Small stakes, live tipping advice?

[Brokeski]

haha i like the cleverness, but i am no longer practicing.

[Gonso]

Ok, I deal, and I never like telling people how much you should or shouldn't tip. First, because I think hustling for tokes is degrading and embarrassing to me as well as the players. Second, I have a FT job elsewhere so it's not like I have to depend on it to make a living if I have a crappy down.

If this helps, this is what's typical, for those who don't have any frame of reference:

Generally, on lower limit tables, $1 is standard for most pots with anything $20-ish. If it's a particularly large pot, like $100+, then you might see a little extra, like $2 or maybe $3. If the pot is like $10 or $14 you typically don't see a toke.

Now I'm talking about what's the normal average, not what I think you should or shouldn't tip. It's up to you whether you want to be a below- or above- average tipper.

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tipping is for fools

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Well, you don't have to tip at all. The thing is though, who's going to do the job for $4/hour? Forget about competent dealers, or any dealers for that matter - no one works for that. The players could deal among themselves, but you can do that at home anyway and save on the rake.

If no one tipped, casinos would have players pay higher fees up front to play, like tournaments, in order to pay the dealers. Now, you're still spending the same money, but you've lost the ability to distribute it as you see fit between good and bad dealers. Slow and inexperienced dealers would earn as much as fast and skilled dealers, like over in table games. I know this is one of those community-minded ideals but it's the truth.

[Brokeski]

I like what you just had to say, what is your piece of mind on card rooms or casinos where all dealers split their tips. does it make some dealers not go the extra yard because they don't have to. I get the feeling in places like that, that the good dealers dont get what they deserve and the bad ones get more than they deserve obviously. do you tip differently in this situation as you said you have to vary tips between the good and the bad.

[Gonso]

I prefer keeping my own tokes in our poker room, but when I work the main floor with table games (less often now, thankfully) I have to pool tokes with everyone. I make more in poker, usually by $3-$4/hour, but I have to move and not f around BSing. You have to keep the games going without making goof-ups or being impolite, so there's a little more pressure dealing poker for me. A monkey could deal blackjack.

And yes, when playing I will tip more or less depending on the dealer, but a lot of this takes care of itself. Better dealers run faster games for the most part, so there are more pots they can get tipped from.

[pismeyer]

I've never played in Europe.

When playing 3/6 LH to 4/8 LH or 1/2 NL I'll tip $1 to $5 depending on the size of the pot. My normal tip is a $1.

Imma a small-balla.

P [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Clover362]

The rake is to high at small stakes tables to justify tipping every hand you win. What I do (assuming I won a pot) is throw a dollar or two when the dealer is about to rotate out.

[Brokeski]

I don't know what kind of 3/6 game you guys play in but let me tell you about mine, which i am sure is similar around the US. almost every other hand there is a live six, you will never see a flop for 3 dollars hardly ever. I would say an average of 5-8 players see a flop for at least 6 dollars a hand. lets just say its about 6 player, thats 36 dollars in the pot. I would say about 8 out of every 10 pots the pot is over 50 dollars at least, now there is a 3 dollars rake with a 1 dollar drop for the bad beat jackpot. so on average you are looking at a 50 dollar pot turned into a 46 dollar pot. for an average pot like that i'll tip 2 or 3 dollars depending on the dealer. so i turned a 50 dollar pot into about a 44 dollar pot. That is BB that i lost but id say about 4 or 5 bb's that i won. Anyone who says the rake plus tips is too high to make a profit i think needs to learn how to play pookah betta.

[You're No Daisy]

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It appears the dealers are chiming in.

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[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] that's classic!

[Durs522]

You're giving up 1 to 2 BB/hour minimum for tips. This is a huge portion of your winnings over a long period of time. For arguments sake let's say that you play for 5 hours. In total you won $100 over the course of the session. Now let's assume you won 3 pots per hour (no idea if this is close to accurate) and on each pot you tipped $3. That means you tippped $45 over the course of the night. This has a huge impact on your winrate over a long period of time.

If you can tip this much and still win consistently over time that you should probably continue tipping as much as you do. I'm all for tipping dealers well but at the 3/6 level it really is too much to overcome.

I usually tip $1 a pot no matter what. If it is a big pot or a small pot I'll still tip $1. Sometimes if the dealer is really good or I win a really big pot I'll tip a redbird.

[Brokeski]

I think the real thing is I'm not there to play 3/6 for serious money, I am playing it because it is the only game offered. If it were up to me obviously play higher stakes where the same sized tips would be in effect.
SEMI CHANGE OF SUBJECT: In Negreanu's blog a while back he talks about tipping in the high stakes games they play. Those guys tip 5 dollars a hand usualy (obvoiusly sometimes more) but he never said more than 100. This is in a 4/8k limit or 600/1200 NL game. Now personaly i think that is just down right stingy.