Tipping

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Clark:

I haven't read all the posts, but here is my view, and the view that I believe that most professional players should have.

I view dealing as a service. Dealers who do a good job help me, and thus deserve a tip. Dealers who talk constantly in the box, who don't pay attention, who try to make decisions on their own, who argue with the players, etc. are doing a poor job and should be compensated accordingly.

On the other hand, dealers who deal quickly, are essentially error free, and pay attention meaning that when a dispute develops they can describe it accurately to the floorperson who will make the decision are actually helping you, thus they are the ones who deserve a little extra compensation.

If you approach it this way, I think that tipping dealers becomes a non-issue because you know that those who are deserving are compensated accordingly.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Toro]

It definitely changes my feelings about tipping where the dealers pool their tips. I play in Connecticut and in one casino they keep their tips and in the other they pool. A lot of us regulars think there is a definite difference in the overall quality of the dealers in these respective places. We have been unsuccessful in getting the pool tip casino to change their policy so as a protest, many of us don't tip at this establishment. Seems harsh but we feel it is the only thing we can do to try and change the policy.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Bull:

You may be right, but in my experience dealer quality is often a direct reflection of management quality. I'm curious if I'm right in this case since I have never been to Connecticut.

Best wishes,
Mason

[ACPlayer]

Pooling tokes with the pit is a bad managment decision. It results in the dealers not having the same stake as the card room or the players. They are now the only people in the room who are not motivated to get the most hands out in a half hour. FW made a bad mgmt decision and it shows in the quality of the dealers.

When the Taj switched from shared tokes to individual tokes the dealer quality went up. More dealers wanted to deal in the high stake games where the tips are better, they learnt to move more hands every half hour (at least most of them did). At FW still, a dealer would much rather deal 5 hands in a 1-3 stud game than try to deal 20 or more hands in a tight 10-20 hold em game.

Yes, it is a reflection of a poor management decision. FW could improve their revenue with this change (USE THE MONEY TO HIRE CHIP RUNNERS IF YOU [FW] ARE LISTENING) and create a better game for the players.

[Toro]

Acplayer, you sound like your very familiar with FW because your post was right on. As I mentioned in my earlier post, some of us players tried to get the mgmt to change the policy but their solution was to let the dealers vote on itand the dealers overwhelmingly voted against changing the policy. There was also a rumor that the poker room at FW lost 200K in 2001. This concerned me since if true they could consider cutting back the size or even eliminate the room. I wrote a letter to the manager which outlined how a change in the tip policy would result in x number of hands times the # of tables, etc which would result in wiping the deficit and making the room profitable. To date, though, to no no avail. Maybe I'll copy and send the relevant portions of this thread to them. Thanks.