They’ve dealt every kind of hand imaginable. Now they’re showing theirs.
 
Welcome to the real world behind the poker table—raw, chaotic, and deeply human. In Shuffle Up and Deal With It: Tales from Dealers Worldwide, Sara O’Connor brings you face-to-face with over 30 poker dealers from around the globe. These are the voices you never hear over the clatter of chips—the people who’ve seen it all, from bad beats to personal breakdowns, from rounders chasing dreams to players spiraling out.
 
Inside the Shuffle:
Dealers Turned into Poker Players and Beyond the Felt: From behind the box to the other side of the felt—or into entirely new careers—these are stories of reinvention, risk, and chasing more.
Nomads and International Card Slingers: Life on the road, bouncing from casino to casino. These voices span borders, cultures, and languages, proving poker is global and the grind is universal.
WSOP Dealers: The backbone of poker’s biggest stage. High pressure, long hours, and a front-row seat to iconic moments.
Poker’s Resilient Dealers: Surviving trauma, physical pain, and mental health battles—and rising again.
Underground Dealers: From smoky basements to private games, these tales reveal poker’s shadow world.
Wild Cards – Additional Tales: Stories too raw, strange, or personal to fit the mold—but impossible to forget.
 
Content Warning: This book dives deep into real, unfiltered accounts that include self-harm, drug use, addiction, alcoholism, suicidal ideation, agoraphobia, gun violence, and the aftermath of death. These stories aren’t here to shock—they’re here to reveal the relentless spirit of those who’ve stared down life’s worst and still showed up for the shuffle.
These dealers aren’t just keeping the game running—they’re holding the line between chaos and order, one hand at a time.
You think you know poker?

Think again.
 
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