First of all, I want to thank everyone who called or emailed today to make sure I was up and out of bed on time to make it to school today. Yep--that alarm woke me from my deep and peaceful slumber, but I rolled out of the sack, took a quick shower and got to school before class started at 11:00.I hadn't been back down to dealer school in almost a year, (has it really been that long?), and it was certainly a blast from the past walking back in there. It was interesting to see people starting out from scratch, just as green and clumsy as I was not so long ago.
But once I arrived, signed in, and sat down, I met the new instructors. One of the reasons that I never went back to poker school all this time, which I never mentioned in the past, was that the instructor at the time was a complete doofus. A nice guy, to be sure, and an experienced poker dealer, but not somebody who could impart any kind of knowledge on a grand scale. He spent way too much time telling table stories and the TMI details about his farked up life, but very little time actually teaching the basics. I felt, at the time, as if I'd thrown away my $800 tuition.
Luckily today I went back and met two of the instructors that replaced him, and the one I spent most of my day with is the graveyard shift card room manager at the Flamingo. I swear I learned more in four hours today than I did in two entire weeks last spring. It was a definite improvement. Also, Nick--the owner of the school--came out and gave me a warm greeting and a pat on the back, saying that somebody showed him this website--not only was he impressed with my work, but he thanked me for the nice write up. And he pointed at me and told the teachers to 'make sure to take care of this guy'. I think he's got a soft spot for me because he can brag to prospective students that just two months after walking into his door for the first time I landed one of the better dealing jobs in all of Vegas.
So I spent the first hour or so working on changing my blackjack dealing mechanics to poker dealing mechanics and learning to switch back and forth between the two before sitting down and actually practicing dealing a live game. And not that I'll be dealing too much of it, but we worked on the overhand pitch for Seven Card Stud for awhile first. In order to 'graduate', one has to become proficient at Stud, Holdem, and Omaha, and also be able to deal limit, pot limit, and no-limit versions of each, along with mastering the art of tournament dealing. Hopefully I can get most of it under my belt in three weeks or so, maybe a month. At least that's the goal.
This afternoon while sitting with a group of newbies, somebody walked by the table and gave me the Hey Mikey! greeting--somebody I'd never met before. Turns out that it was longtime reader Brad, also known as 'mebedaman' over on the T2V board. We'd exchanged emails several months back, when he was thinking of moving to Vegas and becoming a dealer too and needed some advice. He's been at it for just over a month, so he's almost ready to go out and get himself a real job fairly soon.
Class ended at 4pm, so after that I signed out and hit the road. After a quick stop at the grocery store and a box of pizza rolls for dinner, I was wiped out. I only got about three hours of sleep last night--had to watch Jack Bauer save the world before turning in. But I caught a quick cat-nap this evening instead of sleeping through until midnight and being up all night.
After just one day at school, I can say that I'm glad I went back. I enjoy the learning process, and even though I don't play as much poker as I used to in days past, I think dealing it will be a great part-time gig, and lucrative enough to help me reach several of the goals I've set for myself.
And early in the day I realized that I'm actually further along than some of the folks who've been there taking classes for the last week or two.
Because I... am not left-handed!
Mikey
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