Ok, so apparently, my busy schedule aside, some of my dear readers have become addicted to my internet blatherings like it was digital crack. Emails and comments have ranged from 'Hello, is this thing on?' to 'Dammit dude, when are you gonna post again?' All I can do is offer my apologies for my extended absence (what, like 48 hours?) from the keyboard, and try to do better. But I find it amazing, and somewhat humbling, the number of people who are interested in the daily happenings of my somewhat-dull-to-me life.
Yesterday, Tuesday, was my 'Saturday'. And my Saturdays are all about catching up on things. Mostly sleep and then chores, like laundry, grocery shopping, reading, etc. After all of that was done, it was almost 7pm at night. So I spent the balance of the evening dozing in front of HGTV, gathering ideas for how I'd fix my place up if the day ever comes that I can afford a home here in Las Vegas.
Yes, I know the original plan was to attend the Grand Opening at Red Rock last night, but we got word on Sunday evening that they pushed the general admission opening back until midnight, instead of 9pm. Knowing that Andrea has a real job and has to get up early in the morning, we cancelled our plans to attend. I was pretty bummed out about the whole thing, because although I really wanted to see the new resort (all of the local 'experts' are comparing it to Bellagio and Wynn), I hadn't gotten to spend any time with Andrea since March Madness, and I was starting to miss her. Although, I've realized that we can only really hang out about once a month, otherwise, things get crazy and we'll either end up in jail, on the news, or drunk at some wedding chapel at the end of the night like Rachel and Ross on that season finale of Friends. Anyhow, what was going to be a great night out turned out to be a dull night in.
Speaking of Red Rock, I may have mentioned in the past that we lost a bunch of dealers to them, meaning that we have a whole lot of new dealers on the extra-board, but as far as I can tell, only three of them deal dice. That means I've been spending a whole lot more time in the dice pit, whereas before I spent about a month straight in Chinatown dealing Pai Gow and carnival games. Believe me, I'm ok with that--nobody really likes to deal blackjack that much, and I love to deal Pai Gow and all of the other fun games except Let It Ride (everybody hates that game). But my dice game has suffered as a result of not getting much time at the table. I've been dealing a year, and I should be a much better dice dealer.
It's not that I'm a poor dealer, and I'm happy to report that I'm no longer the worst dice dealer at my casino. I could just use some improvement, that's all. For awhile there, early on, I just dreaded being scheduled for Craps on the weekends, but busy games with big action and heavy prop bets don't intimidate me anymore. By now I've seen most of the oddball bets that people make (and believe me, nobody plays worse than locals that think they have a 'system'), so I'm used to them, and now I'm getting to where I've got most of the the prop bet combination payoffs memorized, instead of having to take the time to figure 'em out if the dice land on a crap number. I just wish I had smoother hands, but again, that comes with more table time.
So lately, it's been three nights scheduled in Chinatown, and two nights at the dice table. But around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, tables start closing and dealers start asking to go home early, so I usually spend my last two hours of each night at the dice table anyways. And forget going home early on Mondays or Thursdays--we never have enough dice dealers on those nights, so I never get to go home early on my 'Friday' night. After a very long dice shift on Monday nights, at the tail end of a long week, it's no wonder that I spend most of the day snoozing on Tuesdays.
Anyhow, if I'm not wrangling the dice or busting people at the Pai Gow table, another one of my favorite games to deal is 3-Card Poker. The table is always fun, there's not much to dealing it making it easy to carry on a conversation, and every now and again somebody makes a monster hand, so it's a moneymaker for the dealers. If I spend the evening turning over cards that are queen high with no pair, I swear I'll drop $300-$400 in the toke box, easy. Plus I'll have a lot of laughs, too. Of all of the carnival games, that one seems to be everyone's favorite to deal. Lucky for me, it's part of the string of tables including Pai Gow and that World Poker Tour game. I'm one of the few people in our casino that can deal the WPT poker game, so I'm usually there at least three or four nights a week.
Poker school is coming along just fine. I'd say I'm about 70% of the way done. At this point, it's mostly self-taught, learning from the book, and practice. I took yesterday off, of course, and I'm thinking of skipping today, too, but lately I've been on a do-the-right-thing kick and I'm sure I'll make my way down there this afternoon for a few hours. I've been checking out a few of the different poker rooms around town, looking for someplace good to deal. At first I thought I'd like to work at Treasure Island with the rest of my classmates, but it's so new that nobody goes there yet--there just aren't enough people playing to make good money. Although longtime reader Brad dealt a cash game there with three players the other day--Pro Ming Wa, Johnnie Chan, and a high-roller from the pit, earning a $200 tip from the roller. (Chan is a legendary stiff though--he could win an $80,000 pot and he still will never tip the dealer. Same with Sam Farha--he's a complete asshole to dealers. And people you think would suck, like Mike Matusow, are actually good people who take care of the dealers... Clearly my perspective has changed, now that I make my living on tips).
Anyhow, the point being is that I'm trying to find a good place to work--Bally's was on the list, but it's kind of a crummy room. Paris doesn't even have a 'room', it's just a few tables in the pit. Harrah's has a nice room with lots of low-stakes action, so working for the Evil Empire isn't completely out of the question. The new 39 table card room at the Venetian sounded good at first, but they aren't getting any players. The other day they had four tables going, and about 15 dealers standing around playing hackysack. That's no way to earn a living. But I keep coming back to the Plaza--that room is always hopping, they do lots of tournaments, and there are plenty of juicy low-stakes games going on 24/7. And, as luck would have it, they are hiring...
I shall keep you posted on any developments.
But here it is almost 11 o'clock, so I've got to get in the shower and head on down to school if I want to eventually get me one of those jobs.
Have a great day!
Mikey
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