Dont forget to tip your dealers.

A tip for tipping. Always try to treat your dealer with respect no matter what the mood may be.
It is a good idea when a dealer is looking a little blue and no one at the table is tipping to "start it up" by placing a few small bets for them on your hand. On the average, others will soon follow and the spirit of the table and dealer may cheer up a bit,especially if winning.

Dealers should be our friends, not our enemies.

Mott

very important question and honestly one of the several reasons many counters go broke. I stick by 3 simple rules.

1) I never tip while losing, nobody can blame ya for that.

2) I tip after your big run of cards not during the hot shoe unless you are sure to end up a winner because future losses could not exceed past gains of the shoe.

3) Never tip a tip hustler, just make him feel really stupid about asking. I sometimes say, "I was going to wait until I am done, but isn't tip hustling discouraged in a fancy place like this, I know how much you make and trust me it is far more than me". Don't leave his table simply cause he/she is a hustler, stay a few shoes and really make em work. The house hates tip hustling, it hurts their bottom line, money tipped is money that can't be re-bet for the house. By mentioning how hard they are hustling may make then think twice about doing it again.

My bottom line is affected, leave the big tipping for tourists and ploppies that would lose the money anyway, no matter how cheap you might feel. I don't know how many times I have seen ploppies tipping large percentages of their bet on every hand.

The one exception is when playing heads up with great conditions and a non hustling dealer, often times on high counts I might have something riding on every 3rd or 4th hand. This is well made up for because the action is heads up and these hourly conditions can support tipping 2 or 3 times the normal amount.

Just my take but tipping for the case of tipping should be reserved for real hospitality industy like waitress and massage parlors. These dealers make more than most of the part timers on this board.

After having a 7k downturn recently I vowed not to tip until things started looking better, well they did and I am tipping again, a whopping red chip for decent run of cards, or several peices of iron throughout the run.

Cutter (my average tip is about $2.50 per hour)

Tend to Give a dollar a drink to hostesses and to tip the dealer only if im winning..

The only other exception from me (On vary Vary rare situations)
would be from Heat ... Say, Maby like a dealer change with someone checking things out and stuff. But if I win big, Then I do tip....
What I always do is to make it a big deal. This can be done in various ways from soft tone(s) to like, " Oh yes baby, Your good luck to ME! Giving them the same sentences they here everyday like
" Common lady LUCK!". Well my point is that if you decide to tip, Then get your credit due..

You never know when you will run into them next...

Being nice (But smart) is key.

There is little question in my mind that I've have gained more from dealer errors over the years, than I've given up in tips. I used to keep track of such things and found that I was gaining on average about 1 1/2 average bet sizes per 25 hrs of play and giving up slightly more than 1 average bet size.

I've always rationalized both my tipping and taking dealer errors as being complementary aspects of trying to get the biggest " legal " advantage over the house--without making waves. You've got to tip in order to keep dealers happy, but if a dealer makes an error--well, what a person or " the house " doesn't know isn't going to hurt them--right?

The only time I depart from this strategy is when I know for certain that the dealer is making mistakes for his own benefit by attempting to collude with me. This happened to me once in Laughlin where I was picking up a bet size every ten hands or so, and was tipping liberally in return. As long as I believed that the dealer was on the square, and was just being careless, I didn't feel as though I was acting criminally. As soon as I realized that he was making errors intentionally, in order for me to become his partner in crime, I got up and left the table and headed for the nearest exit--happy that I was richer than I should have been, and a lot freer than the foolish dealer would probably end up being, too.

Make sure you have some silver pieces displayed. This lets the dealer know that you might toke.

Place a bet (either a silver piece, or one of those $2.50 pink chips) for the dealer only if winning. Since you are not expected to toke if losing, let's not get crazy.

Place said bet for dealer directly after a natural (no push) or after a really cool double down or split (winning DAS - even better).

If I end up doubling down or splitting with a bet out for the dealer, I always accompany the extra bets with like dealer tokes, even if I have to make change.

If I have won several consecutive hands, and the bet with the dealer wins, I say something like, "Looks like I'm on a streak, wanna press your bet?" There's nothing better than appearing like you believe in voodoo.

I have a couple of corollaries to these rules of thumb, but I ain't posting them under my handle. They are great for cover, but would be too memorable to any critters reading this.

-T-

When I toke I place a bet for the dealer in front of my stack (usually a silver). I've read others who recommend "capping" your stack. What advantages/disadvantages are there to capping as opposed to placing the toke in front of the stack?

Buick

In most of the casinos I play, a dealer can't make the decision to press the toke for a second hand. If you win the hand and jokingly ask the dealer if they want to "let it ride" they must decline.

I like capping and so do a lot of dealers. I make sure the dealer knows it's their bet. If I win the hand I can give the dealer the original toke and press the win for them on the next round. It's then a no lose situation for them.

I run into a lot of dealers who've never seen it done that way and it always get an appreciative smile. If other folks at the table start doing it the same way, you've made a friend of the dealer and get some Brownie points with the pit.

I'm not there to make friends with the house, but there's nothing wrong with creating a bit of good-will in the workplace. :-)

I never say never..hahaa. Losing sessions are not contingent upon tipping in my rules,we cant blame the dealer for that. I usually make several silver bets for dealers per hour including dd and splits if conditions are good regardless of winning or losing. Even if dealers were millionaires, I would still tip. Having played many sessions were no one at the table would tip under any condition I may start the "tip hustling" myself for the dealer, especially at a casino I frequent.
I know people say greedy casinos dont like tips for dealers, but if this is the case I would probably not play at such a tight conditioned joint anyway. Most pit crews appreciate dealer tipping for they know without tips...no dealers.

I have had terrible swings myself but would "never?" make up a rule of never tipping till'or if I win my money back.

I dont tip to tip...I tip because money makes the world go round.

Mott

Your're such a kind casino samaritan Pete.
Casinos lose much more loot due to dealer mistakes than money lost due to counting. I have seen dealers make some unbelievable mistakes that are costly to casinos. You would think ,,time be better spent watching dealers instead of counters, eh?

Mott

Almost all dealer mistakes are made unintentionaly, as in your case Pete, you claim some dealer was making mistakes every 10 hands and paying you in order to get some tips. I would say you had a totally unusual case of hitting a lotto-istic dealer,something we may never get to experience... such as you have.

I have a friend who is a supervisor in a casino. He has told me that if a player is tipping the dealers, his average bet is increased on his rating card (more comps!), if not, the ratings are lowered. Is this right? Probably not. Does it happen? Most definitely.

If a tip isn't instantly recognisable as a tip it looks like an increased bet when the pit boss is taking a peek for comp value.

It all helps.

I very seldom use a rating card so I'm not sure if your average bet is increased, but I do defintely believe a typical pit boss appreciates tips for the dealers and waitress. In essence, I'm just giving away a little of the grind by showing my appreciation also.

The eye-in-the-sky does watch for dealer errors. While they do watch for counters, they also keep an eye out for a lot of other things:

Dealer errors
Dealers stealing (pocketing chips, for example)
Customers cheating
Customers stealing from the casino
Customers stealing from other customers

you should virtually never tip. Any beginner should not tip at all - it is easy to delude yourself into thinking you are getting something for your money, when in fact this is very rare. Typically, you are just trying to justify tipping in response to dealer pressure.

If you cap the bet but don't tell them it's for them, you can then kick them the tip and bet the same dollar for them again. On the occasions that you win 3-4 in a row you may have tipped them 3-4 dollars while only investing one. Also when you kick them the dollar and they ask you to play it then I only count that dollar as their tip, if and when it when the dealer wins, they gets 2 bucks and you keep the original dollar for a cost of zero. I believe this is from Ian Anderson's book, Burning the tables in Las Vegas.

Tri-Geek

seems crass to me.

If everyone thought like you..no more table games, they're history.
What would ultimatly happen is the turn over of dealers would be tremendous and due to insufficient funds for compensation... dealers would be very sparse. The end result would be a complete shutdown of table games, however BJ machines and on-line BJ will still exist (yuck!) for you to tackle and not worry about tipping.

If you are a smart and effective counter you can still be a winner while tipping.
If you're a counter that cant afford to tip, or dont tip, you're either greedy or underbankrolled and will probably lose anyway.

Casinos give away far more on dealer errors than they lose from counters, and I am indeed an excellent casino Samaritan as I am all too happy to point out the nearest restroom to any slot-playing and incontinent granny.

I cannot vouch for the honesty and integrity of other players accepting " dealer gratuities "--but I do believe a bit of larceny resides in the heart of every " good " gambler--and not that this tendency is immoral either. For I believe a certain amoral licentiousness is part and parcel of the gambling venue itself; and in the same way that all's fair in war, I think gambling can be viewed as a kind of war also, where the possibility of RUIN--just as in war--is an all too possible outcome and to be avoided at all costs--short of a jail term.

The dealer down in Laughlin was just too damn smart to be acting so dumb. I would say, with about 90% certainty, that he knew what he was doing, he knew what I was doing, ( counting ) and he knew what the pit and security weren't doing. ( paying attention )