Tipped the floor for the 1st time last week. . .now i feel dirty

[Poshua]

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San Jose:

Dealer Wage + Tips >> Floor Wage + Tips

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Yeah, my understanding is that's true most places. My question is about the difference between poker floor income and pit floor income.

[dbldwnblue]

I work at a local LA casino (some searching will tell you which one) as a poker dealer. Recently we have had a severe lack of poker floormen. All the jackpots and such are paid by floormen from the asian games side (BJ, Pai Gow, Baccarat, etc.) and sadly most of them are shoeshiners. THis being they stand around and more or less ask for tips.

I witnessed the following on my shift not more than a week ago:

We have started to pay a progressive single player jackpot on each and every quads or better. Well this player that I know as a regular (cant remember his name right now) hit four of a kind Queens for a $120 payoff. This floorman paid out the JP and then proceeded to stand over this poor soul asking for a "lucky chip". THe player wasnt sure what to do so he reached down and handed the floor two blue ($1) chips. THe floor looked at his hand and dropped the chips back on the table and exclaimed "wrong color. yellow chip ($5)."

The player refused but eventually gave in just to get the man out of his way.

The player later said he wasnt sure if he was supposed to tip the floorman or not. I told him it was like tipping the dealers, bartenders, servers, etc. It was totally up to him.

To me, I will tip the floor on a JP as seems to be customary (not this floorman though). But if you ask for one you will get less than nothing. More than likely you wont get my business either.

As for tipping floormen in general. I see no problem with it. You arent required to do such just as you arent required to leave 15% when you go out and eat at a restaurant. But you do it cause its the right thing to do. Floormen are paid well, much better than use dealers, but they do rely on the tips to suppliment their income.

Just as a side note. I have been told that we should be getting our own floormen on the poker floor again really soon... which would be REALLY NICE!

[RR]

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San Jose:

Dealer Wage + Tips >> Floor Wage + Tips

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Yeah, my understanding is that's true most places. My question is about the difference between poker floor income and pit floor income.

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I don't know about every place, but I know at least one place the pit people make more because they accidentally paid me at the pit rate once.

[Eponymous]

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Did he give you tips on the players individually, or just say "this game is generally loose-passive/weak-tight/what have you"

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They were not general tips on the play of the table. He gave descriptions of each of the individuals playing. At least 4 of them were regulars, and he discussed each of them saying things like, "he's a pretty solid player; if he's in the pot you know he's got a decent hand," etc. I took it as an attempt to try to be welcoming to the new player so I would feel comfortable and want to start playing there regularly. Maybe he felt it was safe to tell me those things because my questions may have made him think I was a poker noob as opposed to a Hilton noob.

[Jauron]

I ran a pizza place years ago and gave the "Beer Guy" a pizza that had been cancelled and I was just gonna throw away. I made it clear to him I was going to toss it and he was welcome to take it if he'd like. Next thing I know I'm getting a big box of "damaged" beers that were barely nicked.

If you are nice to someone and they are in a position to be nice to you, it will happen sometimes. Don't feel bad unless you think the guy was being out of line.