Poker Tournament Gratuities

[Mickstr68]

I, like a huge number of people, have taken up poker as a part time hobby. I've played in several home games as well as official tournaments. I've placed in the money in several tournaments and have typically tipped the dealers 10% of my winnings. I just placed second in a tourney yesterday and began to thinking-

The one area that I am interested in hearing about but never do is the tips that are left to the dealers by these players in the WSOP and WPT that win these huge payoffs. For example, Moneymaker- wins $5 mil- did he tip $500 K? Or the guy that year that took 9th place for $950K- did he tip $95K?

Was wondering if anyone in the forum has any knowledge in this aspect. I know that Nolan has been media director for some tournaments so maybe he knows.

I find this interesting but because I never hear anything about this part of the game maybe I'm the only one interested in it. IS this so or are others curiuos? I think it would be interesting to hear who gave what and why in these tournaments. Who's considered the cheap skate, who doesn't tip a dime, who is over generous and who just tips set amounts no matter what the outcome.

 

[wareagle]

i never win, so i dont tip

i try to tip the online dealers sometimes, but he always gives me the same blank look

 

[OverUnder]

10% why? I dont believe in this tipping dealers and what not...I see people at the track tipping the mutuel tellers occassionally too....why?
If I would win a huge amount I might give a few bucks,but IMO you are crazy to tip as much as you are saying.

 

[Agent 0659]

Crazy to tip this much?? :cursin: I mean what are you talking about? These dealers are like waiters and bartenders, its how they make a living. If you play in a game you are obligated to tip if the dealer has done a good job. What do you expect them to deal your poker game for free? :moon:

 

[OverUnder]

Your a a freaking nut if you are paying 10% to them...do they give you a tip when they take you for all of your money?

 

[KotysDad]

I have to ask Agent a question.......who dont you tip??? Today's society has gotten so damn "tip happy" that everyone who performs any service whatsoever expects a tip. I can see tipping a waiter/waitress for good service and for not spitting in your food or drink - after all they dont even make minimum wage ....but everyone else pretty much works at min wage or higher....do I really need to tip the ice cream girl or McDonalds cook for their service.....do I need to tip my mechanic for fixing my car.....how about a mover making $80-$100 per hour who takes their good ole' time (ok, i can see offering lunch or drinks, but where does it end)......should I tip the toll booth attendant for up'ing the arm after I pay coming out of a garage...how about the kid cutting my luncheon meats at the supermarket.....I cant imagine most of these people make all that much money, but does that mean I have to tip them for any service someone provides me. Come on....where the hell do you draw the line??? You cant go anywhere without seeing one of those styrofoam cups sitting out.

This society has gotten ridiculous with its tipping expectations.

 

[Penguinfan]

In poker tournament I don't think 10% is rediculous becuse that tip is covering ALL the dealers who dealt in the tournament who are still getting their regular wage but ZERO tips during the tournament play.

 

[Agent 0659]

They dont get paid an hourly wage. At least in most places. So wtf do you expect they do?? Deal for free? Sure they could build their wage into the buy-in but I would rather tip myself. The dealers cant help what cards come of the deck over under. If you lose its your own fault. I mean you cant be serious. If you guys arent tipping, you are being very selfish and stengy. If a dealer is providing a fast, friendly and well run game he deserves to be compensated. If you dont think its hard work sit your fat ass in the box and deal about 10 hours with 1 break and deal someone busted and listen to them get mad and all that. I run a game locally and also run tourneys and deal so I can tell you that you guys are way wrong here. I agree everyone has their hand out nowadays but this is different.

 

[Agent 0659]

Your a a freaking nut if you are paying 10% to them...do they give you a tip when they take you for all of your money?

I mean give me a break :142lmao:

 

[KotysDad]

Agent,

I never played in a poker tournament so my comments werent directed towards them specifically. I was asking basically, "Where do you draw the line?"

Do I tip people based on what they make in an hourly wage?

Do I tip them based on the amount of time they actually spend serving me??

A waitress makes peanuts, but spends maybe 5 minutes total at my table during the 2 hours I am there. A mover makes good money and spends more time performing a service for me. I'll tip the waitress way before the mover.
I have no idea what dealers make, but could ballpark the amount of time they serve the average tournament player.

So my comments were geared towards a general standard. What factors should determine who I tip?

Maybe my question is too general and hard to set a standard to. It just seems to me that everywhere you go, someone has a cup in front of them expecting something for a job they werent forced to take.

 

[Agent 0659]

Good points Kotys Dad. I hear what your saying. Even the servers at Starbucks have a little cup out there. For handing me a $4.00 coffee? It does get old. However I feel if you go out to eat, you have an obligation to tip. It is a fee for a service. I feel that dealing is the same. As to where you draw the line, I dont know. I over tip alot because I used to be a Bartender and I also deal. So I know how hard it is and what its like to live off of tips. I tipped the people that delivered my refrigerator a 20 spot. Why? Because the dikheads who delivered the first one were idits and ripped a hole in my vinyl floor 2 days after I closed on my new house :cursin: So if I feel a good job has been done I treat accordingly. I guess though its a free country and do as you please.

 

[saint]

Not ripping a hole in your floor the second time around shouldn't be tipped because they are doing their job. Had they been exceptionally nice and went out of their way, then I would have tipped. I just don't see the point in tipping people to do their job.

 

[Irish]

10%??? Don't you think that a bit much. If you go bust do you head to the ATM to grab a few bucks and come back and leave a tip? I'll normally throw a few bucks back on big hands or if I see someone getting hard on a dealer. Over the corse of a night I'm sure I've given a good bit. 10% :scared your like DiNero from goodfellas...."He even gave the bartenders a hundred just for keeping the ice cold"

Cheers
Irish

 

[Mickstr68]

The whole discussion is getting away from my original question which is "How much do the winners of these big tournaments tip". Maybe I do overtip the dealers, that was the basis for my question. Now do you see why it's an interesting subject- so many people feel differently on the subject.

For those of you who believe that you shouldn't tip the casino dealers you are dead wrong in my opinion. Not all feel that way and I can accept your reluctance.

As to where tipping ends and who gets tipped is completely up to you. I can't help you with that.

So if there is no one that has any info on my original question, maybe other Tournament players can tell me what they have tipped when they placed in the money or if they never do (maybe they are never in the money).

 

[freelancc]

i never win, so i dont tip

:142lmao:

 

[BleedDodgerBlue]

When I played full-time, I was mostly a ring (cash) game player and rarely played in tournaments. Still don't play many of them, but do know a number on the circuit.

To answer your question, its all relevant to the player. Some are better than others, and so forth.

But if you want a generic and semi-held industry standard, professional players usually tip between 3-5% on a win, wheras recreational or amateur players tip between 5-7% on a win. Sometimes the runner up and proceeding downwards will tip, but its obviously much less.

As for cash games, I always toke the dealer a buck if its a $3 rake, in the midwest where the rake is outrageous $5 dollars or so, I always tip 50 cents on each hand won.

The dealer averages between 18 and 25 hands a half hour in a typical game above $10/20. So they make somewhere around $30 bucks an hour on a 2 shift. But they also get breaks and such. They do make close to minimum wage at most places. Places where dealers split the tips should be avoided becuase they are notoriously slow and never in a rush.

Online poker saves a boat load of money if you want to go that way. Never have to tip...

As for a dealing making you lose, that's ridiculous O/U. Only you can do that.
Hope that helps

 

[Nolan Dalla]

The previous post was pretty much on target, but I'll elaborate. Obviously, tipping is up to every individual. there are no right or wrong answers.

In most cash games, tipping ONE DOLLAR per pot (won) is standard. On big pots (meaning relative to the betting limits) TWO DOLLARS is appropriate. In extreme circumstances, perhaps THREE DOLLARS is correct. On pots where I have won over a thousand dollars, I'll tip a red bird (FIVE DOLLARS). I think the biggest pot I ever won was perhaps in the 6-7 K range and I tipped $20. People can make out of that what they want, but I think that's about average and very fair.

My role as the Media Director of the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Open the past three years gave me a glimpse of tipping at the highest levels. While I cannot disclose the exact amounts tipped by winners and high finsihers, I can comment on the "standard" tip for tournament poker. Some might disagree, but I think my numbers are pretty middle ground. meaning -- some will think the standard is too high, and others think a bigger tip is appropriate.

During the 1990s 2-3 percent of any tournament win was pretty much the standard. Five percent was considered a HUGE tip. I'm sure there were some players who tipped higher, but those were not the norm. Then, there are about one third ot one-half of the players who DO NOT tip at all, so as I said, the "standard" is a hard number to quantify.

In general, the bigger the win, the slightly lower the percentage. For instance, a 30K win might tip $1K (about 3 percent). A 300K win might tip $5K (about 1.5 percent). Players who won 500K and up usually tipped in the 1-2 percent range. I must say this is for tournaments where the dealer and staff tip has already been taken out -- standard practice now at the WSOP and WPO. I know nothing about WPT events.

For smaller tournaments, let's say a regional event when the buy in is $100 -- FIVE PERCENT would be considered very generous. No dealer or casino staff would ever expect a TEN PERCENT TIP, and if they did, I would NEVER play there. The game is simply not beatable with those financial expectations (tournaments are really not beatable anyways, in my view -- beacause of the house vig, taxes, tipping, expenses, and other demands -- but that point of view is never written about).

A small daily tournament where you win $800 probably calls for something in the range of a $50 tip. I don't know of any casino or dealers that would rebuke those percentages (about 6-7 percent).

Hence, the smaller the win -- the higher the percentage of tip should be given. Since the work is basically the same for the dealers and staff -- whther it's a million dollar tournament or a ten thousadn dollar tournament -- the "smaller" tournaments mandate players/winner to tip higher percentages, and the bigger tournaments to tip lower percentages. So, the middle ground (earnings) are about the same for the staff in either case.

I hoipe this answeres your question.

NOTE: I always believe in toking the floorman and anyone else that is helpful. A $2 tip can really work wonders with these people. Since they dont; get tipped often, I notice that tipping can actually work in your favor when you need a seat change, table change, need to be rolled, or whatever. So, tipping can also be an investment.

--Nolan Dalla

 

[IntenseOperator]

. If you dont think its hard work sit your fat ass in the box and deal about 10 hours with 1 break .

The dealers of the local boats around these parts get a break every hour I think

 

[Dogphish]

T. I. P.

T. I. P.

The term itself is an old english acronym for "Too Insure Promptness"....anymore it means ENTITLEMENT...I think restaurants should raise prices on menus 20% and PAY their people a decent salary.....tipping subsidises these cheap-ass restaurants....granted it is entry level work for 18 year olds...nevertheless it begins the entitlement mentality early in life.
The argument against this would be lack of incentive I would guess...

 

[Agent 0659]

The dealers at real Casinos get breaks like every 15 minutes, but most of them arent worth a dam. Its the guys that deal the local games and such that work their ass off. These guys at the boat (at least around here) are so slow and they change like every 15 minutes and have to count the cards and all that. Plus they pool their tips so they do ok. But the guys that work for me are all on their own and only get occasional breaks and the tips are all theirs. My game last Friday went from 8 pm to noon on Saturday. My dealer got 2 breaks :scared . However he also cashed out 937.00 at the end, so no complaints. Cash, tax free boys. :clap: This one fat ass at the boat in Louisville, and I mean like 500 pounds carries a pillow around to sit on because of his hemmoroids :moon: . It grosses me out. Hes all the time sweating and snorting. Plus he stinks. But these dealers just suck so bad its not even funny. I mean last time I was there I had to tell them a pot was a split pot and why and all that. If I didnt have a local game avaliable I would play online exclusively. Much faster and alot less problems. But I think that is where the lean to not tip comes from nowadays because alot of people have only ever played online and dont tip there. Beleive me, when you get 2-7, 3-6, 7-4, 10-5, 9-2, you want that next hand as quickly as possible and when you do get 77 and flop a set and river quads, you better dam well throw my guy a toke or two as you scoop that pot or I will bounce your ass out the door