This is day 2 of our big annual event. I'll be working 19 days in a row, at least 8 hours per day.

I got in the box tonight and all I could think about were unappreciative *******s who found no rudeness in asking me what my hourly wage is, worrying that I make money that I don't deserve, how I should feel lucky that I have a job at all, how anyone that dares tip a dealer more than a dollar under any circumstance was an idiot because even a monkey could do my job and how dare they...

I actually had one of the best night of my life, but the first hour, I was just bogged down with negativity. I fought through it, fortunately, which led me to the great night (and a lot of luck such as dealing the High Hand and pushing some big pots to the right people). But why should I have to fight through negativity when, without it, I go into work enthusiastic, always wondering what the next hand will bring?

So yeah, I am done with that other thread (I am pretty sure you know which one I am referring to). You guys who never go there are smarter than I am. If you ever see me go back on my word and enter that lion's den again, send me a PM and tell me I am an idiot.

I was thinking about doing that a couple weeks ago when you started to lose it in there, but I figured you're an adult and you can make your own decisions. It's good that you decided to get away from it though. That thread was created basically as flypaper for trolls and it's worked really nicely in that capacity.

If you go back to the beginning of it there's some decent discussion, but recently it's been mostly useless.

Ignore the haters, man.

No matter what you do in life or where you go, there are gonna be haters. If they can't hate on one thing, then they'll hate on something else. A hater's gonna hate: it's what gives them pleasure. Don't fall into their trap.

Keep a positive attitude. Life is so much better when you have one.


--klez

A friendly player who knows you by name is part of a tournament chop. You are running chips and at the cage when he is getting paid and he actually goes out of his way, when he sees the tourney toke box, to say to you "we're working a chop out, but don't worry, we'll get you guys."

A few minutes later, you are out on the floor doing your chip run, and you witness the player go to a dealer who you like personally and think is one of the best dealers in the room and see him giving her some cash which she accepts with gratitude and puts in her box.

Taking a tournament toke for yourself is against the rules. However, it is not impossible the dealer took the toke to be polite (and make sure the player didn't have a change of heart if asked to put it in the tournament toke box) and put it in her box (because where else can she put it?), with the idea of cracking it open at the first opportunity and putting it where it belongs. This is plausible, but you have no idea either way.

At this point you could handle it several ways - you can talk to the dealer after the push, you can talk to a supervisor, you can just ignore it. What do you do here? If it matters, you dealt one tournament down - and it was to the nice player, coincidentally enough.

Then before you even finish your chip run (and before the dealer was pushed) the main supervisor asks you "did you see a player give _______ cash just before?" He apparently saw it, or enough of it, and now, you can either tell the truth and be "that guy" who rats out a co-worker, or feign ignorance but know that you are lying to your boss about something that you saw which is against the rules and actually cost you money (not very much, but still).

How do you guys handle this?

Well, I don't work in the industry, but as a general principle once the boss asks then I think you have to be truthful. Whether she's handling it the appropriate way or not, it's not your responsibility to put your career on the line to cover for her.

^Pretty much this

also lol @ posting in the cesspool thread. Come on man! That's for trolls, fleas, and people who just want to argue nonstop.

To be fair, I like a good debate. But monkeys flinging poo is not a good debate.

This, but I'd add something along the lines of "I assumed she was going to put it in the tourney tip box."

NYC, what a weird situation. Do you know whether the cash was intended for all the dealers or for that dealer in particular? And if you don't, is there really any way to know?

I don't have any problem with this suggestion, but I probably would be truthful and skip adding my own commentary. Then I'd let the dealer know afterwards what happened and what I said just to make sure he/she is privy to everything happening.

Its irrelevant. All the dealers dealing the tournament have an agreement to pool the tokes. The players intention is irrelevant.

If those tokes go in that dealers box she is stealing from her coworkers and there is nothing lower than that.

If the dealer is going to do the right thing, then answering truthfully is the correct way to go.

If the dealer is NOT going to do the right thing then answering truthfully is the correct way to go.

If you want your boss to be able to trust you, then answering truthfully is the correct way to go.

I have found that the people who accuse others of "ratting them out" are the ones who have most to lose by the truth being told.

It's also possible that the player was tipping that dealer for some other reason. That dealer had a birthday for instance. Slim but possible.

I worked in a room once that while a tournament was going on ALL tokes were pooled, cash games too.

Yeah I don't work there anymore.

Me too but the tournaments generally were very short duration and actually I rarely worked when a tournament was going on.

--Boss asks me if I saw anything, my answer is always, "I can't be sure."

--When I was writing race book tickets, the sharper players always came to my window, because they could depend on my skills for fast, accurate tickets (it sucks when you get shut out because the ticket writer is screwing up, and is more worried about voiding the mistake tickets than getting your bet in). One sharpie went on a huge heater, and wanted to tip me $100 (a gargantuan toke in the race book), but only if it went to me exclusively--he didn't want to part with $100 if I was only going to get $2-3 of it. He told me to meet him in the men's room, where there are no cameras.

I declined, with thanks.

Personally, I think in a spot like this, a waiver from the toke pool is in order. Better one guy gets the $100, then all the guys getting $0. I don't even know why we had to pool tokes there, we only got about $2/day each. We only bothered to cut 'em up every two weeks. I guess because that was the only way we could take out the water cooler money.

Sooooooooo many times I would hear from a regular after pushing a huge pot "Are you on a tournament box?" Yes. Dollar toke.

Have I mentioned how thankful I am for my current gig lately? It's been almost 3 years (Edit: Holy crap! 3 years to the day!) since this.

The casino I worked at that did this owned a second a casino .... a small dump with no poker room. But they had a daily poker tournament. To deal that tournament they had a few dealers most of which could not deal a lick.

They tore the old place down and built a new casino with a poker room. I Transfered to the new place. When we opened we had 5 of us from the old place, a bunch of dealers of mixed experience levels who were new to the company, and 3 dealers from the old dump's tournament dealers (one of them was actually a dealer and the other two were terrible.... and had no experience dealing cash games).

So before we opened the issue of the tournament tips, and pooling cash game tokes during the tournaments came up, the matter was put up for a vote .... secret ballot. There 2 votes in favor of pooling cash tokes during the tournaments ...... I wonder which two voted for that.

Yeah I moved out of Missouri which had complete pooled tokes at the time I was dealing there. Pooled only during tournaments was a step up. Then I finally got to a room where my income is my income.

On the subject of pooled tokes:

I am a table games dealer, and I realize this will not apply to most since almost all of you are poker dealers. Hopefully I can get some advice anyway. We pool table games tokes at my casino (think ~2k dealer hours, ~30k toke pool for the day). I've never been directly offered tips directly into my pocket, but I know it might happen and I want to be prepared. I talked to one of my supervisors who used to deal and he said he once accepted a 2k tip from a high stakes BJ player who met him at a gas station after his shift ended. I realize it's unethical but it's hard to turn down especially considering it's such a large toke pool and the effect on your fellow dealers will be minimal. Any thoughts?

Its not just unethical..... Its stealing.

Do you want to keep your job? Try not stealing.

Okay, that's all I needed to hear. And to be clear, that's how I always felt about it too, but hearing that story from my supervisor made me second-guess myself. It does make me wonder how often that sort of thing goes on, especially with certain dealers getting put in the high limit area almost every day.

my supervisors informed us a while ago that if we ever come across or hear this to call them over immediately and they'll give them the boot for the day. They can't belittle us or effect our pockets in any way. I highly suggest you bring this idea up to your PRM

He was referring to people who said those things in the tipping thread, not IRL. Still, your room's policy is obv a good one.