How Is Rake/Tip Handled In A Real Casino

If you were to play poker at a Casino how is the rake/tip handled?

This questions applies to Ring Games, SnG, and Tournaments.

Like when you play at a ring game, do the just estimate the amount of rake and take it from the pot? Also the tipping, do you tip them every time or at the end. I'm going to a casino in the near future, so some experience is needed from you senior members.

Thanks in advance!

Usually they rake something like $1 for every $10 or $20 in the pot. Often its written on the table.

Tip $1 whenever you win a sizable pot. Anything over 10-12 big blinds is probably worth a tip. There's no reason to ever tip more than $1 unless your service was especially impressive. But usually whenever I play LO8 or Razz, I have to spend half the time telling the dealer who won the pot, and I'm reluctant to tip them the $1 per pot I win.

It varies depending on the casino.

Tournaments and SnGs are the easiest - you'll be charged a flat fee, same as you would be online, and you pay it at the same time as you pay your buy in for the tournament.

There are a few ways rake in cash games can be handled.

The easiest (though not necessarily the most common) is where the casino charges "time" - everybody pays a flat fee per unit of time they're in the game. It might be $5/hr, on the hour, for example.

Probably the most common method is raking the pot, just like an online ring game. The dealer will take the amount out of the pot while the hand is in progress. They certainly don't estimate, a big part of casino poker dealer training is tracking pots and calculating rake. There'll be a fixed percentage of rake that the casino takes and usually it'll be capped (so 10% of the pot up to a maximum of $15 or something).

Most casinos also have a "no flop no drop" policy where if a pot is taken down preflop no rake is paid.

There's another option too which is called the collection pot. TBH it's one I don't understand that well because I've never played in a casino that uses it but it's sort of like a time charge that's collected differently. Once every hour (or whatever the time period is) there's a designated "collection pot". The next time there's a pot over a set amount (ie: big enough to pay the collection) the winner of that pot pays the equivalent of time for all of the players at the table. So if there's eight players at the table and the designated collection / time amount is $5 then the player that wins the collection pot will forfeit $40 of it to the house and take the remainder. I don't think it's that common, but they do use it on Live At The Bike if you're interested in seeing it in action and someone who's actually played that method might be able to explain it better.

Some casinos combine multiple methods - my local casino charges time and rakes every pot in ring games, for example.

Tipping is something I know a lot less about because it's not allowed in our casinos. From what I've read though tipping at the end of a tournament changes. Some casinos have included tips in their fee structure, others don't, check with the tournament director or floor person if you're not sure. What c9 said works for cash games.

On the riverboats where I play the standard practice is to toss the dealer a white chip ($1) for every pot you win. If I win a gargantuan pot I'll toss two.

Those dealers work really hard and, like waiters and waitresses, count on tips because their hourly base pay isn't all that great. Also, as in a restaurant, customers who don't tip are not highly thought of by the dealers or floor staff. Even other players chastise someone who doesn't tip. When first-timers sit down, someone will tell them that they should tip.

For tournaments, while the standard tip is 5% many players tip 10%. Same goes for Bad Beat Jackpots.

An interesting rule is that the Floor is not allowed to accept tips because they are on salary. In June Mike and I were asked to play in the yearly Invitational which often goes into the wee hours, but the hotel was booked. One of the floor managers bent over backwards to get us a room, and quite a room that was--a suite actually. Because I couldn't tip her, I wrote a glowing letter to HR which not only went into her file but was shared with other key higher-ups.

This is as about as accurate as it gets.

Thanks for the help guys. Before I sit down at a table, I'll be sure to find the floor manager to find out how they do it.

Please don't compare dealers and wait staff persons.

waitress and such make about 1/3 minimum wage as their base salary. Casino dealers make 2-3 times minimum wage as base salary.


IMO tipping is quite damaging to your bb/hr especially considering the casino is raking the pot also.

will the dealer give me some back when i lose a big pot?


P.S. I also tip wait staff because if you dont the next time they spit in your food. What is the dealer gonna do flip the cards over slower?

Now if the dealer is really friendly and Ive done well I usually kick the dealer 5 or 10 dollars when I leave

I dont know if i would tip the dealer for every pot i won. Maybe once in a while when i win a big pot.

Being a dealer I want to stress two points here.

#1) I make less than minimum wage so I depend on my tips.

#2) If you are a stiff, you will be remembered as being a stiff and dealers will be more strict with the rules towards you and even talk to each other about how they can muck your hand in a big pot.

wow hate to hear that your employers dont pay you the way they should. The casinos in my area start out at 12.50 an hour.

I would hope someone wouldnt risk their job over not getting a tip. If It were ever discovered that a dealer cheated to cost me money. I would make sure he was fired and I would also bring legal action.

Besides Im far too smart to not protect my cards.

Yeah... except it's not just times when you haven't protected your hand that the dealer can legitimately make the call on whether you win a big pot or not.

Plus you're assuming the floor person / pit boss is going to side with you over one of their staff when you go to them in a huff demanding a dealer be fired and threatening to sue people.

It's your call but if tipping is the norm in the casino where you're playing then probably best to just not be a stiff, IMO.

Examples please.

Keep in mind I have a touch of OCD so I dont do things like string bet, raise less than the minimum ( I never raise the minimum anyway lol), play out of turn. or throw in a single oversized chip without announcing raise or call to clarify. I just dont Im compulsive that way.

Also as we all know casinos have cameras everywhere so If the dealer decides I have made an error that would cost me the pot it damn well better show up on the video.

I'd have thought that was obvious - you might be OCD about protecting your hand, not string betting, etc but not all of your opponents will be and pretty much every casino works on the basis that sometimes fairness has to take precedence over the technical rules.

Dealers and floor people are the ones who decide when to apply fairness over the technical rules. If you're a stiff and your opponent (who does tip) makes a borderline mistake, the dealer has a choice: apply the technical rules to benefit the stiff, or make a call in the interests of "fairness" to benefit the tipper? Say their unprotected hand gets mucked by accident but the cards can be clearly identified - do they get recovered from the muck or not?

You've got no recourse against a "fairness" judgement and the cameras will only back the dealer - they'll show a borderline situation where the dealer decided to be fair rather than technical.

^^ This is an excellent example. ^^

It's not that the dealer would cheat to cost you money, it is that the dealer has the interest of making the tipping player win, so any borderline decicion will benefit the tipping player.

Dealer can also "accidentally" flip your cards over a couple times when you bet and nobody calls and you try to muck. I have seen that happen quite a bit, and it is funny.

One of my local casinos rakes something like 5/10% of the pot.
I'll tip the dealer ocassionaly if I win a huge pot or if he's done an good job. I'd feel bit shady not tipping the dealer as he's doin a minamum wage job (in UK it is something like £5.50ph) and working unsociable hours.
Plus if were winning or loosing it feels generious/kind too. I've been America alot and they like to tip so I think I got it from u guys lol.

One of my mates told me this:
Want to get serverd faster in a bar? When paying for ur drinks, ask the bartender if he would like a drink/tip. He may not take it, but he will remember ur face and ur kind offer.

This is a very interesting an informative thread.

I have yet to play any live poker, but this summer me and a couple buddies were lookin to go to Canada to play in a casino up there.

Great advice comin from Oz, Jordan, and C9. Gonna have to make sure i come back to this thread before i go to the Casino

Patty I see you are from OH and are thinking of going up to Canada to play. By any chance would you be looking into playing in Niagara Falls Canada?? If so let me know and I will meet you guys up there.

im not exactly sure where were gonna go..but i will definately let you know when we decide man

Are you under 21? If not, you should come to the casino I work at in NY (Seneca Niagara Casino).

I would highly recommend playing at both Seneca Niagara and also the 2 casinos in Canada (Fallsview and Casino Niagara). Casino Niagara is the older casino and the poker room only runs 1/2 NL $60min $200max. Fallsview is the bigger, better casino and it runs 2/5 to 10/20. The 2/5 has a $100 min and $300 max.

You guys should make a trip and seriously let me know because I can show you guys around and show you the good party poker spots too. Just remember you need a passport to get into Canada.

Many Ohioans head to Caesars in Windsor, Ontario when they turn 19 because that's the legal age there and not too far go. I think it's about 5 hours from Cincinnati. I've heard that the Windsor Caesars has a really decent poker room.