To Tip Or Not To Tip…The Dealer

Nick Momrik36 Comments

Ever played poker in a casino? Do you tip the dealer after a winning hand? Do you do it every time?

For some reason poker etiquette expects you to. I don’t play in a casino very often, but when I do, I’m there to have fun and to make money. As if it’s not hard enough to overcome the rake (casino’s cut of each pot), I’m also expected to overcome dealer tips. Might as well play the slots!

I give a waitress tips because she is taking my order, getting me food, and cleaning up after me. Her job is to serve me in the restaurant. Waitress’s don’t get a decent wage, because tips are the norm. Dealers get paid wages and from the little bit that I’ve heard, it’s pretty decent money. I could be totally wrong on that though. A dealer’s job is to deal the cards and count chips. Something that I (or anyone else at the table) could easily do. Why again do I need to tip this person? No one tips me at work when I fix their computer. I know it’s my job, but it’s hardly a job that anyone at the University can perform.

If we are supposed to tip the dealer, why only on hands that we win? It’s not like the dealer had any influence on our cards. If we are tipping them for “service,” they are providing the same level of service on hands that we win and hands that we lose. The only difference is that we are satisfied with this “service” when we win, but not when we lose.

I’m heading to the casino on Saturday night. I think I might see how much I can win, without tipping the dealer on every pot that I pull in.

Note

For some reason every 5 years or more this post gets shared around to a bunch of angry dealers who fail to read the entire discussion or fail to see by the date that this post was published in 2004! I had to close comments years ago because it gets out of control. Here’s a comment I left in 2009…

For the record, I’ve always tipped when playing poker in a casino unless I forgot to on a hand, which happens to everyone. The only time I’ve ever not given a tip on purpose is if the pot was too small.

36 thoughts on “To Tip Or Not To Tip…The Dealer”

  2. Trying to find good poker dealers has become sort of an obsession of sorts. So if you’re looking for a good home-based poker dealer training course, or know someone that does, please feel free to give me a shout.

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  3. Angry dealer.

    Perhaps you should have found a better paying paying job rather than one that relies on hands outs.

    If you cant survive on $1 an hour, get another job, dont expect me to make up the difference for you.

    NT

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  4. Nick, I work at a casino, $4.00/hr I live off of my tips, which are good on weekends, bad on weekdays. I would love to see some of these players keep track of 8-9 players action and know how much each of them pay….I am a craps dealer and it is one of the most stressful jobs. You not only have to keep your customers happy and pay them (because it is your fault when they lose!) But you have camera’s on you constantly, boxpersons, floorpersons, and your pitboss watching every move. You have to know the payouts and do every thing just right. There are procedures for every game, certain ways to use your hands and hand off bets. Try this one $136 dollars x 15 -13 + 245x 30 = payout in about 0.1 seconds, along with 30 other bets, all in which they have to be paid correctly using procedure, plus watch for cheaters and strokers in about 1 min.

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  5. Wow every nontipper poster you must be really smart. All you have to do is flip some cards and push the pot to the winner. Never mind dealing w/ drunks, or dumba$$es who didn’t realize they won, which I can guarantee all of you non tippers have done. I have ppl daily walk away from a table thinking they lost then I have to call your stupida$$ back and tell you you actually won. Next time I will just keep it as a tip. Do you know what T.I.P.S. even means Im sure you dont so ill explain. To. Insure. Proper. Service. and if a dealer sucks dont tip him. but if he is giving you a GREAT, clean, fast, paced game then YOU SHOULD tip. Do you want a dealer to push the pot to the wrong person or maybe split the pot wrong in 4 way all in action? Let me guess you dont. But you being a dumba$$ don’t understand you could see 10 hands an hour or 30-40 hand maybe more I will remember your face and you will get shorted everyitme you come back to the casino A$$HOLE!!!!!

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  6. For the record, I’ve always tipped when playing poker in a casino unless I forgot to on a hand, which happens to everyone. The only time I’ve ever not given a tip on purpose is if the pot was too small.

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  7. been dealing for 13 yrs,,,we get paid just like the servers,,,less than min. wage….we make a living off tips, it feeds my kids and pays the bills…then there are assholes like you who come in and think because they spend some money they can do and say whatever they want and we should kiss their asses… its morons like you who cause a high turnover rate at casinos….what a nasty clueless pathetic little dickless weasel you appear to be.

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  8. In poker as in all casino tables the dealers have to put up with non-tippers, its just part of the job. In the course of doing what I do I can’t allow myself to be distracted by rude or obnoxious player behavior, or by the fact that you just pushed a $6000.00 pot to a player who acts like he’s doing you a favor by throwing you a buck. I’d like to them him to put it where the sun don’t shine, but I’ll smile and say “thanks” because that’s what I’m supposed to do. None of that changes the basic fact that if one doesn’t tip, then you are cheap. No amount of justifiying this to yourself changes it.

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  9. Nick….your a douche, it’s people like you that create bad service at tables because you piss the dealers off. Dealers make minimum wage or less, live off of tips. You said you tip the coctail waitress because she brings your drinks and takes away empty glasses….how many times does she come around…….once every 20 minutes if you lucky and she’s good. There for she is taking about 2 minutes an hour to service you, figuring that she placed your drink on her tray and handed it to you. The dealer is there servicing you the entire time at the table controlling the action, dealing the cards, shuffling, doing all the math so your retarded ass doesn’t have to think, and all of this with a smile on their face hoping you’ll shell out a little so they can make rent. The only thing I agree with you about is tipping on a winning hand or a losing hand because you are provided with the same service either ways….you should always tip your dealer….not every hand but a little gratuity to say thank you……would you order a drink or go out to eat and not tip….probably not. Dealing cards is a tip expected job…that’s why the dealers make so little, on average coctail waitresses and bartenders make double or more base rate per hour from the casinos than dealers do because they are unionized. The money that you here about dealers making is tip based and only good in big houses with big action, which I’m sure your cheap ass knows nothing about. The casinos pay us, yes I’m a dealer, about 15,000 a year base rate, if we are lucky. Everything else we EARN by putting up with drunks bitching about everyhand that they get and hoping they will toss us a buck in the end when they finally win. I’m a craps dealer and have to deal with cheap strokers like you all day long, I hope you lose all your money and get in a fiery automobile crash after leaving loaded on your free drinks that you tipped the cocktail girl for after stiffing the dealer.

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    • @Mike,
      Seems like you missed my previous comment. I hope all dealers aren’t as whiney and crying a bunch as those of you posting here. You give dealers a bad image that’s for sure. If all you do is bitch and complain about your job maybe it’s time to look for a new career.

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  10. nick i can tell you dont go to casinos often enough to know this so i will tell you. in a casino you tip anyone who gives you anything. if the person cant except the tip they will tell you.
    i was an air traffic controller before i dealt cards and i will tell you dealing is stressful and mind draining. all dealers know going in about the smoke, annoying drunks and just plain douch bags who think being in a casino makes them act and say anything to employees that they want. dont be one of those people, act as if you’ve been there.
    i have lots of fun dealing, players love playing at my tables. i deal blacjack, pai gow tiles, pai gow poker and novilties (3 card poker/4 card poker). i play holdem’ at a local casino and i tip $1 on a winning hand and $5 on anything over $100. in the end you wont miss the $20 in tips you gave to the dealer. that $20 wont parlay into your losses.
    as for the money we make it’s different any casino you go. there are 3 casinos where i live. all dealers make $4.50 an hour plus toke. the lowest casino toke average is $12 an hour toke, next casino $18 an hour toke, and mine $20 an hour toke. you also have to know more than half the dealers in the country are part-time with no bennies.
    have fun playing and remember to always tip your dealer.
    p.s. cocktail severs at our casinos make $80,000-$100,000 a year depending on the shift. that still blows my mind!

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