Live Tourney Tipping
Being a live cash game player and playing roughly 0-1 tournaments a year I am wondering what the going rate is for tipping.
Structure is 300+30+$10 dealer bonus that everyone takes.
Does only the winner tip? Standard %age? Does the $10 bonus change the tip %age?
Note that I overtip wrt societal standards almost everywhere in life when I get decent service so I am looking for some guidelines.
Structure is 300+30+$10 dealer bonus that everyone takes.
Does only the winner tip? Standard %age? Does the $10 bonus change the tip %age?
Note that I overtip wrt societal standards almost everywhere in life when I get decent service so I am looking for some guidelines.
Comments
Good question.
I believe the Venetien KO tourny I was in was $100+$25 (bounty) + $25 (admin+dealer bonus).
I took home almost $800 with bounties and was reminded by the floor when signing out that all tips were appreciated. I thought the dealers were very good, the table service was pretty top notch and the tourny in general was very well run. I asked him what would be a gracious tip from a very satisfied customer? He understandably said he couldn't answer that. I left 3 my $25 bounty chips with him and he seemed very grateful.
I wondered most of the next day whether it was too little.
EDIT: Just did a google search and 2-5% seems standard. I'm a chump.
I believe standard is 3-5%, but I believe only the top few places tend to tip.
Its not the players fault that the house rapes the dealers.
Define service really good. Does this mean that if there are a few bad dealers in day 1 when we are at 11 tables that you don't leave a tip if all dealers are very good when at 3 tables for day 2?
And what %age?
I would direct tip the very good dealers rather than giving to the director to distribute.
Only tipping on wins, I would never tip a mincash when there is already dealer "admin" fee for basically the reason Richard said.
I usually tip 5% when I at least triple my investment
you do know you've already paid them for their services right?
At a restaurant when they charge you 10% gratuity on the bill do you still tip? Not hating, just wondering.
It's true. I tip well and everything is usually fine but eventually bad service is gonna happen.
Im sure this is relative tho. Like if somebody wins 500k I doubt they tip 25k.
When I won in Wpg it was like 30k and I think I tipped $500 - because tipping 1500 just seems like giving away alot of dough.
So glad I will never have these worries.
As for restaurants adding the 10% service charge for their tips, my friends that have worked at restaurants that have done this say that their tip rate is actually higher than if they let their customers tip at their own discretion. I also don't tip above the 10% service charge if it's already on the bill.
As for tipping in live tournaments, anytime they have the dealer bonus or they withhold a % for the staff, I don't tip since they are already compensated. If the tournament is outside of Ontario and nothing was set aside for the dealers, then I will leave a tip depending on how much the prize is, how long the tournament was run for, etc.
And if you're wondering about why outside of Ontario? Well as you guys know Ontario casinos pool their tips with non-poker dealers. We've discussed this with a lot of the live regulars in Ontario and came up with a conclusion that tipping dealers in Ontario doesn't really make sense especially when the dealer you are tipping is in reality only getting pennies of what you are giving them. For me, I've developed friendships with a lot of dealers, so I do see them outside of the casino, and I would buy them drinks/food, etc as my form of tip.
Since dealers in Ontario don't keep their own tips, it has really hurt poker in so many ways here. By having the casinos pay them such a high hourly base salary, we have long wait lists for cash games, capped tournaments, and an abundance of dealers that choose to deal slowly, not learn the rules of the game, and are quick to get mad at every little situation/comment by the players. Right now I think most of the dealers are being paid $16/hour base and $8/hour in tips, if they get minimum wage and keep their own tips, I would think that everyone would be happier from players, to dealers, to casino management.
There was only once I tipped $0 after winning 4 figures and that was after hitting a bad beat for a $1400ish share. They made me wait 3 days to get it and had the nerve to suggest that I leave a tip. Had they handed it to me the day of, sure I would have tipped well.
My first paragraph is about restaurants which is completly different from how casino dealers operate, waiters and waitresses can be fired, the union does a good job protecting the bad and lazy dealers.
As for poker tipping, I left 2%ish. I would have preferred to give money to the good dealers directly but it was just too difficult a task and some were gone by the end, etc.
After reading this thread and realizing after the fact that tips are spread outside of the poker room to the pit (I asked while playing cash after) I would have left zero if I could not give directly to specific dealers.
Is it legal/ok for poker dealers to take direct tips when all tips are supposed to be pooled anyhow?
I don't know but the dealer I gave $20 to during a WSOP event (break started, table vacated) gladly accepted it.
Vegas dealers keep their own tips regardless...not sure if I give a dealer a tip directly/off the table in Edmonton that it doesn't just get thrown back into the pool.
If the dealer got caught taking tips in a pooled tips casino they would lose there jobs for sure
If this was the case, and the service was good, absolutely.....usually 15-20% would be standard for me.....so I'd make up the difference.
This is a good post......same here in Alberta
They segregate only for overnight, as only the poker room is open.
Sick brag post...we get it you used to win, but what have you done for me lately?