Breaking the silence

There was an eerie tension in the air at my table last night, most likely due to 2 big pots and even bigger suckouts, separately involving 4 different protagonists. From seat 5, opposite the dealer and where everyone could hear, it was time for my schtick :

Me : Went for my routine check-up today.

Dealer : Is everything OK?

Me : Everything seemed to be going fine until he stuck his index finger up my arse!

Dealer : Well that's a normal procedure.

Me : So you don't think I should change dentists?

Tipping the dealer - III

Conversation that I have heard many times at the poker table :

Player 1 : Hey, the spades royal flush high hand jackpot is only $100. Last time I was here it was over $2,000. Who won it?

Player 2 : Big Al hit it last night. In fact our very own Dealer Dylan dealt it to him and only got a $10 tip.

Player 1 : Is that true, Dylan? You should've dealt it to me, you would've gotten $200.

Dealer Dylan (scowling) : I shouldn't really comment.


For those unfamiliar with the procedure, once a high hand is hit, the dealer shouts out "high hand" and counts down the deck, the floor comes over to visually verify the high hand, tells the dealer to push the pot and go on to the next hand. All the necessary paperwork, including tax forms if necessary, is handled by the floor, and when everything is ready the floor returns to the table with the payment and gives it to the dealer who then disburses it to the lucky winner (after finishing dealing the current hand). In a well run room, a high hand may cost a dealer 1 minute in lost dealing time.

So when dealer Jennifer Gay says "you're tipping for service, not for results", she is in the minority. Every dealer I've spoken to is more "results oriented", like Dylan.

Tipping the dealer - II

Thank you to those that commented in my previous post. It would appear that out of the 8 people who have expressed an opinion to date, a majority of 6 thought that a $1 tip would be appropriate, one person maintained that the dealer didn't deserve "a fucking penny", and one expressed doubts about the situation and preferred to remain on the sidelines.

From the outset let me state that tipping is a very personal matter and that there is no right or wrong answer for each and every situation. For the sake of simplicity let us assume there are 5 general categories of players :

1. Those that never tip.

2. Those that tip intermittently.

3. Those that tip $1 for each pot regardless of size.

4. Those that tip at least $1 depending on the size of the pot.

5. Mr Subliminal (to be defined).


As it happens, in this particular instance I did not tip the dealer. Yet, as I will show later, this dealer would have been better off having 9 Mr Subliminal's at his table than any of the other types.

One other thing. By definition, the "you're tipping for service, not for results" crowd must belong to category 3, no?

Tipping the dealer - I

This will be the first in a series of posts outlining my philosophy and methodology of tipping the dealer. I will start with an actual example that occurred tonight in an unnamed Strip casino.

Dealer X sits down when I have $300 in front of me, and shortly thereafter I call a shortstack's pre-flop all-in with my KK. He has KJo, making me a 91% favorite. The board runs out

9 8 7 T 4

and I lose $120 to his straight. A few hands later, I win a small pot for a $25 profit. How much should I tip the dealer?