I always liked the way it was handled when i played in biloxi. I tried to tip the floor for a comp(which they were always gracious to give me) and their reply was to just throw it to the dealer at the game behind the podium. They work for salary but explained the dealers (obviously) can and do appreciate all gratuities. I thought it was win/win. You showed your gratitude (and maybe increased your chances of getting future comps) and a random dealer got an extra 5 or 10.

poker supervisors at Hollywood casino in wv cant accept tips, even when they are dealing as a dealer for a few hands till the regular dealer arrives.

surprised that md live supervisors can accept tips, and not just when dealing for a few hands.

As a dealer, there's little that's worse than dealing at a crappy table of players who refuse to put money in the pot. 3 or 4 consecutive hands of preflop folding with the last two players chopping the blinds is a real downer. Especially when it's at a 2-5 (or bigger) table.

That said, I can't imagine there's too many dealers who would begrudge a player for not tipping when they steal the blinds. Is it appreciated? Sure it is. Expected? Hardly.

Whether you think about it or not, it is not a 1500% tip.

Depends.

1. How well is the staff paid?
2. How much is the rake?
3. Will not tipping have the dealer angleshoot you, or "throw the rulebook" in your face?
4. How professional / courteous the dealer is?


To address them individually, here is the bottom line: Poker is a game you play to maximize your profits. It is not your job to make sure the house takes care of their employees. It is a gratuity at the discretion of players. So given the factors:

1. If the staff if paid minimum, or below minimum wage and rely on tips, I will usually tip $1 per big pot (anything that comes close to a +1BI profit), or more if the pot is bigger. I will not tip on small $50-100 pots. Those come around too often and tipping will usually cut into your bottom line. If I haven't won a pot in a while and just picked up 1/2 BI, then I will probably toss a buck.

2. If the rake is $14 a hand (like some places in Canada) and the staff is paid $30 an hour base + full benefits, then I will tip zero. Unless...

3. Yes some dealers have that kind of power to screw you over when there is a marginal decision. I saw a dealer kill someone hand at Foxwoods because he touched his cell phone during a hand (it was later addressed to floor in private). I had another dealer in Canada allow a player to mis-represent his hand in order to angleshoot a player into mucking. The cards were very retrievable. But the dealer made up a false story to the floor to penalize that player (who happened to be a cheapskate with tips).

Bottom line is, tipping is not an obligation, nor is it a charity. We are playing poker, we are financially looking out for ourselves. The first and foremost (and ONLY reason) I see for tipping is not getting screwed over by the dealer in the future or become a target to other players. Don't want the game to become uncomfortable. Else, the job is your choice. Doesn't require much skill or education.

I will also add that if it's at a place where the majority of dealers are also professional poker players, then I will tip zero. You simple don't "**** where you eat".

I have never heard of a place like this (most dealers are also pro players, sounds like a contradiction), but I also don't understand who you think is ****ing where they are eating.

I meant if you are rendering a service to customers who pay your salary and give you tips, but also take their ****ing money at the tables, do not expect them to give you something when they don't have to.

On the one hand, I hate just about everything that OP says in his post and disagree with almost all of it. But on the other hand, I'd never want to play in the room where I work. It just seems like bad business for me. Furthermore, when I see friendly regs from my room at other casinos where I'm playing, I'll almost always check it down with them if we're heads up.

You should leave or ask for a table change rather than soft play. There really is little difference between soft playing them at your room (which I'd assume you'd do if you did play at your room) and soft playing at another room.

Boo hoo. When you sit at a table people are trying to take your money. If that happens to be a dealer who works at that room, then so be it; it would not affect how I view their professionalism in the box. If he slowrolled me or shoots angles or curses at players at the table when he takes a beat, then it would.

I just feel like playing in my own room would be bad form. I say this while keeping these 2 things in mind:

1. Casino employees are prohibited from playing in a casino where they work in Florida, so I don't have to worry about the temptation.

2. I've got enough seniority at my room where I work FT and we've got enough business where I don't have to sit in the breakroom for 2-3 hours hoping more tables open up so that I can do my job.

Perhaps if I worked in a different region I might feel otherwise, and I don't begrudge a Vegas dealer in a small room for throwing a hoodie on over his work shirt to grind for 2 or 3 hours on the clock rather than nap in the breakroom or EO.

As for soft play and/or switching tables, you have to understand that the poker community isn't that large and there aren't that many places to play in South Florida. I'd have to drive an hour or more to land in a room where I'm not recognized as a dealer by a handful of players.

What I'm saying is, it's not likely for me to assume that I can just jump from one table to another without running into a friendly face sitting near me. I'll add that soft play isn't really frowned upon in this region the way it seems to be in other places (based on comments I've read on 2P2). And while you can argue that it's a form of collusion, I have no guilt about going along with soft play as long as there's no intent to drive other players out of the hand just to check it down to the river. I play my hardest to win as much as possible - just up to the point where I happen to find myself heads up against certain people.

If I'm consistently getting 3bet, floated, outplayed, sucked out, bluffed, merged, hero called, squeezed and overall lose to advanced sophisticated poker plays by the same cluster of players, who also happens to work as dealers, they're professionals in my books. They disrupts my bottom line and take away my edge over the rest of the table. GG WP. But don't expect me to tip you for what you call your "job" just so you don't have to pay taxes on your poker winnings.

Seriously?

At which establishment did this happen?

While, in my experience, dealers are not as universally bad players as some on this Forum like to portray, I have never played in a cardroom where a decent percentage of the dealers would be considered "excellent" players, let alone "advanced sophisticated".

Please stop posting.

Are you asserting there are professional poker players who take jobs as dealers so they can attempt to conceal their poker winnings more easily? That's really absurd. Why not get a job as a waiter or a valet then? If you're getting consistently getting outplayed by the valet, are you not going to tip him anymore?

No offense to dealers, but if you're getting your ass whipped by dealers on the reg, then you need to work on your game. Most dealers just want to spew and play hands, not nit up 10/8 stats after pitching cards all day.

What if he was a waitor at a fine restaurant opposed to being a poker dealer? Would you still stiff him?

While I disagree with OP's opinions and conclusions, why do you think that a lot of cardrooms bar their dealers from playing? Why do you think a lot of dealers refuse to play in their own rooms, even if allowed?

Really not the same as a valet or waiter sitting down in your 5/10. Especially to a decent percentage of players.

I know why dealers don't and why rooms disallow it. It's because of stupid people and stupid dealers (i.e., dealers that abuse players). I once had quad over quads vs a dealer in a 30/60 limit game and lost a huge pot. The next day she's in the box dealing to me and I'm toking her as usual because she was a great dealer. She's a poor player who coolered me; whatever, coolers happen, and I'd rather it be a poor player than a good player who's going to lock that money up.

I know and understand all the "whys and why nots", my point was, OP was claiming that it wasn't really his "job" but rather just his way of not having to pay takes on his poker winnings. And to that I say, bull ****. I don't care if that dealer CRUSHES the games when he's on the other side of the felt---when he's sitting in that box, he deserves the same treatment, respect, and gratuities that you would normally give to any other dealer in the box because he's still offering you that service, he's still answering to a boss, he's still taking that crap that players like to sling, he's still punching a clock and breaking his back etc..It's still a J_O_B. That's all I'm saying.

OP is just giving a reason to stiff the guy opposed to what he should be doing, and that's, figuring out why a dealer is beating you so badly at the poker table. Look inward, grasshopper!

This. John the dealer and John the player have absolutely nothing to do with each other. OP needs to learn to compartmentalize.

Because cardrooms are filled with people like OP, honestly.

Dealers should not be able to play at the same casino they work at, IMO. It is just a bad look for both the casino and the employee.

When the dealer (a working employee) is dealing to a fellow, off-the-clock employee, doesn't that just give the appearance of poor game integrity and independence? I mean, in 99% of cases the actual game integrity would still be the same, but wouldn't it affect the appearance?

Not to mention what would happen when an off-the-clock dealer wins a big pot off of someone, and then is in the box dealing to them the next day (Land o Lakes, that is obviously a very reasonable attitude you had after losing a huge pot to an off-the-clock dealer, but many people that frequent casinos aren't exactly reasonable).

I don't know, I've only been to two casinos, but I thought it was standard practice that casinos weren't supposed to let their dealers play poker when they were off the clock?

Didn't think I owed them anything.

How about I start dealing on my button and collect tokes from the winking player? Instead of them going to the dealer. Then maybe I'll justify tipping a dealer who sits at my table, squeezes me out of pots with fish, floats me and raises my straddles. You wanna fight for it, we'll fight. No charities in poker.

Is the wink some sort of signal that they're going to tip you? Would be curious as to actual dealers' experience with it.