Do poker players look at rake and tipping in an unrealistic way?

[AKQJ10]

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It's all in how one chooses to account for line items.

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Precisely. Early on I decided that I was going to not count tips in my standard calculations of my winrate for precisely this reason. I don't want hurting my winrate to dissuade me from tipping people customarily. Since it's not linear with the stakes anyway my net win doesn't help me determine when it's time to move up.

Now, I do keep track of tips and try to run the numbers both ways, because it is a cost of "doing business" or just having fun there -- but so is my 90 mile drive each way to the nearest B&M, hotel if I decide to spend the night, or anything extra I have to spend for lunch because I'm not eating a sandwich at home.

Bottom line for me: Like most even on this forum, I'm not literally playing B&M poker as my "day job". I just think it's more fun to make $14 an hour and not feel like a cheapskate than $15 and feel like one.