blonde poker forum

Do you guys tip the dealer in a live MTT if you take say 1st or second place ?..

I only ever won one comp live at gutshot which was about £186 or something, i left the change and £10 so £16 (or whatever it was)

In the casinos your not allowed to tip the gaming staff, but you are usually expected to leave something for the waiting staff. Daft I know, but thats UK gaming laws for you. In the unlicensed clubs leaving a tip is expected.

I played a live comp about a month ago and took second place, as the manager paid us out, he said “Don’t forget to tip the dealer”. Of course I Tipped him

but later thought this was a liberty, because at one point in the game we were offered 2000 extra chips for $20 to go to the dealers, and since we all knew the dealers have to make a living, I think everyone took the extra chips, with no more money going in the prize pool, so to have us tip at the end was a bit of a cheek, or at least I thought it was..

Does this sound right to you guys ?


ps this club is unlicensed

Although tipping is sometimes expected it is always optional. I hate it when tips are solicited like that. If you think they're being cheeky don't tip.

5-8% of a tournament cash is usual I heard somewhere.

The extra $20 from all players does sound like a funny idea. Asking for tips twice could potentially dilute the bigger tips from the top 3 finishers.

I will tip anyone, if it's legal, so long as the service they provide is good.

If I don't tip you, you did something wrong.

Remind me to be a dealer the year you win the WSOP Tank.

I'm with Mr Move here, I tip when I get good service if its nae good then there is no tip. 

What Gets me sometimes is when your playing at a final table and you have maybe had the same dealer for 9o minuts or so and he has created good rapport and built a relationship with remaining players and then he is taking off the table the new dealer deals for 10 minutes and its over yet he seems to be the one who gets tipped!

How do the dealers work things?  Do they normally "pool" their tips and split them at given intervals?

When I used to work in the casino, I was never allowed to take tip as a croupier but once I moved to a different position I was allowed to be tipped.  We tended to pool the tips and split them at the end of the week but it then came to my attention that there where 2 boys who where the manager and assistant manager of reception who where keeping the larger donnations and splitting them 2 ways!!

That was fine though as I had a decent relationship with most of the punters and they always seen me ok when they where winning the big tippers only tip once in a blue moon! 8)

I think 4% of the WSOP main event pool is taken out for the dealers.

There was a bit of a fuss last year when one of the final tables finishers (Andy Black?) got some stick in some quarters because he didn't leave any money behind when he collected his million dollars. The player made the very valid point that the 4% deduction meant he had actually already tipped the dealers over $25,000.

I think the fuss was about Hachem who was reported to have left a $100 tip. Raymer was said to have given $50K. It's interesting reading the bit in Positively Fifth Street about how they got him to tip larger than was maybe necessary. I believe 2% is considered reasonable when cashing in a major tournament. Hopefully one day I'll be in a position to give one. There was also controversy about (I think) the first Stars sponsored WPT when the top finishers tipped and then found out afterwards that a percentage had already been taken out for the dealers. Apparently one famous player wanted his tip back!

Andy was pretty peed off with the organisors over a couple of issues, so I'm not surprised.

They with held a portion of his prize money for the IRS, despite him being Irish (US players tax is deducted there and then).....then there was the other situation when some guy had not returned from dinner (having receiving incorrect info from organisors) Andy wanted the table to sit out and wait for the guy to return, but organisors insisted the empty stach was to be check/folded and so lost an hours worth of blinds, which were huge at this stage.

Yes, byron, Hachem it was. In fact, there was an article about it on, er, the Poker425 website.

http://www.poker425.com/tips.php?id=28 (http://www.poker425.com/tips.php?id=28)

I think that it's an either/or situation. Either a % is withheld from the prize pool for the dealers and staff or the winning players tip - not both.

It's especially tough at the WSOP where the players have to put up with the extra hassle of the ESPN TV crews (who pay the organisers to cover it) without seeing any of the money that ESPN pay.

It's akin to the restaurants who add 10% to your bill for a service charge, and yet the waitresses will give you dirty looks if you don't leave any cash on top of that.

I saw this with andy black in tears, didn't the guy then go and do something stupid like give him a rubdown.

When i win the wsop this year there is no way i am tipping the dealers 50k, i would rather give it to a friend.

Yeh, I think he was genuinely upset alright, as he put himself on the other players shoes. I think it was the second final table or so at this stage, and it was 100% the organisors mis-communication that caused the problem.

Andy is a good guy, very well liked over here in Ireland, and himself and Matusow were far and away the best players on that final table.

I use to tip in most circumstances hairdressers, taxi's, retsruatants, after poker wins, etc, etc and the only times I didn't was if I felt the service was poor. I have however recently decided that I won't tip if I feel any pressure is being applied for a tip which I have found is a growing trend in the fast few years.

I have particularly found this is happening in a certain casinos, when at the end of a competition I hear a card room manager say "would you like to leave a tip for the valets" or even less subtle the comment of "how much of a tip would you like to leave". I thinks it unfair that people are put into such situations because at the end of the day a tip is a discreationary payment made in appreciation of good service and should not be viewed as expected. A tip is not something that people should feel they are obliged to make.

I also object too is the growing trend of double tipping. Frequently you are charged a "service charged" on the bill yet you can see the waiter/waitress is viewing up the payment dish to see if any tip has been left. You even now get prompted to leave a tip when you pay by credit card as the machine displays the message "would you like to leave a tip". Double tipping is also happening in poker. You frequently see in some of the bigger comps that they are automatically taking a % from the prize pool and yet we, the players, are still expected/pressured to give a tip if we have any success. I've even seen threads on various forums from casino staff which slate winners who didn't leave a tip. Why do they just start saying "well done sir, allow me to cash in on your good fortune". I even now half expect when I win online a pop-up message asking me if I would like to tip the dealer.  ::)

The issue is no pressure should ever be applied and people should not be made to be embarrassed into thinking they should have to leave a tip. Everybodys circumstances are different, for example sponsored player can afford to tip as they know that their future costs are covered, as can a wealthy business man who mainly plays for fun. But why should a player trying to make poker a living and just developing there bankroll be pressured into making a tip or the recreational player who has been losing for the last 5 years.

Tipping is discreationary and as such should not be expected let alone any pressure being made into obtaining one.