Friday Update

Howdy everyone--I hope that everyone has had a great week and is looking forward to an even better weekend.

I'm back in the saddle here in Vegas, and it's good to be back. I'm refreshed and recharged, ready to get back into my usual groove. Last night was my first night back in the casino, and as happy as I was to be back, my good mood immediately turned sour as soon as I got to work and saw that I was scheduled to deal Let It Ride and two $5 blackjack games all night.

Just f*cking kill me now, I thought. I swear, present technology cannot measure my distaste for Let It Ride and 'fleajack'.

Anyhow, as it turns out, I only had to deal Let It Ride for an hour, and they ended up not even opening the other two blackjack games up in the bar, so I never got stuck on them. After my first hour in purgatory, I went to a quick training session for a new sucker game they're putting in, but luckily it's what we dealers call an "8:00 o'clock game" and since I start at seven every night, I'll likely never have to deal it. After that, I spent an hour in another mandatory training meeting that all employees have to go to every week for 12 weeks. Good lord--it's such a waste of time. My only thought is that the problem with my casino is NOT the front line employees, it's the jerkoffs with their names on their office doors who learned the theory of how to run a casino in classes at UNLV and not from behind a green-felt table. I could go on and on, but I'll refrain for now.

Anyhow, after all that, I actually ended up dealing dice for the rest of the night, which was nice. Although, it was tough at first--I hadn't dealt a busy dice game in almost four months, and I was stumbling around like a rookie lump for the first twenty minutes or so. After getting my bearings, it went much smoother for the rest of the night, but I caught myself trying to figure oddball payouts that I hadn't seen in weeks, hoping I'd either come up with the answer or the dice would seven-out before it would hit. Luckily, all mishaps were avoided and I didn't make any mistakes, even with a couple of strokers at the table playing black action.

Once I got home, I couldn't keep my eyes open and I went straight to bed.

I had to get up early this morning--at first I had an appointment/screening interview with a large casino down on the Strip, but yesterday I got the message that the position had been filled, but they *might* be calling me back again in a few weeks. No big deal--it was one of those situations where I filled out the application on a day I was pissed at my current job, and as soon as I hit the 'submit' button, I thought to myself "Man, I really don't wanna work there, do I?" so either way I'm cool with what happens.

Also, I had to be up early because we were getting a visit from the exterminators. Apparently, the apartment complex does industrial-strength spraying for bugs twice a year, and they just did it a couple of weeks ago. Well, the bugs get poisoned and seek refuge inside, and people on the ground-floor apartments, like Rob and I, started seeing the occasional pest about two or three weeks ago. F*ck that--for as nice a place as this is, I don't even want to see an ant on the driveway, so Rob raised hell and went down to the office and complained. Apparently, we weren't the only ones to bitch about it, so they scheduled the exterminator to come and spray all of our baseboards, corners, and entrances.

The guy showed up around 10:00 am this morning, and was done it ten minutes. According to him, we shouldn't have any more problems for several months, until they spray the outside again. Of course, everything around us is new construction, and there is a huge vacant construction lot next to the complex, so whenever the dirt gets churned up, the bugs, spiders, and scorpions are turned loose like a biblical plague. I'm just glad that we haven't had a problem with scorpions. Yet. But that's the price we pay for living in the desert. And knock on wood we haven't had to deal with any snakes on the patio, either.

Anyhow, since I got up early this morning, I surprised myself with how much I've accomplished today. My room is clean, the laundry is done, and all the little things I had to do are finished up.

I'm looking forward to a profitable weekend at work, and my off-time will be spent watching all the football I can handle.

Starting on Monday morning, however, I've decided that I'm going to go 'back to the beginning' and head back down to dealer school. And I'm going to keep going every day until I find some sort of poker dealing job. What's it been now, almost three years, give or take? I've gone off and on so many times, and could've easily gotten a job several times in the past if I'd just applied myself, but my inherent laziness took over. I kept telling myself that unless it was the 'perfect' situation, I didn't need a poker job. But the truth is, in this town, you never start out in the perfect situation. You have to pay your dues just like everyone else, and unless you really know somebody who can juice you into a position, this industry is almost a perfect meritocracy.

But while on vacation I realized that the reason I moved to Vegas was to earn enough cash to someday buy that sailboat, and so far the only saving I've done has been in my 401k. Granted, I've paid down a ton of old debt, and I've still got lots more to pay, but I need to be serious and start banking some big dollars or I'll never get out of here. And I don't wanna be one of those sixty-year-old guys I work with who have been dealing forever and have an endless supply of stories from 'back in the old days of Vegas'. I wanna be one of those old ex-pat guys on a sailboat, drinking rum, playing my guitar, and telling stories of when I used to work in Las Vegas.

I love it here, but I've always said, if I had my sailboat and enough to live on, I'd leave forever.

And if I don't find a second job where I get to keep all my tips in cash, I'll probably be here forever.

Mikey