Tip The Runners

In addition to dealers, there are other people to be tipped in the casino industry.

One of the most overlooked is the chip runner. Their job is to get you chips, bring setups when the cards are running bad for you, find service for you, get you cushions, and more.

They do a lot of work and usually get the smallest envelopes from the casino. So it’s important they they make decent tips also for a decent job done. There is one service that they have been providing since the birth of poker.  Something that is customary to tip for. Sadly, I rarely see anyone tip for it anymore.

I’m talking about bringing a new setup to the table. It is (or was) customary to tip whoever brought it. Before there was Hold ‘Em, poker players mainly played Draw and Lo-Ball at an eight-handed table. There were no dealers, you dealt amongst yourself. When the setup was brought, each player would throw in a dollar and the eight dollars gathered would be given to the floorman (back then only the floorman could bring a setup).

Then after dealers became common place, it seems that setups came faster. You could get one around the clock. No longer could a table afford to be shelling out $9 for every setup. So, it became customary only for the person who had asked for the setup to tip. To me this made more sense. The chip runner or floorman is doing that player the favor by honoring their request for a setup. Most all the other players don’t want the setup as it slows down the game.

Eventually new setups were being requested quite often that most cardrooms now have a limit of how many can be passed out. One hour seems to be the majority but some limit it to once every 8 hours.

Sadly, I see the setups passed out and I rarely see the player who requested it ever throw a tip to the runner. Most people ask for a new setup because they believe that it will bring them better luck than the last decks. If that truly is the case, then why not tip the runner $1 for getting rid of those bad luck decks? The ones that had been keeping you from winning all this time. If that service isn’t worth a dollar than I don’t know what is.