[jedi]

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The key is the phrase "beyond obligation". Money taken from the prize pool is obligatory, therefore it is not a tip. It is no different than the $1 fee in a $10+1 sit and go. It is a non-optional cost of playing, an entry fee.

Tipping or not is his decision. The usual practice is 3% on top of the prize pool deduction. That may have been a bit high for the biggest prize ever, but something like $100K out of $7.5 million (less than 1.5%) certainly wouldn't kill him.

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In your example, it would be a $10+1 tournament, the "+1" goes to the house (Harrahs), but then they also take away 30 cents from each of the $10 from the prize pool to go to the dealers. The more accurate analogy would be $9.70 + $1 + $0.30. I don't think the full $10K goes to the prize pool anyways, it's more lke $9700 + $300, then 3% from the $9700 goes to the dealers.

If they didn't take the 3% off the top, I'm sure Hachem would have tipped. I'm sure we can search the archives for what Greg tipped when he won.