Tournament Tipping
I am going to Vegas on Thursday and will be playing in a number of tournaments ($50 - $100 buy in) and I have no real idea about the tipping. I'll be honest, I play mostly online and the live tournaments I play are always self dealt. I don't tip on self dealt tournaments (even if someone dealt all the heads up hands, I'll deal and not expect or accept a tip if I did someone else's heads up). So what is the norm? I have searched the site and found some great arguments but nothing concrete.
My questions:
1) Do you tip if you only win you buy-in back?
2) Do you tip at SNGs?
3) As a winner (and I plan to be one) do you tip more?
4) Does this shirt make me look fat?
5) Who do you give the tip to? Again, no clue.
6) At what point does the casino take the tax from the winnings and do you tip before or after the taxes?
Any help would be appreciated. I have played a lot of cash games and know who to tip in that regards but living in Kitchener, the lack of close to home tournaments suckl. And by that I mean you Brantford and your in person registration.
My questions:
1) Do you tip if you only win you buy-in back?
2) Do you tip at SNGs?
3) As a winner (and I plan to be one) do you tip more?
4) Does this shirt make me look fat?
5) Who do you give the tip to? Again, no clue.
6) At what point does the casino take the tax from the winnings and do you tip before or after the taxes?
Any help would be appreciated. I have played a lot of cash games and know who to tip in that regards but living in Kitchener, the lack of close to home tournaments suckl. And by that I mean you Brantford and your in person registration.
Comments
Last vegas trip I was talking to a dealer about tipping and she had me a little fired up....
She thought that you should always tip the same as the rake in a ring game and tip 10-15% in a tourney!! I think that is crazy high and told her so and she didn't like that at all!!
I've heard 2-5% of your tourney win is decent and thats what I try to stick too.
But to answer your questions in my opinion:
1) I don't tip when I win my buy-in back.
2) Yes, because they usually last 1-2 hours and the dealer makes shit an hour and need a tip.
3) I tip more as a winner ie. 5% instead of maybe 2% for 4th 5th
5) When you are being paid your winnings is the time to tip....some tourneys in vegas had a little sign that said 'dealer tips appreciated' and a little box or something right where you were being paid your winnings, because I'm sure a lot of newbies win and don't give a cent because they don't realize it's customary to.
6) Different casinos I've been at take taxes at different amounts. Ask before you play. I remember one casino was taking taxes off wins under 1000(can't remember where) and the Bellagio didn't tax as long as it was under 10 K
Just my opinion, but I think they are reasonble guidelines.
And Jrmdes, no offense but that is cheap!!! Dealers would be pissed if you won 30K and gave them $100. They have to split that among all the dealers in the tourney. and that would be like a .33% tip!! You should take into account how many dealers dealt the tourney and how long it laster...do a little quick math and figure out what you are tipping them per hour.
Cash games: $1 to $3 (depending on the size of the pot) for each pot won where a turn card was seen.
At least, that's how I do it.
I didn't tip for my 6th place WSOP finish. Tips were already taken out of the prize pool. If I'd finished 1st, it might have (probably would have) been a different story.
Whatever you do, don't ask Dave Scharf about tipping guidelines. The guy tips $100 for a $20 cab ride when he's in Vegas. He is not the person to talk to about this stuff.
Some of the tournaments in Vegas have a buy in and an optional pre tourney add on which is actually the dealer tip. So given that each dealer gets $5 to $10 per person at their initial table I would gage my tip accordingly and most likely only tip with a top 3 finish. Also the cash game tips in Vegas go directly to the dealer and not pooled then I would tip according to how the dealers attitude is.
Did they show what the tip was?
Suggestion, don't go with a fixed percentage cause you might end up giving more than you wish to. Personally, i'd only tip if i won, more than just a couple of dollars, and the tip would be not too small that it'll buy him just a cocktail, but not too big that it'll buy him a plasma t.v
I'll be waiting for the trip report!
JohnnieH
Thing to remember is that dealers in Casinos live off of their tips, especially in the States and more so in Nevada which has an obscenely low minimum wage. An event like the WSOP or any other $10K or higher Tournament is very different in that all of the dealers are on contract just for the event and are well paid and your entry has money taken off of the top just for a dealer tip package. In your $50-$100 events, the final table players ought to consider a tip. Most importantly remember a tip is for services rendered to your satisfaction, tip more if the service merits it and of course less if that was all the service was worth to you. Good luck and have fun.
Cheers,
Lee
Cash game: I usually tip whenever I win a pot, usually the lowest denomination chip (I play small limits) so when at the casino, i toked $1 for any pot with substance, and a large pot would get $2-$3 (I won one pot of $40, and game $3).
Tourneys: If I win or do quite well, i tip well. At the KPS I tipped $40 to G2 for a $240 win, but that was also a thank you for the various tourneys he'd run, and probably one of my "bigger" tips. In the KWGM the top three kicked in some winnings for Easy who had dealt the majority of the day, I think we ended up giving her $60 - $80 for the day, by no means enough to make it worthwhile, but meh.
I think you should always tip. Cash game or tourney. I've dealt games where it's $1/2 and a guy wins a $300 pot, and doesn't even blink an eye when I push the pot to him, but then there's guys that're great who tipped me like $5.
At restaurants I go in with the mentality that my waitress will get 20% of the bill unless she screws up. For every error I dock like 2% from the 20%.
I also use a similar mentality when going into a tournament. 10% if the dealers are awesome. 5% if they are guys off the street who got in like 10 hands a level, haha. And nothing if they are brutal.
If you play at a dealt game, accept the fact that you are going to risk money, you may win or lose and regardless, part of the cost of that experience, includes tipping.
Of course! Your dealer is good. Your dealer should get a good tip.
I tip 5-10% depending on the amount of buy in. The smaller the buy in, the higher my tip since the dealers are going to be making less money for the same amount of work.
wow, that's ridiculous..how does being up or down change the fact that the dealer is doing a good or bad job...just awful
It changes the fact that you have money or not though doesn't it?
Do you normally tip when you lose a pot?
I hate that tips are pooled at Brantford. For that reason I believe the Seneca dealers are far better (they keep their own tips). However, all dealers appreciate the tips. It says "Good Job and Thanks". I also make a point to thank any good dealers before they or I leave the table. If the good dealers are not appreciated then the good dealers will not work hard for the players.