Actually giving it to her to hold would be against the rules and in these threads someone always talks about the cocktail waitress who is the players girlfriend. Unfortunately for us poker players that is the rare situation so it only comes up in hypotheticals

Over tipping the waitress in the hope she will capitulate and become their girlfriend is a bit more than hypothetical at many tables though.

Yeah but asking for the chips back would be counterproductive to that strategy.

happened to a buddy of mine in a large poker room

1-2 NL table, pot was around $200 on the river and the culprit had $30 behind in small denom chips. waitress brought him a drink while he was facing a bet, he tipped her $29 and called with his last buck

floor said that's allowed and walked away. ymmv

Again, could not have happened because that would intentionally deny the money to the opponent.

Hell, i will tip the waitress if a player is bringing $75 worth of a poison that diminishes the tables (or better yet, his own) ability to make rational decisions at the poker game. Someone really worries about this having a negative impact on making money?

well if you like to live in an imaginary world where that couldn't have happened then sure, I'm simply reporting facts

Whoo-de-doo. I've seen every dumb angle tried playing poker except this one. What's your solution here? Get rid of paying for stuff of your stack? Do you think that will make the game better than the rare occasion something like this may happen? Force the waitress to stand behind the guy and wait while he's in a hand that could take a couple minutes? I haven't played in too many rooms where drink service is so fast and prompt that they need to make servers wait longer. Set a $10/hr limit? If the fact that this even COULD happen sometime bothers you that much, just stick to tournies.

It was sarcastic, because I was assured this does not occur. But your reply actually applies very well to other posts in this thread.

Allow the other player(s) to object when someone does stuff like that. Nobody would ever complain about $3 before the flop but if tipping 99% of the river bet is allowed (although that example was obviously fake, since it cannot happen) when asked by a player then that's insane. It's a simple fix, just freeze all transactions when asked to, nothing more. Hopefully most floors already do this and I would assume most people have the decency to not deny their opponent $29 on a $30 bet but what is the harm in having such a simple rule in place?

Let's run off the rec player trying to have some fun with a beer. Yeah, that sounds like the EV play.

Loosen up Francis

[ ] Postworthy

meh that seems fine, most of his stack is in the pot already so thats cool. some drinks cost more than $20 anyway so this wouldnt bother me.

drinks are free at the location

not sure if it's fine by default, player dependent imo

In the story as stated, villain paid $29 so as to tilt hero, so hero should be low key untilted so villain feels like he wasted his money.

I'm on the let people pay the waitress side but 2 comments arguing the other way probably need to be clarified/argued against

1. Just don't let people pay when in a hand/chips at risk
1/2 NL limp for 2 out a $200 stack...no sir you can't give $5 to the waitress. Those chips are at risk!

2. Let players object, no one will complain about a $3 tip...
Most people are good with at least some common sense but I'm pretty sure the most petty, biggest complaining people I have ever met in my life were at a poker table

They would still complain if it was within the rules to take as much money from the table as you wanted. Nothing would change.

My vote for best solution is to speak with whoever is in charge of the food/beverage servers. Part of their protocol should be to not (or at least try not to) interrupt players while in hand.

That’s in theory correct, but in a busy poker room the waitress has maybe 30-60 seconds to serve everyone at the table their drink before moving on. There’s no extended waiting or coming back, that’s just not practical.

What’s often happening among regs when one of them is involved in a hand, is that one of the other regs takes care of the waitress and gets reimbursed by the other player later or next time.

One of the casinos I frequently play at is in a jurisdiction that doesn’t allow for free alcohol on the casino floor. One time a player asked the dealer what would happen if his drink arrives while he was all-in and the dealer told him that he can pay from his stack or out of pocket. I am not 100% sure if the dealer understood the question correctly or if his response was just wrong, but he basically told the player he could pay from his stack after being all-in.

I once saw a player take a tourney entry fee from his stack. When the floor was questioned they didn't really explain except that it was obvious he was a big time outsider.

Now that would be terrible. Bluff all in. Get called. Pull stack back..."Hold on a sec I'm gonna buy some drinks...anyone want anything while I'm at it...?"

Personally, I think it's inappropriate to pay for stuff out of your stack during a hand, but I never object to it or anything. I just don't personally do it. I always keep low bills in my front pocket at all times.

This is bad enough that I may be tempted to raise the issue. $75 is probably more than 10% of his stack under these circumstances and a rather ridiculous tip amount. Granted if he is a massive whale it almost certainly is better to let it go. I'd be suspicious if it was a good or even half decent player doing this though. (especially since the good players/pros usually aren't big tippers)

I don't see how the correct ruling should be anything other than all money in play to start the hand has to stay on table. Not suggesting anyone should make an issue over smallish tips though.

I think this provides extra incentive for servers to get my liquor back to the table faster... before I donk-off my chips..... I think it's a good thing.......

Lol dude you gotta leave the drunk fish alone, plenty of other **** to worry about.

Spot on analysis above. hmm I don't think its right. A player should not be able to take chips off the table during a hand.

If not during a hand, it wouldn't really bother me. Not sure why but I don't get why people get angry if people hit and run games. Basically double up and then leave. In a cash game, a player should be able to leave whenever they want. I know it might hurt action and take chips off the table, but I don't feel its that bad unless its a big game and a really bad recreational player.