Tipping: Let’s not even play hardball, let’s just hamstring it, rip out its jugular, eat its heart while its still beating, and spill its innards across the continents – possibly spew a few of them into outer space.

The thought of tipping seems to leave a bile taste in a lot of people’s mouth, it enrages some that others don’t tip and sends them to speak their minds on cheap asses and louts that don’t tip, but whatever and however it affects YOU, it is still being commented on, on posts here on Tango.

I have rarely spoken about tipping in any post I’ve ever made on Tango. I’ve never called anyone out on whether or not I felt they should tip or shouldn’t, or even said much about whether or not I should be tipped.

I’ve never felt that a player was forced to tip. I’m also very aware that a player – stiff or not – keeps a game going for a dealer to have a place to earn their daily stipend and the dealer, in turn, should run the game to the best of their ability and move along – WHETHER OR NOT THEY RECEIVE A TIP. If one player doesn’t tip, the next 30 will, so get the job done and move on – that’s how I’ve felt about it for years. But since some of you are STILL convinced that ‘Behind the Noise’ was about tipping, let’s get down and dirty with it. Let’s beat the exposed bones to death and tear all the gristle and joint juice out of it and leave it dried and ugly in the heat of the poker room light.

Everyone knows that tipping is part of any customer service industry. To act like it doesn’t exist or isn’t done is idiotic. The issue is not going to go away. If you don’t want to tip, don’t BUT at least figure out that it is going on around you, there are people in society that live off of tipping, there are people that do tip, there are people that work jobs because it is a tipping job. It’s like having an argument as to whether or not there is a God. Some people believe, some people don’t, but why can’t we all just get along?

And did I forget to tell you that this is going to be long? So you had better grab a soda, a cup of coffee, or better yet, fill your wine glass for me and drink more than one. (I’m on the ‘be better than good’ kick to be healthy – no vino for da granny).

There are a lot of great tipping stories. Some of them are quite grim, of course that depends on which side of the street you’re on when it’s happening, and some of them are wonderful.

I can remember the first time I ever pushed a pot that had over $250,000 in it. I pushedthat potto George the Greek. It was at the Mirage somewhere around 95 or 96. All the dealers had been saying that George tipped them $100 every time he won a big pot. In those days I was foolish enough to think that I would be included in that bigger than life tip heaven.

I pushed him the pot on the last hand I dealtof that down. The floor person always had to bring in a new set up when the new dealer came in to the box, this took some time and should’ve been obvious to everyone that a dealer change was in effect. Not to worry, I didn’t receive anything and I felt badly about it for the rest of my shift.

That was back in the days when I still believed in the Tip Fairy. That was such a very, very long time ago. The worst part of it is that the following night I dealt the same game; George was in it (of course he was, they built the damn game around him). It was a repeat scenario of the night before; I pushed him another gigantic pot, over $200,000, on the last hand I dealt and got stiffed one more time.

I was heartbroken, I’d listen to all the other dealers exclaim with bright shiny eyes and a big smile about how much money they were making from George and there I was coasting out of that game with an empty pocket. It was painful. A $100 tip, in those days, was unheard of and getting one of them just about made a dealer’s week.

A big tip in those days was $25. Somewhere around this time period, Adeeb had been coming in to town and playing high limit stud. He was the true dealer’s dream. If he won the antes, he gave the dealer a $10 or $15 toke. If he won a pot that had any size to it, he gave the dealer a $25 toke and sometimes more. Of course he didn’t play as well as the pros that he was there to beat and it was always a gamble, first you had to be lucky enough to have his game in your line-up, then you had to be lucky enough to have him playing and not out for dinner or a smoke, and then you had to be lucky enough to push him a pot. Everyone in the game was shooting at him so it was quite an event if he went on a rush. He NEVER forgot the dealer.

Some of the players and staff picked up on the fact that he was so generous and they started sitting behind him, sweating him, each time he won a pot, the sweater (sometimes two) got a $25 toke from him. I found myself wanting to laugh over how sick the situation was, that people would give up a seat in a game and almost fight to be his sweater for the day because they definitely made more money sitting behind him than they did playing poker in a week.

I even played poker with him a few times in a $3-6H game when he wanted to learn how to play poker. When he won a pot, he gave me some chips. He is one of the nicest, all around, people, people I have ever met. He still comes to town now and then but never plays too high because he got wiped out by the stock market some years ago. But he still way over tips when he wins a pot. For that I am eternally grateful.

The biggest night I ever had dealing was when I dealt to Roger King in a $400-800 7 Card Stud game. I was in the $1-5 stud section of the room and I saw Roger King up on top. Woo hoo! I’d dealt to him before and he threw green birds ($25) when he won a pot. My son worked at the Mirage at the same time and he was in the $20-40H line-up, heading for Roger King’s table. I asked him if he would trade spots with me and we would chop our whole night’s tips. He said he wouldn’t deal to anyone that tipped anyway so why not.

I pushed through two or three $10-20 and $20-40H games. And then hit Roger’s table. He was in 4s and looked at me when I entered the box. I smiled at him and said hello. The first hand I dealt was a time pot. The time was $75, he threw me a green bird. That was the start of the best down I have ever had in my life. I left that table with over $800 in my pocket. He gave me a $100 tip just because he beat “the albino”. And that’s exactly how he phrased it, this is because I beat the albino. Roger’s bodyguard stood behind him every time he played. Sometimes Roger would send his bodyguard chips and send him out to play a few hands of blackjack.

The next game I dealt that night was very good also but nothing close to the one with Roger and it. My son and I had a great night.

The second biggest night I ever have was when I dealt to Shawn Shiekhan in an $800/1600 game. That was at Bellagio about three to years ago. Sean was stuck over $50,000 when I sat down and Amir was in the game and every hand was a raising war with other players caught in the storm. Shawn got even. He counted himself down, looked at me, and said, “No one here knows the connection you and I have,” and threw me four blackbirds, telling me that he was even and he was giving me his profit. (Shawn knows all three of my sons and me for a long time – that’s our connection).

In general dealing poker is just a regular job. There are times that the tip factor is over the top, but most of the time, year in and year out, it’s a steady amount of money. I have watched a lot of new dealers come into the fold and act like they deserve to be tipped just because they pushed a pot. I’ve witnessed it when I’m sitting in the player’s chair and witnessed it when I’m pushing them out of the box. I don’t like that attitude. I’ve watched dealers slammed the pot towards a player when they know the players not going to tip them, I mean literally almost throwing it at the player’s spot at the table. When I see this type of attitude, I am embarrassed for the dealer to be such a jack off.

I also don’t like the attitude that a player deserves the right to abuse the dealer as long as they tip. I’ve heard this from dealers – they don’t mind a player giving them shit as long as the player tips them. KEE-RIST! I don’t agree with that at all. I don’t believe a player has to tip and I don’t believe they have the right to do whatever they want as long as they do tip.

I’ve even been embarrassed at times when a player points out to another player that they should tip the dealer. There are a lot of new players in the games that don’t tip simply because they don’t know about it. Some of these players won’t even tip the cocktail server because they don’t know that it’s part of the industry.

I’ve also been embarrassed (and very grateful) when someone is loading my pocket up with chips when I’m dealing. That may sound strange but there is such a thing as excessive and in the higher limit games it makes me feel a little strange. Of course that type of player is usually the reason every one is at the table, they are the live one.

Don’t get me wrong, I would like to deal a game in which everyone at the table tipped, night after night, for the rest of my life, and have everyone laughing and joking. That really is a dream isn’t it?

*Post poned*