Dealer qratuity

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jaybird1017

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I've begun playing some live tourneys lately and in the course of conversation the topic came up of paying dealers a gratuity if you finish in the money. My thought was probably the casino uses some of the fees to give dealers a gratuity to make up for what they'd otherwise earn just dealing cash tables.

Is there a universal practice for this?

Thanks:jd4:
 
Luvepoker

Luvepoker

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This is normally expected and controversial in my opinion. You are expected to give a percentage to the dealers. Usually 3-5% or so but its up to you. The issue is most tournaments will give you an extra say 5000 in chips if you pay the 10 dollar dealers fee. This goes according my dealer friends directly to the dealers. Its hard to judge what fair or not and in many small local tournament that are over in 2-3 hours at most. If the tourney is big one and much longer I usually will give a percentage of my winning to the dealers. If its a small daily game I am must less likely to do so as the dealers fee should be fair compensation. Its really just up to you but remember if they don't have any compensation what reason would they have to deal in a poker tournament. Just try to be fair is all we can do.
 
KingCurtis

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It is expected but not required. I am usually more generous when I win...because I am happy that I won and usually give 3-5%. However, I take in to account how well they did as dealers. Since the tip is not based on the fact that I won, but that they did an excellent job of keeping the tournament moving...
 
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jaybird1017

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That's interesting. I never heard that the add-on went to the dealers. But that explains why the local poker room tells you to buy that at the table when you sit down and not at the cashier.

The other part that I'd find difficult to deal with is the task of locating the dealers. You start out with 8-10 dealers but only one at the final table when you cash out.

The local room puts a $10 add-on to every tourney no matter what the buy in is, with the exception of a deepstack tourney that has longer level time and slower blind escalation, which has $20. With 10 per table that's $100 per dealer. And for a tourney that is usually 5 hours, that's $20/hour, in the later hours its only part-time since the dealers can rotate between tourney tables and cash tables as tables consolidate.

If that's all true then I'm not so concerned about it. I might just tip if I take first.:jd4:
 
NWPatriot

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That's interesting. I never heard that the add-on went to the dealers.


The "ADD-ON" does not necessarily go to the dealers. Where I play, they clearly state if there is a "Dealer Appreciation" element to your buy-in. If your tournament buy-in is $200 for 10,000 chips, and you can purchase 3000 more chips by buying the $20 "dealer appreciation", then you KNOW where that extra $20 is going. In this type of tournament, your tip at the end probably doesn't need to be as large, if at all.

A conventional "ADD-ON" is generally buying more chips with the add-on going almost entirely to the prize pool.

The only way to really know for sure is to ask your tournament director how the entry fees are divided between prize pool, casino fees and dealers. You should always know the answer to this question. The prize pool percentage (entry - fees) varies by casino, and if you are playing at the casino with the highest fees, then you need to win that much more to make up for it.
 
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