Generally, any tokes received during a tournament are pooled. I suppose some rooms have different policies than others on this.

If you do this in almost any of the California rooms, you'll be a very popular player....

I feel like most dealers in the United States and mainly just in Florida are spoiled- ive been playing live for the last 3 or so years and ive played semi live for more then 10 years. Im going to list some issues that bother me with dealers and some tips for dealers that want to make more or how to just be a better dealer.

Ill just say I'm a pretty well known pro in south Florida poker, and I would estimate I tip anywhere from 10-15k a year. My main stakes are 2-5nl and 5-10Nl but ive played some bigger games up to 10-25nl and 25plo. I generally tip 1$ every time there is more then 35$s in the pot at 2-5 or 100$ in any other game. I tip 5% on jackpots and generally ill tip 2-5$s anytime I win a bigger pot depending on what I think of the dealer or how my session/day/month/year is going.

there are some dealers that I refuse to tip because they do not care and I will give their tips to other dealers who try hard.


I would estimate in south florida most dealers are making around 30-50 dollars a hour and that is a pretty good rate considering they only need to take a class to mainly get hired. If everyone tipped 1$ per hand and a dealer could put out 35- hands per hour I think that with high hands and hourly rate no reason a good dealer don't deserve to make 60-100k a year.

#1 - I think the most important thing for a dealer is to move the action along in a game. Make sure that the blinds are posted and your reminding players that the action is on them, I don't necessarily care how fast a dealers pitch is but that they are paying attention to the game and they are moving it along if it is slow. - counting the bank, worrying about fills, calling the floor for non needed things also affects the speed of the game.

(figure out ways to get more hands in per down, one example is in most NL games not to drag all the money in preflop, wait till the flop is out and drag the limps it saves you a few secs which adds up to a lot of hands at the end of the year. )(work on your pitch)

#2 - Appreciate the tips you receive - Saying a simple thank you for getting a tip cost you nothing. - Taking the time to remember player names and greeting people when you get to the table go along way. A light conversation will earn you more tips, being neutral sided in debates is probably the best play. Goto the regulars once in a while and put your hand on the shoulder , say hi to them shake their hand, greet them talk sports keep a general interest in them.


#3 - Know the games- one thing that drives players crazy is not knowing a game- if you don't know how to deal PLO , learn it go home and practice dealing it, learn the hand ranks, a lot of casinos in florida just hire people to be brushes then they are put in to pitch hold em and soon a plo game happens and they don't know the pot they don't know what hands win.

Also ill add to here no one likes a rule Nazi- do what you think is in best interest of the game. for instance if your game has a whale whos punting off money and he wants to put his chips in the rack prior to leaving and you have a rule that don't allow racks, don't call him out and ruin the game, keep your game in order but let people have fun, if some one is drunk try to do your best to speed the game along and im sure a lot of people want that drunk guy in the game so don't call the floor every time he acts out of line.


#4 keep your mouth shut - Pretty much don't talk about players, don't be negative even if some one never tips. Poker like it or not is a dying game- every member is part of the economy. Just because a player don't tip or is a prick or a ******* he's a paying customer- and mainly if hes not tipping its because hes losing and some one else is winning that money and tipping it to you. If floors/dealers/ casino employees are all rude to these type of customers they stop coming which means less games for you to deal.

Ill add here you should never look at a players whole cards they mucked, you should never talk about a player and how they play or try to predict some ones whole cards on a river show down. Don't gossip about money players tip or how much money a player wins or losses. Just be professional.

What you want in #1 regarding pulling in chips after the flop is usually what bad dealers do imo.

While I agree with moving the game along being a good dealer trait, I came across an over-hyped dealer the other day that was too far into the 'keep the game moving' realm.
After pitching the cards he would point at the first guy to act and say 'checkorbet'(like it was one word) and when that guy folded he would point to the next guy and say 'checkorbet' and he keeps pointing at you and after 2-3 seconds he re-pointed at the guy.

So every hand is:
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'
*point* 'checkorbet?'

That guy needs to chill the **** out imo. There literally is such a thing as too fast.

Listen, while I agree with you on a few things... I have to disagree with a lot of other things!

What you think is good for YOU to speed a game up for YOU, is not what actually works in the real world.

These mega companies that own these casinos, have rules employees MUST follow. If I don’t follow them or enforce them because YOU want a fast clean game, I’m getting written up on the side by management for not following policy/procedures.

YES, I will take my time counting down the rack when I sit down, cause guess what? If it’s missing $$ and I’ve dealt two hands, I’m responsible for the money.
If I don’t enforce no racks on the table, the next dealer will throw me under the bus then I’ll get questioned by management.

We talked it over the other day ...

Pull in bets before Flop 100% of the time .. Most likely street where change needs to be made for people not still in the hand.

OK to put out Turn or River if 3-handed or HU and then pull in bets/make change.

Obviously this takes some thinking by the Dealer, but if you are a good Dealer already this is not too difficult to implement. GL

Pulling it bets seems to be standard among all the regulars here. Leaving bets out and dealing the next street is pretty standard for most Seattle-area dealers and cardrooms.

TBQH I don't really care as long as the dealer is good enough at game-running to keep from getting the bets confused, but I'll usually go with 2+2 consensus so I figure bringing in must save enough confusion to be worth it. Also, it sets up a situation where the dealer is looking one way as the betting is taking place on the other end.

Is there any sort of happy medium? slightly pull in the earlier street bets so they're clearly separate from new bets, deal the community card[s], integrate those slightly pulled in bets the one pot as action is taking place? Is that just complicating things and making them worse? At least in split games (stacked pot) it seems fairly reasonable unless the dealer can bring them in stacked quickly.



(Probably should be branched or merged to another thread.... nothing inherently to do with tipping.)

I almost always pull in bets before the flop. Later streets I leave them out if it's reasonably clear everyone has the correct amount out and there is little to no change to be made. If it's more complicated or something weird is going on like I know a particular player likes splashing out bets immediately I'll just pull everything in before putting out the next card.

Hopefully the fact that I do it sometimes and not others isn't creating it's own type of confusion.

What's with people who win promos, promise to bring the dealer a tip at their new table once their hand holds up or they've been paid out, then never follow through? I understand sometimes players forget to do it or weren't paying enough attention to know which dealer it was, but in some cases it's clear they never intended to tip.

There's a serial offender in my room. He did it to me last week even though he sold his equity in a high hand and already pocketed the cash. Today he did it to the same dealer twice - once when the dealer was leaving for the next table and again when the dealer came to "congratulate" him on winning. I overheard the player ask again which table he'd be at, then saw him cash out and leave a few minutes later.

If you aren't going to tip just don't tip! Are they trying to look good in front of the other players?

Because some people are scum and poker rooms might positively select for scum. When I say I'm going to do something, it bothers me until I do it. If you're a lying degenerate, not so much.

mod> I have moved the discussion on pointing to its own thread.

A couple naive tipping questions:

1) How much and when do you tip the valet for parking your car? Should it be a couple bucks when you drop off, and a couple bucks when you pick up, since it is usually different people? Or do you just give ~$5 when you pick up?

2) In a pub, do you tip on non-handpay video poker wins? If I win $200 or $500, I generally have not been tipping. (Of course I tip well on both food and drinks). But I wonder if when the bartender is counting out $500 and I don't tip it, if I come across as a douche. What is expected?

How is it a "non-handpay" win if the bartender has to count it out?

Touche. Every payout, even $10, is given to you by the bartender. I guess I'm just used to using "handpay" in the casino sense of "more than $1200".

Do you tip a bartender for your winnings?

Wasn't trying to be a smartass, I've never heard of that. Sounds bizarre. When you play many forms of video poker you get your money back on roughly 1 out of 3 hands or so, and I can play a hand every few seconds. So the bartender would have to pay me cash several times per minute? Don't know how he would get anything else done, and it would really slow down the gambling so the house would make much less money.

I'm guessing the bartender just has to pay out the player once, when the "cash out" button is selected.

But every video poker machine I've ever seen at a bar has ticket vouchers that are produced when the "cash out" button is selected, so the bartender doesn't really have to be involved at all.

Think he speaks of video poker at non casino settings.
A bar/pub will have video poker at the sit down spots at the bar itself.
Most of the time you hit cash out and your screen freezes till the bartender pays you, he has to approve it on the machine tracking system and pays you cash.

Some restaurants do have the voucher tickets, you just hand it to the bartender and he cashes it for you.

Oh, OK, I get it if the bartender pays after you press cashout.

But then he doesn't know how much you put in, unless it's really slow and he's been watching you. You could be cashing out $500 but had put in $600. So I wouldn't feel bad about not tipping.

i went to a bar with VP for midnight wing special other night, was pretty slow and definitely quiet besides lowish music, it would be relatively noticeable if someone was dumping into a machine

The computer behind the bar keeps track of play.
Say machine #4 will show up as in red, meaning the person playing on it is dumping and losing bigger, and can order more expensive liquors comped.
There is a way to see all this as a bartender.

Given the description, I would tip him during cashouts if I wasn't drinking and taking up a spot that someone else could take and drink.

If I was drinking and no other empty spots were left, I would probably tip him slightly better than normal, and add something at the end as described below.

If I was drinking and there were plenty of empty spots, I would tip as normal, and add something at the end as described below.

At cashout, unless I wasn't drinking and it was a full bar, I would treat it mainly like I would treat being at the cashier at the casino. Default to no tip, but would sometimes tip based on a confluence of factors including friendly service, winning session, and having a few small denomination bills in the cashout.

I always use $2 bills to tip valets and cocktail waitresses. For the valet, I usually tip one $2 bill at drop off, and then either one or two $2 bills at pickup depending on the service.

I promise they all hate you for that. You're the only one that thinks it's cool.

Yeah, why would they want double the money?

Lol he's clearly using it to justify tipping less, not more