Figuring It Out

Hey gang.

Man, if y'all had any idea just how worn out I am at this very moment, you'd have a fine appreciation for the fact that I am not passed out in bed right now, drooling on my pillow.

I am a tuckered out little trooper. I got home a little while ago, after doing a full eight-hour shift in the poker room. And yeah, it was a very lucrative weekend for me--the pit dealers are hatin' life right now, and I'm more than doubling what I would've been making had I stayed. Notice I didn't say that I'm doubling what I used to make. Basically, the casino has died these past couple of weeks, and my former co-workers are struggling to make a hundy a night. Me? I'm doing much better.

Anyhow, I learned something new this past week, which is another lesson nobody told me, but I picked up on from observation. There's that tip bucket on the desk in the poker room, that both dealers and players toss chips in. And I'm no different--I always put a couple of singles in there every time I cash in before going on break. But then I noticed a couple of dealers throwin' a little bit of scratch at the poker room manager, also.

So a few nights ago, I asked him if he got any of the stuff in the bucket, and he told me that he didn't unless he was the only floor/cashier there. So basically, I've been stiffin' the guy whenever there is more than one person at the desk. I had no idea. I apologized and told him that nobody had ever told me that, and since then, I split my tipping out between the bucket and the room manager. Later at night, when he's there alone, it all goes in the bucket.

It doesn't cost me any more than I've toked out before, and ever since I corrected my mistake, not only have I not been sent home early from any of my shifts, he's actually called a couple of the other extra-board dealers on days I've been there and had them stay home and let me work a little extra. And I noticed that I've been getting better line-ups when I come in. Instead of starting on break, or on the 'break table' (the one you deal before going on break), I've been starting at the top of the line-up, getting as many 'downs' as possible.

And with the new schedule for this week, I'm off today, work the next four days straight, and I'm on call on Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure I'll get called in this weekend, so it should be a good week for me (well, except for maybe on Tuesday--I go in at 5:00 in the frickin' morning--I may not pitch a single card for the first two hours).

The whole situation may sound a little bit, I don't know, unsavory maybe, to an outsider, but it's so old-school Vegas that it just works perfectly, and it makes sense. I toss the guy a five-dollar chip when I go on my first break, and instead of going home at 11:00 pm with $150 in my pocket--which ain't bad for six hours--I get to stay until 1:00 am and go home with two and a quarter instead. That's a pretty damn good return on investment.

It also helps that one of my cardinal rules--which helped me back when I first moved to this town--is that while I'm on-call or on the Extra Board, I never say no to a shift at any time. If they need help, I will absolutely drop what I'm doing and be there within the hour. And I have told them as much. I don't have kids or family obligations, so they know they can count on me. I picked up a lot of extra dice time back in my early days with that philosophy, and now I'm getting all the work I can handle in the poker room.

Since there are so few full-timers available, the bosses have to juggle all the part-timers to fill in the gaps the best they know how, and if they can use a guy who the players like, who doesn't screw up too much, never turns down a shift, and oh by the way helps them make a few bucks too, well then, that's why I've been pulling good shifts so far.

And I gotta tell you--I'm thanking my lucky stars every time I walk by the pit and head to the break room. It's so dead over there right now, and every night I see all those fleas that I just hated to deal to. I was telling some of my buddies last night , when they asked how the poker gig is working out so far, that I couldn't think of a number high enough to get me to go back there and deal blackjack. Seriously--I'm so much happier now that I don't think present technology exists that could measure it. And just two months ago, I had no idea how much better it could be.

Really--craps and blackjack? What the HELL was I thinking? It feels like I almost wasted the past three years, now that I've seen both sides. Of course, the experiences I've had and the friends I've got made it all worth it, but damn, had I known--Y'all would've never seen me at a dice table...

And just when I went on my late dinner break and was self-philosophizing about just how good things are going, I walked in to the dining room and saw Michelle sitting by herself reading her trashy gossip magazine. So I grabbed an iced-tea and sat down to join her. And wouldn't you know it, about thirty seconds later, Kimmy came along and sat down with us too.

So my dinner break was quite enjoyable, spending a half-hour of my night laughing it up with two of the cutest gals I know. Between them sitting there with me in their low-cut tops, high-heels, and mini-skirts, and the big wad of cash I had in my pocket, I felt like I was just a purple suit and some gold teeth short of being an official pimp.

But homey has to answer to The Man, and I eventually had to head back out to the floor. The rest of my night paled in comparison, and that last down at the 4-8 game just sucked the life out of me. I cashed out for the last time, changed clothes, and dragged my tired ass to my truck.

When I got home, Rob was awake, barely, kinda dozing in the magic sleepy-time chair watching the recording of yesterday's Nascar race. I'd already seen the whole thing live, so I already knew about Jr. winning, but I didn't spoil the surprise for him. He finally shuffled off to bed, and I stayed up to write this post.

As soon as I hit the submit button, I'm gonna go take a shower, then get a few hours' sleep. And I noticed that Binion's Poker Classic has a juicy-looking No-Limit tournament at 2:00 pm today, so if I'm not too tired, I may make my way down to Fremont Street this afternoon and spend the day texting Dougie.

Y'all have a great Monday!

Mikey out.