berated for tipping

[gringo_nordestino]

posted this in another forum and was advised this is the same place, so here goes:
couple days ago im not winning much, but was coming off a previous great day.. when i finally won a pot it was small, like $12.. i told the dealer to just go ahead and keep it.. two people at the table questioned my decision.. was curious to know if anyone else has had comments directed to them after a decision to tip rather large..

[jrobb83]

Wanted to make a point made by someone else in the other forumn this had been posted to. It's a good point. If you are there playing for fun, and you feel like tipping big, go for it.

I work at a world-class resort, which attracts a lot of very wealthy people. Every now and then we get people who come into the restaurants who make a point of tipping every employee who served them during their visit a hundred dollar bill. They know that this will make the day of the employee, and that amount of money is insignificant to them, so they do it. It makes them feel good.

If you're feeling good, and want to tip big, its your business.

[lowroller]

Amen!

I think most people would complain about it because they are afraid it will make them look cheap in the process.

I would look anyone straight in the eye who questioned my tip (big or small) and tell them to MYOFB!

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I am not a huge tipper, I typically give a buck for an average pot, two for a big pot, and none for a tiny pot. However, sometimes I will tip generously when the situation warrants. My favorite dealers sometimes get very nice tips. I also tip for information given (yea, the 10-20 is fish city, no, 10-20 is full of rocks, etc), or when treated especially well by floorpeople (when they are allowed to get tips).

so your generous decision to tip may come back to you in other ways. if people don't like it, then they are cheepskate jerks.

al

[Phat Mack]

I think there is an interesting point about poker in all this. If I am sitting down to a game in a strange card room, I'll post, over-tip the dealer, over-tip the waitress. If someone comments, I'll say something like, "I'm the last of the bigtime spenders, perhaps you've heard of me?" It identifies me as not being a player (read rock); someone they can take shots at.

[CJC]

Hi,

What you decide to tip is your business and noone elses.

I personally rarely tip anything, but then again I play at Foxwoods where the dealers SHARE the tips, and well..I refuse to support the lazy-ass incompetent dealers that congrugate there.

Back when Mohegan was open, I generally tipped the 'normal' 50 cents or 1 dollar depending on the size of the pot..more if it was exceptionally large; but I found the quality of dealers far superior there.

The most I ever tipped was probably when I lived in AZ and played at Casino Arizona. I still think their dealers are the best I have seen in any card club in the country.

CJ

[M.B.E.]

There was a high roller from the U.S. who was spending a lot of time in Vancouver last year, and would come to play in our 10-20 holdem game. He loved attention, almost pathologically -- he apparently could not be happy unless everyone in the room was looking at him. As you'd expect, his play was extremely loose-aggressive, and he lost a lot. He would say things to the dealer like, if I win this pot, half of it is yours. And would then tip the $200 or whatever. This really bothered a couple of players; they said it was effectively the same as taking money off the table. That objection was ridiculous because this guy always had plenty of cash in his pocket and would reach in for more when he lost his chips. The only thing is, it did slow down the game a bit, dropping all those chips into the tip box.

By the way, the dealers at this place share their tips, not just with poker dealers but with everyone on the floor, supervisors included, so they didn't really care. Actually the funny thing is that one day this player was acting boisterous or whatever and they barred him for a week.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually the funny thing is that one day this player was acting boisterous or whatever and they barred him for a week.

[/ QUOTE ]

Either one of two things must be true. 1) he was being EXTREMELY OBNOXIOUS to the point he was BADLY disrupting business. 2) they let the dealers and floorpeople smoke crack on the job.

al

[thetman]

If you can't afford to tip well for good service, then keep your cheap azz at home.

[sumdumguy]

You missed #3:
Both management and security are just stupid.

Canadian Casinos on the west coast just don't know what running a good poker room involves. A similar anology is internet casinos running poker rooms.

Once I was in a game where there was only 1 truly live player. There was only 1 person on the waiting list. The live one missed his third blind (busy with a phone call). The players at the table didn't want him to be picked up, and the 1 player on the waiting list (a veteran) knew the scoop and told the floor guy that he'd rather just wait. Well, they picked up the live one anyways, and told the waiting player to take the seat now or be removed from the wait list.

The live one was pissed, and the players were pissed. I took the live one for dinner, and was informed later by some players that stayed the game didn't last for another half hour after we left.

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
Once I was in a game where there was only 1 truly live player. There was only 1 person on the waiting list. The live one missed his third blind (busy with a phone call). The players at the table didn't want him to be picked up, and the 1 player on the waiting list (a veteran) knew the scoop and told the floor guy that he'd rather just wait. Well, they picked up the live one anyways, and told the waiting player to take the seat now or be removed from the wait list.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think I was there that day. Or maybe not -- this has probably happened more than once. I must know you, sumdumguy -- who are you?

[Diplomat]

Ah yes, I know the guy you speak of very well. I think I played with him 4 times -- twice he sent me home very happy, twice he sent me home shaking my head. I remember him shoving huge pots back at the dealer, and the dealer requesting a second tip box to handle all the chips. He was a great guy, except for the friggin' cell phone ring...

Like you said to somedumguy, I probably know both of you guys...so who are -you-?

As for the original question of the thread, I don't think it's anyone's business how big some else tips. I might think someone is a cheap-ass for not tipping, or very generous for tipping excessively, but that's about it.

-Diplomat

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
Like you said to somedumguy, I probably know both of you guys...so who are -you-?

[/ QUOTE ]
Diplomat, I thought you knew who I was. I know who you are. Anyway, I've PM'ed you.

[Big Al]

yes, you have a right to tip whatever you want and yes people are out of line for berating you or saying something to you about it. That said, from a strictly poker/money viewpoint, it does take money off the table that could be won by the players. We are all there to win money (at least most of us, some are there to just "have fun"). They guy who is live and is throwing money all around and tipping big, thats fine, I have no problem with that. I have no problem with tipping the dealer, but if everyone gave the dealer 5-10 dollars a hand/tip, you are talking about 150-300 dollars an hour leaving the table. Throw in the rake and thats a significant amount of money leaving the table every hour. Strictly from a poker/money standpoint, having that much money leave the table and not being available to the players is not a postive thing.

[David Steele]

I played with pot-tipping high roller too.

The Great Canadian is run as if no one is responsible for
the quality of the games, with an I-just-work-here attitude.

Some others:

The barred a super live one for taking a nap on a couch
while he was waiting for a game. They once barred Terrence Chan for a stupid reason.

I don't play there much anymore, though it is still quite a good, friendly and enjoyable game if you have the time.

D.

[Vehn]

I'm sure I've told it before but this my favorite "big tipper" story. A couple years ago when I was making my way through the smaller games at my B&M card room, one day I was playing in a $6/$12 game with a $4 max rake & $1 jackpot drop. There was/is a regular sitting next to me, an older lady (E----) who plays tight but much too passive and weak post flop. For whatever reason we get to chatting about poker. She mentions that her goal is to make her way to the $15/$30 and play it full time when she's playing. She then wins 2 medium pots in a row and tips $2 after them, and then later a largish pot of ~12 bets and tips a redbird. Ughhhhhhhh.