Body: I keep seeing players blame the dealer for their bad sessions, so I wanted to share what I have noticed after logging maybe 300 hours across live card tables and the slower digital formats on BetLounge. The short version: dealer pace changes how many decisions you make per hour, but it does not change how good those decisions are unless you let it. What actually changes with a fast dealer A fast dealer pushes more hands into the same time window. If you normally see 30 hands an hour and the dealer runs 40, you are not suddenly playing worse because the cards are faster. You are playing worse because you have less recovery time between spots. That matters most after a rough beat. A quick next hand means you carry the frustration straight into the following action. I started treating a fast dealer as a tilt test. If I cannot reset in the five seconds between hands, I sit out two or three hands and watch. No one cares that you folded preflop for a couple of minutes. Slow dealers and the patience trap A slow dealer is not automatically good. Yes, you get more time to think, but the extra time can turn into overthinking. I have definitely talked myself into calling a spot I would have folded instantly at a normal pace. The pause creates room for stories: he is bluffing because he looked away, the board is wet so I have to defend. When the table is crawling, I use the time to check my stack size and position, not to re-litigate a decision I already made. If you catch yourself replaying the same hand three times, you are using the delay wrong. Pace and your actual decision process The useful split for me has been separating the decision from the delivery. I decide what I am doing before the action reaches me whenever possible. If the dealer is fast, I already know my move and the speed does not matter. If the dealer is slow, I am not using the gap to invent new reasons. This one habit removed most of my pace-related mistakes. I still make bad calls, but they are honest bad calls, not rushed or bored ones. What I would tell a friend Watch the first twenty minutes at any table. Note whether the dealer is quick, average, or slow, then decide if you can play your normal game at that tempo. If the answer is no, move tables or switch to a slower format. The pace is a table condition, same as the players around you. You would not stay at a table full of maniacs if you cannot handle the swings, so do not force yourself to survive a dealer tempo that makes you uncomfortable. One more thing worth mentioning: digital tables on BetLounge have their own rhythm because the dealing is automated. The pace is consistent, which removes a lot of the variance I am describing. That consistency helps me practice the decision-before-action habit without the social pressure of a live dealer waiting on me. If you struggle with live dealer speed, a few sessions on a fixed-pace digital table can help you find your baseline. The pace is not the problem. Your reaction to it is. Fix the reaction and the dealer can shuffle however they like.