Tipping Dealers?

[CrizzyConnor]

I was wondering if anyone who knows could tell me when you should and shouldn"t tip a dealer whilst playing poker. The reason I ask is because I normally only play tournaments when playing live and the two places I play have an absolute no tipping policy - I have offered a tip when i"ve won a tournament at both places and been told they weren"t allowed to accept!

Now I don"t know if that"s the case over the whole of the UK and was wondering if anyone could let me know. Me and some friends plan to take a trip to DTD later this year and plan on playing in a tournament and hopefully a cash game or two... Nowadays I wouldn"t expect to tip in a tournament but was just wondering what the usual etiquette is when playing a cash game... Should you tip and if so when and how much?

I"m also travelling to New Zealand and America this year and plan on playing poker while in both places. From previous trips to America I"m perfectly aware that everybody and their mother wants tipping for something so was again just wondering if anyone could shed any light on when you should tip, how much etc? And if anyone has ever played in New Zealand too, same question...

[StuartHopkin]

Best way is just to see what everyone else is doing. I play in a few different venues and this is how they generally work.

Self dealt tournament, dealers are tipped a set amount, normally 10% of a buy in.
House dealt tournament, no tips for house dealers.
Self dealt cash game, dealers are tipped when you win a decent pot.
House dealt cash game, no tips as you"ve paid session fee"s or rakes.

I think with the law change in september gaming staff can legally accept tips, but most of the casino"s have banned it for obvious reasons.

[MAIR]

At the Circus Casino in Edinburgh the dealers are allowed to accept tips as are the waiting staff, the table staff tho, are not allowed.  That seems to be their rule although from what I gathered couple weeks back when I tipped the dealer, he said he would put it in the staff tip kitty which is distributed at the end of the shift.

It will be a case of finding out when u get to each individual casino to see what their rulings are on it.

[Mr Tubbs]

I tip about 5% if i finish in top 2.As i don"t do that often don"t
tip that much.But its up to your discretion

[WarBwastardo]

Best way is just to see what everyone else is doing. I play in a few different venues and this is how they generally work.

Self dealt tournament, dealers are tipped a set amount, normally 10% of a buy in.
House dealt tournament, no tips for house dealers.
Self dealt cash game, dealers are tipped when you win a decent pot.
House dealt cash game, no tips as you"ve paid session fee"s or rakes.

I think with the law change in september gaming staff can legally accept tips, but most of the casino"s have banned it for obvious reasons.

If the games are self dealt there are no dealers surely?  Hence Self dealt.

[StuartHopkin]

Oh sorry i forgot, if there is no house dealer the cards just deal themselves???

Of course there is still a dealer its just a customer rather than an employee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[linziwan]

If your in a dealer dealt game - especially in Las Vegas it is up to you what to tip.

In a tournament it is normally about 3-5% of your winnings (but only if you finish in the bigger end of the money scale - don"t forget you are there to make a profit... you don"t want to give it all to the dealers. 

Also check before you start playing that the casino hasn"t already taken out an amount for the dealers ...  In the WSOP games I think about 2.5% (not sure that is the correct figure but its about right) of the prize pool is kept back for tips so you wouldn"t tip again.  The casino takes the buyin for the tournament don"t confuse that with the amount withheld for the dealers, so do ask if an amount is being withheld from the prize fund.  You can add to this if you want to give more but you don"t want to be giving them 5% of your money and find out they had already withheld 2.5%...

In cash games you tip a $1 if you win a pot (nothing if you win just the blinds or a small pot), you can tip more if you win a big pot or if you had a large a piece of luck to win the hand.  (I tend to make it one SB as the tip when I win a hand, ie 2-4 game I would tip $2, 1-2 $1).

In Las Vegas it is the norm to tip, the dealers are on minimum wage and rely on the tips to make a living.  In the UK the dealers in casinos are normally on a decent salary (the law has only just changed where they are allowed to take tips), in private poker rooms you will find the dealers are not on a decent salary and rely on tips....

(Also in Vegas don"t forget to tip the "cocktail ladies" same as the dealers they are on minimum salary and rely on tips.  If you don"t tip you might find them not coming back very often... LOL)

If you ask the dealers about the best and worst tippers they will tell you and normally the worst ones are the "big cash playing pros", after all its their living...  Last time I was there I was on a $1-$2 NLHE cash game and I asked the dealer if he preferred it when the table rotation took him to the higher limit games and he replied "No.... if they win a pot there they still get tipped about the same as on the lower limit table"....  

Hope this helps

[RioRodent]

Best way is just to see what everyone else is doing. I play in a few different venues and this is how they generally work.

Self dealt tournament, dealers are tipped a set amount, normally 10% of a buy in.
House dealt tournament, no tips for house dealers.
Self dealt cash game, dealers are tipped when you win a decent pot.
House dealt cash game, no tips as you"ve paid session fee"s or rakes.

I think with the law change in september gaming staff can legally accept tips, but most of the casino"s have banned it for obvious reasons.

If the games are self dealt there are no dealers surely?  Hence Self dealt.

I have to say I"m a little puzzled as to how this works?

So you start a £100 "self deal" tournament and 1 player volunteers to do all the dealing on your table... do you then tip him 10% of the buy-in? And presumably expect others at the table to also do like wise?

I can"t see that this is how works?

Does he just get one 10% buy-in tip? Who pays it and when?

If you deal on what turns out to be the first table broken you may only deal for a fraction of the time that someone else deals on another table, do you all get tipped the same?

I have to say I have never played in a "self deal" tourney where there was ever any suggestion of tipping any of the dealers.

To get back to the original question...

Most (large chain) casinos still don"t allow dealers to accept tips, however it has become customary for those that cash to leave something "for the valets". Now whether or not any of this money fiinds it"s way to the dealers I don"t know, but it is definitely a bit of a sore point for me personally since the valet service is generally appalling in regular casinos. Don"t get me wrong, it"s not that the valets themselves are necessarily bad, just that the poker rooms never have enough valets serving them. In any case when I do actually get a drink I always tip the valet there and then, so I won"t be voluntarily leaving any extra from my tournament winnings (if ever actually get any!!)

Another thing I don"t like is pooled tips for dealers (cash games now). A tip, a gratuity, is something you should be giving for good service. If a dealer is pleasant, efficient and enhances my time at the table they will get better tips and even if I haven"t had many winning hands I"ll tip them when they leave the table, if they are miserable, sit there quiet, without so much as a smile or even worse, continually sit and chat exclusively to one local player, then they won"t be retiring on my tips.

[WarBwastardo]

Oh sorry i forgot, if there is no house dealer the cards just deal themselves???

Of course there is still a dealer its just a customer rather than an employee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think you know what I meant.  There"s no HOUSE dealer, so there isn"t anyone to tip assuming everyone takes their turn to deal. You can"t leave a percentage of your winnings if someone has volunteered to deal because who are you paying? if you"ve been at several tables do you pay every dealer 10%?  The only way to tip players who deal would be after each pot as in a cash game, which obviously you can"t do as the chips have no value.

I"ve never seen a situation where a player has volunteered to deal in a cash game and received tips either.  The dealing player would get chips every hand in the form of tips and if you take a pot off him you have to give some of it back as a tip?  Which casino"s have you played in that have a policy of tipping in self dealt games?