The Rules Guy -- How To Conduct Yourself At The Poker Table

Most players learn poker’s explicit rules pretty quickly: the “one-chip rule,” for example, or “verbal declarations are binding.” But not everyone seems to have digested the game’s vast book of unwritten rules, admonitions like “don’t berate other players (particularly bad ones)” or “say ‘nice hand’ even when you mean something entirely different.”

Enter “The Rules Guy.” TRG believes that civility and sportsmanship are never wrong, and that bad behavior (even when you’re simply trying to get an edge) is bad for the game. Have you got a question about how to conduct yourself at the poker table? Email TRG at [email protected].

To Tip, Or Not To Tip: Tipping at Tournaments

Dear The Rules Guy:

So what’s the deal with tournament tipping? I do it, but I always struggle with the amount. Can you give me some guidance?

— OK in Oakland

Dear OK,

Anyone from Oakland, California, is OK by The Rules Guy, who loves the tournaments at the Oaks Card Club. And you’re OK by virtue of the fact that (a) you tip at tournaments and (b) you wonder how to do it right.

The last installment of “The Rules Guy” made the case for tipping in cash games. When it comes to tournaments, the rationale for tipping is even stronger — but the whole subject is murky, and ripe for clarification and change, as the observation from Nolan Dalla (above) suggests.

You should tip in cash games because dealers rely on tips for the bulk of their income, at least in the United States. And given that reality, tipping is even more essential in tournaments because of a dealer’s opportunity costs. Think about it: If a dealer gets a $1 toke each hand in a cash game, and deals 25 hands per hour, that’s $25/hour in tips (plus base wages, of course). Every hour that dealer spends at a tournament table cuts his or her income by $25/hour.

But it’s not quite that straightforward. Many card rooms acknowledge this income shortfall and will pay dealers an additional amount, typically on a per down basis. This is clearly a good idea: Dealers shouldn’t have to depend on the kindness of strangers (tippers) to ensure a decent wage for their tournament downs. But it’s hard to believe that dealers can relish the chance to deal tournaments if it systematically reduces their income.

One reasonable solution is forced or semi-forced “gratuities.” Sometimes they are called “dealer appreciation” fees, typically in the 3 to 5 percent range. Sometimes, for an extra $5 (or $10 or $20), you’ll get a substantial number of additional tournament chips with the understanding that this add-on fee is going to dealers and floor. And sometimes, as in most big-ticket and all WSOP events, part of the juice is explicitly earmarked for dealers and floor people. In a recent year, up to 3 percent of the buy-in was earmarked for staff in the smaller WSOP events, while the main event reserved 1.8 percent for dealers and the floor.

TRG believes that this approach has tremendous merit. It ensures a way to compensate those who are handling the duties of managing the tournament, and spreads that burden across every player, not just winners. But this changes the tipping equation considerably, so it’s incumbent on you to know how dealers and floor people are being compensated.

As TRG pointed out in the last column, tipping remains an individual decision, both in terms of whether to do it and how much. TRG hopes you agree that dealers depend on tips (whether voluntarily given or “forced” in the form of add-ons, dealer appreciation fees, or an earmark of the juice). So if you decide to tip, here are few guidelines:

A reasonable percentage is in the 2 to 5 percent range of your profit (your cash minus your total buy-in), which would translate into 2 percent to 5 percent of the total prize pool if every winner tipped accordingly. If you’re among the top two or three finishers, tip on the high side of that range; for min-cashes, a smaller percentage is fine.

TRG believes, perhaps counterintuitively, that you should err on the high side for smaller tournaments and on the lower side for bigger ones. To put it in perspective, 3 percent of a small field tournament with a $10,000 prizepool is just $300 in total. Mike Caro has suggested a tip of 5 percent for prizepools under $20,000 and 4 percent for prizepools above that figure.

Obviously, if anything is explicitly taken out for dealers, that should factor into your calculations. You’ve essentially paid your tip in advance, but could certainly add something for dealers (on the order of 1 or 2 percent), particularly if you’re among the top finishers or if you are particularly impressed by the professionalism of staff.

You may be particularly indebted to one dealer — whether because he or she was extremely competent or happened to be pitching cards when you got the long-awaited rush — but your tips should be directed towards the entire tournament staff, not an individual. However, it’s OK to give something explicitly to the tournament director.

For tournament directors, TRG has two suggestions. First, never hustle for tips. It’s one thing to encourage an unfamiliar player or an obvious rookie to “remember the dealers,” but you cross a line when you make a transparent suggestion about what might constitute an appropriate tip. (Perhaps an envelope marked with something like “$$$ For The Dealers $$$” on the table when you pay off the winners is acceptable — the poker version of the Starbucks “tip jar.”) And it seems almost offensive to hustle for tips if there’s already a mechanism in place for “dealer appreciation” as at the World Series where the entry ticket details the percentage reserved for staff.

The second suggestion for card room managers and tournament directors is more important: Figure out a way to make sure the dealers get paid for their tournament downs. Make it as explicit as possible, like printing on the tournament receipt something like “Of your $225 buy-in, $25 goes to the house. Of that $25, $10 goes into a pool for the tournament staff to be divided appropriately.” Or: “The $10 dealer appreciation fee goes directly to dealers and other staff involved in running the tournament.” It would be like a “service compris” charge in a Parisian restaurant (or a particularly pretentious American one).

Of course, if some plan like this became the norm — if a dealer appreciation fee was a standard, explicit charge for a given tourney — the notion of a gratuity in a poker tournament would change. It would be more like juice or rake, a fixed cost borne equally by all players, than like a reward or a bonus for outstanding service or simply a gesture of generosity. And TRG shudders at the thought of anything that dampens a player’s generous impulse. When the poker gods smile on you and you have a decent win, share the wealth — and since the gods can’t use the cash, share it with the dealers and the staff. You cannot put an exact price on good karma, but a few benjamins here and there make a decent starting point. ♠

Comments? Questions? Behavioral issues? Email TRG at [email protected]

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