One evening I was playing poker at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. It was a friendly limit game and everything seemed to be going smoothly except for one player.
He had a lot of chips in front of him, over $400. He won his share of pots. But he never tipped the dealer.
At first, it didn't bother me. But after a while, it began getting under my skin. I know a lot of poker players and I know the casino underpays them for their services. Tips represent a large percentage of their salary and when the tips don't flow, they don't get paid.
After the player left the table, I brought up the subject of tipping. I did it casually, not wishing to single out the player who had just left, but everybody at the table knew who I was talking about.
Dale, the dealer, just shrugged when I mentioned tips.
'Some players just don't believe in tipping, I guess,' he said, washing the cards. ''But I really can't complain. Most of the players are generous.'
Most of them. Not all of them.
People who deal Texas Hold'em are generally tipped $1 or more depending on the size of the pot they just won. I follow that rule and have often rewarded a dealer with a redbird (a $5 chip) when the pot is especially big.
On the other hand, if the pot is small or just contains the antes, I don't tip. I don't want the dealer to be making more money than me.
In a high-low game, I take a different policy, one that some of the players don't agree with. I generally do not tip on a split pot unless my share of it is big. But if I scoop the pot, which is my goal, I tip extra to make up for not tipping on split pots.
The dealers seem to understand this. One dealer, Burt, told me, 'Hey, that's no problem with me. I understand it perfectly.'
It is when players are in a tournament or hit a bad beat jackpot or another perk that the tipping situation gets complex. How much of a tip should you give if you win $5,000, $10,000 or even more in one of those special events?
I remember the night Leon Wheeler, a dealer who formerly worked at The Orleans, dealt me a hand that hit the bad beat jackpot. I won $11,000 and the player I beat with my four queens over his four jacks picked up $22,000 while the six other players each received just under $5,000..
Leon was and still is one of the friendliest dealers in Las Vegas. I handed over five black $100 chips. He smiled and drove me back to my motel after he was finished working.
I believe in being generous to dealers. They work hard for their tips and deserved to be rewarded by the players when the cards turn out right for them.
Dealer abuse has never been a part of my game. I had argued with dealers and even penalized them by withholding tips when they made what I felt was an unfair decision against me. But I have never abused them verbally or physically.
I like to chat with dealers and find out things about them, like their hometown, how long they have been dealing, or when was the last time they dealt a jackpot. When you call a dealer by his name instead of just saying 'Dealer,' it does make a difference.
I always appreciate it when a dealer who leaves the table leans over and says something nice to me like 'Thanks for the tips' or 'I wish there were more players like you.' It proves to me I am doing something right.
One of my favorite tactics is to say to a dealer, 'Mary Ann, if you dealt a bad beat jackpot, how would you spend your tips?' Or sometimes I might say, 'Bernie if you deal me the big part of a bad beat jackpot, would you prefer I give you a down payment on a trip to Aruba or cash?' The answer is cash, although a cute female dealer named Alice quickly replied, 'Can I have both?'
With that said, if I ever play in the World Series of Poker and make the final table, I have no idea how much I would tip? How would you handle it?
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
