How much to tip a poker dealer?

I don't want this to be another debate about tipping in general. I also hope that only poker players respond.

In the intro To Casino Poker article I wrote, I was very general about it:

Quote:

Dealers live off tips. It is traditional to tip the dealer after winning a pot. However, most players will not tip if the pot was small. On the other hand, some players will tip even if their small raise has chased everyone out of the pot, netting them a mere $3 win. A $1 tip is typical unless the pot is large.

While in Vegas last week, my friend questioned me about it, asking why I tipped what I did, when she tipped differently for a pot of about the same size.

We both had a hard time justifying our tip size.

I don't want to skew the responses, so I'll give you more details about our pots and tips in a few days.

When I played cash games at $100 and $200 buy in levels the winner of each hand tipped $1.

EXCEPT when there was no action and only the blinds were in the pot.

Pick up the blinds, no tip.
Average size pot, $1.
Decent pot, $2.
Big pot, $5.

I play 3/6-8/16 limit or occasionally 1/2 no limit.

On low limit games I tip $1 every pot. $2 if it gets around $50. $3 if it's a monster.

On larger spread limit or no limit, I tip from $ on a small pot, to $5 a couple hundred dollar pot. I've tipped $10 a few times. I'm generally only in $200 or $300, so we're not talking thousands of dollars in a pot.

In lower limit games, if I like the dealer, the hand before I leave I'll tell them it's my last hand and if I win it, he/she can have half.

It's all just entertainment money for me.


ZCore13

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I don't want to skew the responses, so I'll give you more details about our pots and tips in a few days.
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Sigh. I don't want to wait a few days. Here's the details:

We were at the same table, two seats apart.

I won a pot of about $120 and tipped $1. To be honest, that's right around the amount where I would consider tipping $2. I don't know why I didn't do it.

A little while later, my friend won a pot of about $75 and tipped $5.

I started thinking that maybe I should talk to her, and explain that APs consider tipping a big leak in their game. But we're both recreational players, not APs. And I'm thinking maybe as a retiree, she has money to burn or really liked the dealer or something, so I was gonna let it go.

But a while later, she pulled me aside to ask me about my $1 tip.

I told her that of the $120 pot, about $50 was my bets, so I only won about $70. So how much should I have tipped? On the other hand, how did you come up with $5 tip on that $75 pot you won? She said these people work for tips, etc.

That got me talking about hands per hour - which I estimated to be about 30/hour - and at $1 per hand minimum, it's a pretty good rate. I just didn't think a $120 pot was worth a bigger tip.

But it really got me thinking. And I just don't know.

Sure, I think her $5 tip was too high, but was my $1 tip too low?

I just don't know...

$1 is fine for that size pot. As you pointed out, a lot of the money in the pot was yours. I'd wait until I net at least $100 before tipping $2. There is some discretion there, of course. If you have a great dealer that you like, you can be more generous. If you have a terrible dealer, you can be a little tighter, as well. Just my .02.

I didn't think, it is so necessary. But, anyway, it will work greatly!

Quote: SanakKoolstra

I didn't think, it is so necessary. But, anyway, it will work greatly!
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Get the ban hammer out of the case...


ZCore13

Quote: Zcore13

Quote: SanakKoolstra

I didn't think, it is so necessary. But, anyway, it will work greatly!
link to original post

Get the ban hammer out of the case...


ZCore13
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Clearly a spammer.

I'd say $1 or $2 per pot

Zero is the answer.

You have probably met a poker dealer before. When you are playing poker, the dealer is the one responsible for distributing cards, taking bets and keeping the game interesting. Many people think the dealer will be tipped with the same amount as the tip given to the waitress, but that is not true. The tip for a dealer is usually different.

A couple months ago, I had a conversation with one of the players in my poker league about this. For the record, I'm a dealer in the league, players will tip me at the start of each game. Games typically last just over an hour, and we get in three games per night. Tips can range per game from $1 to $5.

The guy I was talking to was a $5 tipper.

The conversation started by discussiong the $1 tippers. Did he feel like he was over tipping, or that they were being cheap, or something else? He said that he does feel like they are taking advantage. But he also assumed that if every player tipped only $1, the dealers would lose interest in continuing to deal, so he is OK with his $5 tip. And he knows that if he or I pressure those $1 players into tipping more, they might abandon the league, and it's hard enough to find players.

Then I asked about casino poker room tipping.

He went in a direction I wasn't expecting at all. He asked:

1 - How often do you merely coast along, staying near your buy-in?
2 - How often are you way ahead?
3 - How often do you way behind, or reload?

Then he explained:

With outcome 1, being a bigger tipper can hurt. But how often are you coasting?

With outcome 2, it's easy to be a bigger tipper.

But outcome 3, which is, unfortunately, the most common outcome for me? He had a simple response. "Would you rather give it to a player* that beat you, or give it to a dealer that gave you a winner previously, and have less to give to the player*?"

Wow. That really made me think.

So now I'm giving $2 if the pot is at least $20, and it goes up from there. Bot a straight-line 10%, but more than I used to give.

I'm also tipping more at craps, as well as a buck or two at the cage.

And I'm feeling better about it, even on days where I go home down.

* As I recall, he didn't use the word "player". 🤪

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Then I asked about casino poker room tipping.

He went in a direction I wasn't expecting at all. He asked:

1 - How often do you merely coast along, staying near your buy-in?
2 - How often are you way ahead?
3 - How often do you way behind, or reload?

Then he explained:

With outcome 1, being a bigger tipper can hurt. But how often are you coasting?

With outcome 2, it's easy to be a bigger tipper.

But outcome 3, which is, unfortunately, the most common outcome for me? He had a simple response. "Would you rather give it to a player* that beat you, or give it to a dealer that gave you a winner previously, and have less to give to the player*?"

Wow. That really made me think.

So now I'm giving $2 if the pot is at least $20, and it goes up from there. Bot a straight-line 10%, but more than I used to give.

I'm also tipping more at craps, as well as a buck or two at the cage.

And I'm feeling better about it, even on days where I go home down.

* As I recall, he didn't use the word "player". 🤪
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This is more or less why I tend to tip pretty well. Although, I almost never hand the dealer the tip - I place it on the circle by my bet and if I win, the dealer wins too.

The philosophy is that if the goal is say, 5K, I'm not going to win 5210 if I didn't tip, rather, it may just take a bit longer in time to reach the goal if I have tipped out along the way.

And if I fail, and lose, I am not going to have 210 less dollars in front of me at the end because I didn't tip out.

This may not be scientific, but it just tends to work out this way.

In the past, there were times when I just "knew" that I was going to lose every chip in front of me, and didn't feel bad about tipping some out to dealers (and cocktail waitress), because at least someone was going to benefit from my stacks. And was well, other times when it was clear that I was going to achieve my goal, and that tipping along the way was not going to affect the final result at all.

I don't tip much if at all, however, until after I start winning. So if I go straight down the tubes and am not up at any point, those might be sessions where I tip very little, perhaps only during comeback rallies.

The amount to tip a poker dealer can vary depending on the type of casino and personal preference.