I was playing a low stakes cash game last weekend, and there was a major bad player with a huge (400+ blinds) stack. He was very deliberate/slow in his actions - even slightly confused as to what was going on sometimes, but no one at the table minded as he was basically going to donate his stack - and most likely rebuy - multiple times - eventually.

Then a new dealer arrives, not knowing the history of the table - and she starts chiding him somewhat into making faster decisions. It probably would have been fine - even appreciated under normal conditions, but not here. The player even said it was annoying to him and made him not want to play.

So is there a tactful way of handling this situation with the dealer? Should the dealer know what's going on?

Straight up tell the dealer that the table is fine with how George is playing ... and then toss her $10 to make up for the hands (ie tips) she will lose due to his slow play.

Do what the guy above said, minus the tip.

Do what the guy above says, but add a $5 tip.

Or at least throw $1 and hope that a few other people do as well. I'd probably expect 1 other (IME) but hope for 2-3.

theres slow and then theres slow. im fine with the dealer hurrying them up if its absolute death, 1-2 minutes per action or longer, ive seen it with drunks and was SOOOO happy to see them picked up and their $165 leave my 2/5 game. so id be ok with the dealer/floor doing something about removing or speeding the player up.

Now if this guy was just a slow noob, checking his cards, delay, then, counting out by 10's to make an 80 bet, slowly, thats totally fine by me. especially if they are awful and have chips. id rather the dealer ignore the slow noob.

but the people drunk or on meds literally killing the game, isnt worth 1 fish.

This

No tip peeps, you are not paying the dealer for the awesome job they are doing, you are throwing out a tiny amount of money in order to defuse the tension at the table which keeps the whale happy.

to actually answer the question, no I do not think the dealer was out of line, it is their job to keep the game going, and help make money for the house - never mind the tips, slow players = low rake counts, and in a lot of rooms dealers are held to their rake counts for a reason

Agree the dealer was not out of line and there are plenty of tactful ways to communicate the table's acceptance of slower-than-normal behavior from said player

This.
But doing this will help let the dealer know what's going on and they may not be so aggressive about it. I agree that just tossing a dollar and hoping others follow is probably enough, but the dealer still has a job to do.

You actually answer ypur own question when you say in other circumstances it would be fine. If it would be fine if the player weren't a huge fish I don't see how the dealer behavior becomes inappropriate just because you are willing to tolerate the players behavior becuase you belive the player is giving away money.

(There are ways a dealer can try to speed a game that are inappropriate so its not that it is impossible for the dealer to be wrong here but you don;t seem to take issue with the "how").

Remember the dealer has obligations to the house as well as the players. Slow play slows the rake.

The dealer also has obligations to the players who don't like being at the table with a slow drunk or drugged up dude. They tend to be the most vocal and will bail, leaving the table in danger of breaking. I had one of them at a 2/5 a while back and had 5 people leave in disgust even though he was trying to give his money away. One of them even yelled at me "I want him gone!".

Same thing with mildly abusive but bad players. I know some will want them scolded or kicked out, others want them to stay until their money is gone.

Giving hints to the dealer would be best. "He's fine, just a little slow. We're having a good time here" or "He keeps getting slower and slower, can you call the floor?"

These guys get it

What if the tip does nothing? I just lit $10 on fire.

I'll tip based on the dealer's reaction and future actions when I win a pot later.

One of my poker pet peeves is slow players and all of the one's I've come across are bad rec players. I want to get in as many hands as possible without having one player slow up the game.

Dealers also get annoyed when they're taken out of their rhythm. I've even seen a dealer get semi tilted a few days ago by a slow player. However I've never seen a dealer try to speed up a player.

I personally prefer a faster player in his seat even if it means he's a better player. There are 8 other players at the table who have a shot at his stack anyway, I'm not guaranteed to get a part of it, so I also can't justify throwing the dealer $10 tips to leave him alone.

If the guy is raising or calling everyone's raise with ATC and calling people down with air, maybe that might change my mind but I have yet to see someone that terrible to justify dealing with a slow player.

If that ten bucks is such a big deal, then maybe you are at the wrong location...view it in the same context as campaign contributions- you are hoping for future results. But if nothing comes of it, then so effing what...its a whopping ten bucks.

"Hey dealer, we're not professionals here!"

I can not recall playing at a casino with anyone like that unless they are very drunk or stoned or maybe some total beginners. But I guess it could happen from time to time. If it was me , I would say something like "It's OK we like his style" with maybe a nod and a wink. Now the dealer and house do have a priority for more hands /more rake/more tips. I get that too.

Plus some players who like to play lots of hands (good players or weak players) might be put on minor tilt by such a slow player. That could also be not a bad thing IMHO

Everyone who thinks zero money should be tossed out should write this quote on the blackboard 100 times.

I do agree $10 is excessive but I think most winners should agree $1 is a tiny amount of money.

I 'spend' ~ $100/yr on $1 tips when I think that the dealer's done something especially well and announce loudly why I've done it. The dealers appreciate it and takes a bit of the 'this player doesn't tip like some of these others do' out of their minds. I might do it in this scenario also but would more likely go w/ something like what chill said.

In before lock due to tip talk.

Yep agree $10 is likely too much if this is 1/2. I think we can reasonably ballpark that the EV of an attempt to keep the whale happy would be worth +1bb and then anything around there is where we pitch at.

The dollar amount is just utterly irrelevant. I hope your post makes you feel better about yourself, though. Good job! You sound super rich!

The tip is a straight up ev play. Asking what if nothing happens is the same as asking what if your AK loses to JJ aipf. So while there is a chance the tip does nothing there is also the chance it does everything. Nothing is -$10, everything is stack fish for 400 bigs. Middle ground is keeping a drunk whale in a game which is going to make our hourly 3-4x higher than normal just bc that is what happens.

The equity of diffusing table tension is huge. Very few live players get this but I have made thousands of dollars in situations others wouldn’t have bc I do v/simple things like what the 2 gentlemen I quoted said.

I’m talking like letting whales pull back bets, always having chips in my pocket for the guy who doesn’t want to get up, throwing in the bb when people aren’t sure who put in what, having 3 diff phone chargers, etc.

A large portion of your wr in live NL comes from individual mistakes. The deeper/drunker/worserer players are the more we should facilitate them bc their individual mistakes are substantially more important to us.