Weekend!

Wow, I finally made it through two weeks of crazy at work, and lived to tell about it. I was so exhausted and worn out, and did not want to be anywhere near a casino last night, so the first thing I did once I got there was to sign the Early Out list.

Doh!

I was ninth on the list, as everyone else had the same idea. I think by the time all was said and done, about 25 people had signed up, hoping to get out. Mondays are generally slow, and especially so after a long holiday weekend. But I had written "It's my Friday--please get me outta here!" next to my name and the shift boss took pity on me, letting me out as soon as we closed down the Rapid Roulette game at 1:30. I was out the door by 2:00 am, and asleep an hour later.

I needed the rest--I hadn't taken but an hour of E.O. time in the past two weeks, and they were the busiest two weeks of the year. We made decent money, too, and I'm thinking this should be my largest paycheck in about the last three or four months! Thank goodness--it's the one I'm using to finance the buffoonery of Sticky's next visit in two weeks.

Anyhow, I'm glad I'm over the holiday hump. I busted my ass these past few weeks and have had no time to do much of anything besides work and sleep.

As tired as I was, I had a bit of mild entertainment last night on the Rapid Roulette game. A backwards-hatted 21-year-old rocket scientist sat down and announced that he had a 'system' to beat the game. Of course when I saw him starting out betting both red and black at the same time, I tried to point out the error of his ways, telling him that there was absolutely no way to win at roulette by betting like that. His condescending response, which cracked up both me and the other dealer, was Clearly you don't know anything about math or statistics!

Alrighty then, genius... Get on with your bad self!

Nobody was happier than I when the double zero was rolled on the next spin. Heh.

I couldn't help myself, since I clearly didn't know anything about math or statistics, so I asked-- So, how's that system of yours account for when that happens?

He didn't have an immediate answer, but everyone else at the table started smirking and taking shots at him.

Then he started on another riff about I guess your pit boss hasn't told you guys about the Double-Down Theory, huh. And then he started trying to explain the well-known Martingale System, which is a guaranteed loser, but anyone who thinks of it believes that they are the first person to discover it.

Yep, the 'pit boss' has been keeping that "theory" a secret from us!

Somebody else at the table chimed in with something along the lines of Yeah Junior, that's called the Martingale system--it's not new or groundbreaking, and dumbasses have been trying it for years thinking that it's unbeatable. Everyone started bagging on the guy and loading up on the zero and double zero, hoping he'd lose every bet. His brother showed up and started telling him what a fool he was and they actually started arguing about it, which was great fun for the rest of us.

His 'system' was that he'd bet *both* sides, red and black, but then doubling up on whichever color that lost. Unfortunately, whenever the ball would land on green, he'd lose both bets. (And the stat tracker showed that we were rolling 0 or 00 almost 10% of the time...)

I've never seen players at the roulette table gang up on a person like they do in poker or even a dark-side bettor in Craps, but this guy's ignorance and arrogance made him an immediate target. When we rolled two zeroes back-to-back and broke him, there was a round of applause from the rest of the players. The other dealer and I could only smirk, but the other players who'd bet large on green insisted on high-fiving us.

He walked away, not-quite-chastened, but still down two hundred bucks, when one of the other, older, smart-assed players called out Hey, how's that system of yours working out, Baby Einstein? causing everyone within earshot to laugh.

I guess that was the highlight of the evening, because the guy was so arrogant and insisted that he could beat the game. And because he was arguing with the rest of the players who obviously knew better (he kept shaking his head and rolling his eyes like he was dealing with a bunch of morons), it was nice to see him get an object lesson in the concept of gambler's ruin.

I see a lot of different players in the course of a day at the office, and for the most part, I'm hoping they win big. But every now and then, I'll see somebody that deserves a beat-down, and nothing tickles me more than when it happens to somebody who's got it coming.

And he had it coming.

Unfortunately, after that, we started killing everyone else's bankrolls and the table went dead after about 1:00 am so we shut it down. But I was cool with that--I was tired and ready to go home.

And I've got nothing at all going on today--it's a wonderful relaxing day that I get to spend lounging around and doing nothing. No errands to run, no to-do list to tackle, and no place I have to be.

Maybe some inspiration will find it's way to me and I'll do some writing.

Or maybe not.

Mikey