I bet the brush would have too.

So great. I'm imagining some of my least favorite nit/stiffs having to suffer through this, instead of imagining me punching them in the face until I have nothing but a stump for a limb. It's nice to get a night off from that daily fantasy.

We don't have nearly as many tables as you do, but we have a tournament that takes all of them every 2 weeks. After 20 years these guys still go nuts every single time.

We had a BUNCH of $2-4 LHE games today (we're a racetrack, and it was Derby Day).

I walk in, it's my Monday, I *really* don't feel like working, and I draw Table One. It's obv the first table in the room, and it offers a great view of the folks walking through the cardroom.

Well, today was unbelievable. This "let's get dressed up and go watch the Derby" thing is really starting to catch on....and the weather was probably the nicest it's been for a Derby Day since I moved up here to the Great White North...and the Derby had just finished, and literally thousands of race-goers are checking out the cardroom...AND WE ARE WALL TO WALL IN HOT GIRLS IN SHORT TIGHT DRESSES AND HIGH HEELS.

This...this simply does not happen around here. What a breath of fresh air!

None of them are playing, they're just walking around, hanging out....and I got the best seat in the house!

The players are appreciating the unusual scenery, as well. Except one OMC, of course. After 4-5 approving comments, OMC snarls, "I think it's comical!"

He paused to inhale before continuing, and I jumped right in before he could crap on everyone's enjoyment. Shaking my head, I told him, "Nope! You're not gonna rain on MY parade!" I was delighted that he STFU.

At another table, another OMC, a $2-4 LHE regular, adopted a new battle cry: "I *never* call a raise from the pre-flop!" English is his first language, so I have no idea why that phrase includes the words "from the"...but he was true to his word. About 2/3rds of the hands that down featured a PF raise, and he folded to every single one of them. But each time, we had to pause so he could make it clear to one and all that, "I *never* call a raise from the pre-flop!" He said it every. Single. Time.

Had a guy in a made-up accent say about 6 times in 30 seconds "He have straight on the blop!"

I don't know why, but "straight on the blop" actually got funny the more he said it, and everyone was laughing. A rare occurrence.

Derby Day coming on the heels of that huge tourney has led to a lot of tired poker dealers. A lot of dealers calling for the floor, who usually don't--myself included. I made such a mess of a sidepot last night that it took me a minute to untangle it, and I was still missing a chip (after the floor was called, and I explained that we're only off by a chip, one player voluntarily tossed in a chip to get the game going again; if I had to guess, he owed a chip to the side pot any way).

Floor calls haven't only been for mistakes. One mild-mannered dealer was really letting the players have it when the entire table tried to argue with her about the dreaded "all cards must be shown after an all-in-and-call in the tournament". I'm sure that she has dealt with this countless times before, and never gotten so loud about it.

So it is within this context, that I crossed one off my bucket list last night. The player in this story has his earbuds in and his texting app open. He needs to be prompted every single time, for every single thing (including calling for the blinds), and he can't hear anything. Tapping the felt doesn't work, your only shot is to tap the rail in front of him (he's sitting next to the dealer). I got re-routed to this table, so I got a double dose of this, and by the end of the second down, I had enough.

(blinds are $1-2)

UTG: Raise to five. (tosses in red chip)

UTG+2: Call. (tosses in red chip)

(action to Earbuds Texter, who is texting)

YTF: (slaps rail in front of him; goes back to watching tv while we wait for him to act surprised that he has cards, gather them up, look at them, and consider his action)

EARBUDS TEXTER: (does all that, then sees the trail of red chips leading to him) Is it two? Or Five?

YTF: (ignores him, continues to watch tv)

EARBUDS TEXTER: (sees me watching tv, tries again a little louder) Is it two, or five?

YTF: (lets him squirm just a little more, then replies) I'm ignoring you. See how YOU like it!

(Because of the , no one gets mad.)

Filing away...

Make a copy of that for me, TIA.

YTF: (locks up toke) Thank you!

PLAYER KNOWN FOR PESTERING DEALERS: You're welcome. . .even though you cracked my aces AND my kings since you got to this table.

YTF: You say that like you lost with a full house.

(Entire table grins)

I used to say "I can't play them for ya!" but I realized how actually mean that is, even if it gets laughs from a few players that feel my pain.

For what it's worth - at least two casinos in the L.A. area are hiring FT poker dealers now: The Gardens and The Bike.

I was recently offered FT at Commerce but turned it down once I heard from several people tokes there average $120-$150 per day. Is HG better than that?

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

Not really - mostly because the nightly drop is a flat 15% no max. Though I've heard from several dealers who left Commerce to work at HG that their work life has improved a lot.

What does this mean?

It means you have to tip out 15% of what you make to the floors/chip runners/etc. Some places cap you're max tip out at a certain number, where I work it's 15% or $2.50 per table (max of $22.50) whichever amount is least.

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

is 15% pretty standard out west?

Yeah, that seems crazy...but then again, I've never tipped out floors, only chip runners and brush/boardmen.

that seems really high.... that meams floor is making over 100 a day in tips in a small room..Im in Las Vegas, when I floor Im lucky to make 30 a day.

Also depends where you floor, I'm in Vegas also and work in one room where I see floors make a Ton of money

One place in Reno (maybe others) you're expected to tip at least 10% at the end of your shift. I was there for a tournament and they told us flat out if you don't plan on tipping don't even bother asking to deal cash. One guy was tipping 20% and got to basically set his own schedule.

I think I'd rather have the 15% with a max than basically be forced to bribe the person making the schedule.

In Philly, Delaware and Maryland, places I have dealt in casinos, it is actually against the rules for floor people to get tipped by players. I saw two floor people lose their jobs for accepting gratuities from a player who won a bad beat jackpot at one stop. As such I have not had to tip floor people (and I have turned down tips from players while flooring).

None of the rooms I worked at had designated chip runners though Delaware Park has a couple of ladies who do that and run the board as well as other helpful tasks and it's customary to throw them a buck or two. I always tip a buck or more to cashiers when I cash out.

None of this is mandatory, however.

In the mid 80's we had to tip 30%, and also had to bring money to help start games. You also had to tip 10% of the strange money in the pot when you were playing.

We still made 30% or more than we do today.

I had one temp job dealing tournaments here where the management told us that if we got to deal cash games we should remember to tip out the floors or brushes .... it wasn't required .... but if we ever expected to be allowed to deal cash again we had better do it.

I immediately thought these idiots don't understand. If I went to HR of this company and told them what was being aid I'm pretty sure the **** would hit the fan. Not that the sentiment behind it was not accepted by the company.... but I am pretty sure that they would never allow it to be stated so bluntly (its illegal in this state to require a kickback for employment and basically thats what they were saying). There are plenty of ways this information could have been more subtly conveyed.....

I had one job where I regluarly tipped out the floor 10%. I did this because ethe floor was the floor and list attendant and cashier and chip runner and she was the best floor person I had ever worked with in that she actually supervised games ...... None of the other dealers tipped out that much, and she was not the most well liked floor person so that certainly impacted that.

I started my current job (10 years ago) as a temporary dealerfor a tournament series. At the end of the series I went around to the key floor people and tipped them out for the whole series at once.

Chip runners I tend to not tip on a daily basis but rather i periodically give them a twenty.

I tip the cashiers $1 a day when i cash out. Our floors pool tips now And I don't tip them as much as I should but I have been trying to remember to do so (they close the pool before the end of my shift so if I tip at the end of my shift I am tipping the floors on the next shift.

When i worked a couple of poker cruises the policy was we were supposed to tip a flat rate per day (they kept a list) I would just give them the tips for the whole cruise on the first day and be done with it and this always seemed to keep me in the good graces of the staff.

I worked at one room where the floors were not allowed to accept tips from dealers. But I was told by one floor that sometimes chips magically appeared in his jacket pocket..... I simply bought my floor a good sized gift certifcate when the holidays came around and put in a holiday card since that wasn't against the rules.

Jesus Christ, I hate the whole tipping culture, even though we accept tips here in the UK. Luckily ours are pooled so I'm not expected to do anything ridiculous like go around tipping random staff members.

We have only been allowed to accept tips in the gaming business in the last 8-9 years. I remember before it was allowed, one of our big roulette players gave her favourite dealer a Louis Vuitton wallet and a £50 which she had origami'd into a swan. He was allowed to keep the wallet, but not the £50.

Words that can only be spoken by someone who has never worked in a "keep your own" situation.