Tipping in higher limit games

[Dazarath]

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I guess it depends on whether you see tokes as, "I'm rewarding you for your hard work," or "I'm sharing part of my recent good fortune with you." I tend to see it as a mix of the two -- but of course, that suits me as a low-limit player because it gives me an excuse to tip half-dollars at the Foxwoods $2/4.

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I tend to look at it as a customary thing, so I just do it. There are times where I think a dealer has done his job very well, like a player gets out of line and he settles the situation in a professional manner, or he deals very quickly and makes sure the hands per hour we get is high. In these cases, I will tip when they get up. In general though, I only sometimes look at it as reward for hard work and rarely look at is as sharing my fortune.

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I play for fun, so maybe my philosophy is different. I take this analogy: when tipping a waitress - you usually tip 15-20%. If the meal is more expensive you tip more. If she sucks, you may stiff her a little on the tip, say, 10%, and if she's good, you'll give her a little more. But the constant in all this is that the percentage is in relation to how much your bill came out to. It's not like she's carrying heavier plates or anything for more expensive dishes - it's all the same whether it's a burger or kobe beef.

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I think you've made a good point. People look at the game differently. A lot of players here don't look at the game as "just for fun". With the philosophy of always trying to get money from +EV situations, it's -EV to tip more than necessary.

I look at tipping waitresses differently. Again, I see it as customary, but when I go to eat dinner, I just treat it as part of the cost. I go out to eat dinner with friends to have fun and get a good meal. I'm not scrounging for +EV situations when I eat. Otherwise, I'd have eaten at home for 1/5 the cost.