Quote:
Originally Posted by plog
Why do things sell for 1.99 and not just $2? Why do stores sell things 4 for a $1 and not just .25? Why do poker tournaments have $100 chips as the base unit instead of just $1?
Psychological manipulation. 1.99 seems a lot more cheaper than $2; 4 for a $1 seems a much better deal than
.25 each. 100 big blinds of $100 units seems bigger than 100 big blinds of $1 units.
Why not just roll the add on fee to the whole tournament cost, include the chip upgrade and then take out the amount from that total and give to the dealers? Because its a psychological manipulative way to lessen the impact of the fee.
None of the things you mentioned are hidden fees. And I’m not sure I have ever heard anyone complain that something costs 1.99 instead of 2.00, but I guess there’s a first for everything.
As for tournament chip denominations, the reason for the $100 chips is because decimals are a lot harder than whole numbers. You really want to be playing with .25 chips?
Anyhow, dealer add-one are a way to get a larger percentage of players to tip dealers. Normally it’s just the winners and a small percentage of them at that who add to the dealer tip pool in tournaments. Dealer add-ons are completely voluntary, and so long as the house isn’t taking a cut, I’m all for them. I get really annoyed when dealers act like they’re entitled to some % of your winnings. And I get equally annoyed when the vast majority of players who were provided service fail to tip and it’s left to the winners to do all the tipping.
As for whether it would be better for events to just charge a higher buy-in and higher rake, I’m guessing the dealer portion is treated differently for tax purposes depending on how it’s defined, as a percent of prizepool or voluntary add-on. And it may be better for establishments to pay dealers out of an add-on vs rake.