I think this varies a little bit according to the situation.

It's one thing to bink a $20k score at your local casino if you are a reg...

It's quite another thing to bink a $30k score at some casino you only play at once a year...

and quite another thing to bink a $60k+ score in a multi-day super huge field MTT

then throw in tournaments in which the rake is: A) heavy, B) medium, C) light...

With all that being said, I think tipping any amount around 1% - 2% is fine. Truth is, no matter what amount you tip everyone is going to think you should have tipped more. Everyone is always more generous with money that isn't theirs. I'm always amazed at how someone will tip what I think is a decent tip and then others who busted out are quick to say, "You should have tipped X amount more!!!"

And truth be told, memory spans on tipping are gold-fish short. For the most part, most people do not know, remember, or care what you tipped and after a day or so it fades away anyways....

In the days before most places took out 3 percent for staff, you generally were expected to leave a 3 percent tip (which was a big number if you hit something big). Now the 3 percent is withheld almost everywhere, however, you are expected to leave another 1 percent because not all of the 3 percent goes to the dealers.

so they basically are getting the players for another 1 percent. its basicallly how alot of industries are, squeeze more out of the little guys (dealers and players and give more to the house.

also, 10 percent rake on small events was pretty standard and much much less on anything above 1k. obviously, that has changed also.

the concept of a forced tip in poker tournaments is not necessarily a bad thing. if a guy binks a million and leaves nothing than the dealers end up making 7 bucks an hour. but its been another way to get more from the players.

I agree wholeheartedly. The casinos have made a money grab for funds that were supposed to be for dealers, but isn't, and then they give players the guilt trip when dealers don't get tipped enough. And frankly, dealers play along because they have no other choice. Who are they going to complain to.. their employers? I don't think so.

I don't think there is any sort of industry-wise policy. I just think it used to be that the "staff fee" was for the dealers. In fact, they used to call it a "dealer fee". Then they changed it to "staff" to get around the fact that most, if not all, of it no longer goes to the dealers. Many players are unaware of this, and even those who are find it difficult to pick up the slack by tipping more. The economics of playing live poker are hard enough on their own.

Not true at all.
There may be some % going to floor staff and tournament organizing staff. But dealers do get their cut.
And to be fair,floor and tournament staff also work as hard .

comparatively speaking, the dealers do way more work in a tournament then the floor and tournament staff.

Sorry, dealing is hard freaking work and not an easy job though they make it look easy. Tournament staff spend 80% of their time hanging out and talking to each other, 15% of their time walking around, updating the board, and 5% of their time settling disputes.

Whereas dealers spend 100% of their time dealing and running the games. So its not even close.

Just sayin, dealers do the brunt of the "hard work" as far as tournaments go. Not to say that the floor and tournament staff aren't appreciated or that their work isn't important.

But lets be real here, trying to pretend the two are even closely equivalent in terms of "hard work" is ridiculous. Dealers deserve the vast majority of the rake in regards to tournaments and the "staff fees" tip jar...

Yup, and they're usually pretty darn generous with your money. I've seen a number of places auto-tip 18% for you.

pretty much every time I've gone to any decent restaurant as a group of more than 10 people, the restaurant has seen fit to auto-tip themselves 18%.

I've also notice that often times our service isn't all that good either, I mean, why bother to deliver good service when you are auto-tipped 18% on a $300+ ticket.

I would say this is not only common but the norm for most decent restaurants when dealing with groups.

Ironically, whenever I'm part of a group of people in which we are eating at a restaurant that doesn't auto-tip, usually our tips come out to greater than 18%, and similarly, it's easier to hide a cash tip off the books than it is to hide a tip that is printed on the receipt...

I guess the restaurant thing is a little off topic. However, my understanding is the reason many restaurants auto-tip for larger parties is because restaurants, at their root, are a throughput business. Large groups reduce throughput, and are therefore less profitable. This is particularly true of busy restaurants.

I have evidence from one major east coast casino that their dealers get none of the staff fee. I don't know if this is the exception or the rule. I suspect different casinos have different policies. But to claim that what I said is "not true at all", is far from reality. I think it would be fair to say that dealers don't get much from the "staff fees", even in those situations where they aren't completely cut out.

To be honest, I really don't understand why floor staff and tournament organizers are entitled to any sort of "tip" compensation. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of floor people that do a great job and in general, I have plenty of respect for them. They should be compensated competitively for the work they do. But they don't interact much with most of the players. So, the whole tipping concept eludes me. I mean, when you go to a restaurant, do you tip every employee in the restaurant or do you tip the person who directly interacted with you the most?

I have a real issue with floor staff and managers chopping dealer tips when floor staff are barely doing anything and dealers are working hard. You want to tip the dealers but the idea of tipping floorstaff who are the opposite of helpful is not attractive.