Friday, April 20, 2007

Tempin' Ain't Easy

As much as I've been talking and *thinking* about gettting a poker dealing job, it still hasn't happened. Of course, I've been to a couple of auditions, but as of yet I'm still just dealing in the pit at my regular full-time gig.

March Madness is over, and I told myself that I'd redouble my efforts as soon as everyone left town. However, I've recently come to the realization that my interest in getting serious about dealing poker is inversely proportional to my satisfaction with my full time job. When things are good, I'm lazy about poker. When I'm irritated or the money is low, I'm all about trying to be a poker dealer instead of blackjack/craps/etc. And things at work have been fairly good since the middle of February or so. Tips are down this week due to tax season, but otherwise, I'm fairly happy where I'm at.

I committed, however, to going back to school every day starting this next Tuesday, just to get on top of things, keep my game sharp, and exploit any networking opportunities. I figure if I just committed to treating school/job hunting as a job, like I did when I first moved here, I'd find something fairly soon.

Coincidentally, all this was going through my head as I was trying to sleep today--it was keeping me up, although I was dead tired after work last night. Around noon I heard my phone ringing a few times, but was paralyzed by sleep and unable to answer. I also vaguely remember it making the "you have messages" noise a couple times, but again, I was half asleep and told myself I'd check the messages later.

Once I finally got up, I remembered that somebody was trying to call me. I thought it was the family, but I noticed that all of my missed calls had 702 area codes. Doh! That could mean only one of two things--either wrong numbers or job offers. Turns out that it wasn't wrong numbers. Some of those auditions/applications/inquiries I've made have panned out.

One of the casinos I auditioned with is doing a mid-major tournament early next month and requires my services, and asked that I come back down on Monday morning and do another tournament 'refresher' audition and do all the processing paperwork. Then they asked if I would also be available during the entire month of June for a bunch of other tournaments.

Of course I'm available, and they tell me that I'll be brought on as a temporary dealer. I was also told that after 90 days as a temp, then I would be considered for an Extra Board position (part time, on call, no benefits, but I'd be an actual employee).

The more I think about it, the more I think it's the perfect situation for me. I get lots of experience with a known casino, it fits my schedule, it's extra money, and since I'm not a 'regular' employee, I won't be burning any bridges if something better comes along in the meantime.

The only bummer of the situation is that I'll have to start using that alarm clock thing again. I've got some long days ahead of me.

Mikey

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