No player" button will be added to an unattended stack. Depending on house rules, a chip stack that has collected two or three "No player" buttons may be eligible to have the chips picked up by the house, to free the seat for another player. Reserved May be placed in front of an empty seat, to hold the seat for a player that is known to be coming. Seat change These buttons are given to a player upon request, and signify that the player has first choice of seats, if the opportunity to move arises.
