Runaround Sue

Here's my story, sad but true...


Man, I had the Day From Hell on Friday afternoon, and it just never got much better, either.

By now, everyone and their cousin at the casino knows that I'm trying to transfer away from the Table Games department to the Poker Room. Not that I don't enjoy my job--usually I really do--but the poker room is just a much better fit for me. I even heard a second-hand compliment from one of my co-workers who is close friends with one of the poker dealers.

Apparently, my co-worker was asking his friend if he'd seen me dealing over in the poker room yet, and the poker dealer said "Oh yeah -- we were all amazed at how well he did!"

Nice.

So on Thursday night (maybe it was Wednesday, hell, I don't know, all my days are starting to run together) when I saw that they'd posted positions in the poker room, I wanted to get the ball rolling right away and get the paperwork done. So during my break, I was on the internal website, and when I selected the job to apply for, it sent me to that stupid external JobFlash website. I tried to log onto that (I still have an account there from three years ago when I was a noob looking for a gig), but it wouldn't let me in no matter what I did. Going back to the internal website, it even said for internal candidates to submit transfer requests through our 'In House Corporate Recruiter'. Ok. So I went back to my boss to see if she had the paperwork for me to fill out and submit to Human Resources.

Nope, I was told to go see the manager of the poker room--he'd have the proper forms.

Ok, no problemo, except that he's off on Wednesdays and Thursdays--I had to come in on Friday.

So Friday afternoon rolls around, and I know the guy comes in at four and works till midnight. So I show up around 4:15, tell him that I want to submit the transfer paperwork, and he tells me that I have to go to the employment office over behind the sports book (completely different from Human Resources).

No problemo, so I shuffle off in that direction. But the door is locked and the sign on the window said that they're closed on Fridays. Great. And it's a holiday weekend, too. So I go back and tell the poker room manager that they're closed and to make sure that I have more than 72 hours to submit the paperwork (in the pit, when a new position opens up for internal candidates, you only have 72 hours to apply). He said it's no problem at all, but I should probably go over to the HR office before they close, because they'll also have the paperwork.

So off I go, clear to the other side of the property, and show up at the Human Resources office. I tell them of my plight, and the toadette at the front desk says to me "Well, you need to submit the paperwork from the internal website".

So I told her about how it only links to JobFlash and says internal candidates have to go through the recruiter.

Oh, well, just apply through JobFlash, it's the same thing...

I told her that she is mistaken and that she's giving out incorrect information (I know this because Falcon Rob jumped through these same ridiculous hoops a few months ago). Besides, I asked, how would an external website, that posts openings from almost every casino in Vegas, differentiate between me and some guy off the streets. (Besides, I'm not about to sit down and type out ten pages of employment and residential history for an internal transfer again, which I'd have to do using that site).

She had no answer for that except to say All positions have to go through JobFlash.

I just shook my head and muttered What the f*ck ever to myself and walked out. She was obviously no help at all.

So I went back to the poker room and told the manager of my adventures, and he said not to worry about it--just come in on Tuesday morning, go to the employment office, and get it done then--the position wasn't going anywhere over the holiday weekend.

So my Friday afternoon was wasted. Luckily, I figured something like that would happen, so I was prepared to spend all afternoon there and I was wearing my black casino clothes with a t-shirt. And since it was almost 5:00 pm by then, I didn't want to go back home for an hour and a half and then turn around and drive back.

I considered going to a movie, but it was opening weekend for Indiana Jones and the theatre was packed. What else was there to do?

Gimme a rack of white!

Yep, I sat down at a 4-8 game to kill the time before work. As soon as I got my chips, I noticed that my gal Kathy was there, but there wasn't an empty seat at her table. So I went over to talk to her for a minute, but they put me on another game. And for the two hours before I had to show up for work, no seats opened up on either game, so we were never able to sit together.

And wouldn't you know, the very last hand before I left to go to the pit, I got Ace-King suited, raised pre-flop, it got re-raised and capped, and I flopped two pair when the board showed Ace - King - Five, rainbow. I pushed the action all the way, when finally all but one jackass dropped out. The turn was a three, the river was a four. And this stupid out-of-position motherf*cker with a 6-7 offsuit had called about 12 raises and made a straight on the river, raking a huge $140+ pot. My pot.

Man, I was pissed. Instead of ending the session up about $100, I was down about forty.

I couldn't say anything but "Well done, sir. You can't argue with results..." and I got up and headed to the pit. I left it to the other players at the table who folded out to heap the scorn upon the guy. Which they did with much gusto.

Adding insult to injury, I found out that I was scheduled on a bunch of $5 blackjack games that night. And even worse, we were doing hour-and-twenty minute downs, which sucks worse than tofu bacon. The only bright spot was a few minutes later I was standing there on my empty five-dollar table, having just opened it and waiting to crush the dreams of the first loser to show up with a crumbled up twenty, and I heard that familiar voice with that 'mating call' of Hey Miiiiikeeeey coming up behind me. Yep, it was Kimmy, asking me why I was over in that pit instead of Chinatown.

I told her I was being punished for asking for a transfer. Then I asked her why she was over here with me. I dunno--I got assigned to this pit tonight. I'll chalk it up as a happy coincidence, which I doubled up on because our dinner breaks overlapped later that night, too.

So other than that, my night was just plain miserable. I hated being there with every fiber of my being. But I'm glad I didn't call off or take the immediate Early Out, like I considered. We made $238 per dealer that night in tokes.

And I think last night was even better, moneywise--I'll find out in just a couple of hours.

But Saturday night was just as awful for me--they put me on that same string of four shiatty blackjack tables over in the barely-used 'party pit'. Clearly, I could see that they were sending me a message. They knew it was my tenth straight day of work, and instead of letting me relax at the Pai Gow tables (like I've done every weekend for the past year or more), they put me on those crappy blackjack tables that everyone hates where you get worked to death because nobody ever leaves.

So about halfway through the shift, I got off my game and I saw the shift boss, so I asked her for a moment of her time. I reminded her of my not having any days off for pretty much the summer of 2008, and I'd really appreciate it if maybe tomorrow I could get off my feet for an hour or so and maybe get rotated into a pai gow game. Hell, I'd even be willing to deal Let It Ride--and you KNOW I hate that shiat... I'm just beat and the money is too good this weekend to take early out...

She just kind of grinned and said that she'd see what she could do.

Later on, once they started closing tables, the assistant shift manager came over to my table and said that I was going on the next break, and when I come back, Follow Scottie on... BJ.... (pause, waiting for a table number)

So before she could finish her sentence, I jumped in with Pai Gow what?

Pai Gow what?

Did you say for me to go to Pai Gow?

She finally gave up and said, Well, I don't have an open string in Chinatown yet, I'm still getting rid of all my six o'clockers. Come see me when you get back from break.

Of course, when I got back she sent me to BJ 9, one of the tables I hate--the double deck SuperFun game. Walking away, I called back to her Hey, you're not gonna have Mikey to kick around much longer! which got a laugh.

That's where I ended my night. When I finally was able to go and sign out, I saw the roadmap for Sunday night. I was back 'home'. Instead of just one sit-down game for the night, I've got two Pai Gow tables, Deuces Wild, and a three-card poker game. I'm still doing one-twenties, but at least I'll be sitting on my ass in Chinatown for the entire evening. So tonight should be a piece of cake.

Mikey