Players in the casino for the first time generally do not tip the dealers at all.

Drunks and donkeys tend to tip too much.

Grinders and rounders tend to tip the right amount.

So, the question is how much to tip and why.

The first thing I do when I am in a poker room for the first time is find out their rules and procedures. I ask floor management a bunch of questions. I want to know what goes and what does not.

I find out if the dealers pool their tips or keep the tokes they earn themselves.

Most card rooms force the dealers to pool tips.

I am bit more stingy in the pooled version. This is because some dealers are better than others.

And some are just plain awful.

A competent dealer can deal at least 30 hands an hour with no misdeals, is friendly, and has complete control over the action at the table.

My guideline for tipping competent dealers is simple: the tip amount is equal to the small blind.

If the dealer is better than competent and keeps their own tips, then I will tip an amount equal to the big blind. This is the exception.

In a $1-$2 game at 30 hands an hour, the dealer is making $30 an hour in tips, or over 3X their base salary. That is fair.

Plus, if you are playing for money and not the thrill of victory, you are already losing $5 a pot to the rake and bad beat jackpot. It is hard enough to beat the rake let alone bleed off chips to excessive tipping.

Keep the tips limited to the small blind amount – big blind max.

If you are a regular player at a poker room, and want to do more, then do what I do: Give the dealer a Christmas card with a cash gift at the end of the year (assuming the year was profitable).

Action folds around to the button, he calls. I have played with this player before. He is a 50-ish Asian gentleman that is known to aggressively play any two cards. We have done battle before with each of us beating the other roughly half the time. That said, I generally stay out of his pots unless I have the nuts.

The flop comes 8-3-10 rainbow. I bet out $50. The button raises me to $100. I put him on pocket 10s, but call anyway. My reads during this session were spot-on. At this point I am confident I was beat on the flop.

Of all the quads I have had, most have been quad 8’s. I want to see the turn card, hoping for the case 8.

Turn card is an ace. I bet $100. The button raises me to $200. I momentarily put him on A-10. Two pair to my set, and two over cards. I still have a nagging feeling he has a set of 10’s. The problem is I am now pot-committed. I call.

The table talk after the hand reveals that this gentleman put me on A-A preflop, so he thinks I have a set of aces on the turn.

The river is another 10. “He has quad 10’s,” I think to myself. Odds are he does not have quads, but anything is possible in a cash game. I check. This confuses the button, but he bets out $100 into a $650 pot. I can’t fold with the pot odds, but I can’t raise him all-in for another $200 if he has quad 10’s or 10’s full of aces.

I was so focused on him having one of those two hands, I thought he was making a small value bet of roughly 15% of the pot instead of pushing all in for what would have been about half the pot. Convinced I am beat and he made a value bet on the river, I call.

I immediately show 8’s full of 10’s. He stands up. Slams the cards face-up on the table with a loud “ahh!”. “He is celebrating taking down the biggest pot of the night,” I think to myself.

My eyes turn to his cards. He had pocket 3’s. Pocket 3’s for $100 on the flop with two over cards? My first bad read of the night basically doubled me up.

Time to leave the game … a winner.