Howdy all...
Here it is a sunny Saturday morning in Vegas-land, and I'm happy to be just waking up after catching a good nine hours of sleep. That hasn't happened in awhile, but I gotta admit, it sure was nice.
I have no plans for the day except more puttering around the house getting a few odds and ends done, but I'm a slave to the casino and I'm on-call all weekend, so I can't stray too far from the phone. If the poker room gets busier than expected, I'll be heading back in to work, but usually there are plenty of staff on hand during the weekend, so I'm expecting to enjoy the day off.
Yesterday was a pretty good day for me, though. When I got to work at 8:00 am, the 4/8 game was going in full-swing, and only a couple of the players were the old regulars. The floorman told me that the game had been going all night and was actually a pretty good one--lots of big pots, none of the usual limp-in and check down to the river nonsense that is usually the case with the early game.
The room started to get busy early on, and during my first 'down' at the table, enough other players walked in to start a second table. Since there were only two dealers there at the time, me and the guy who'd come in at 4 am, we got locked down for a couple of hours, and I didn't get a break until 10 am, when a third dealer showed up. That was nice, because when I'm actually working, I've been averaging about $45-$50 per hour in tips. It's taking a break that costs me money!
When I came back a half-hour later, we had some other people come in and get on the interest list for a no-limit game, plus the folks who come in for the daily tournament at 11. So it was a nice and busy day for me, and very lucrative, too.
One of the the 4/8 games had a guy just feeding the whole table all day. He was there before I came in at 8:00 am, and he was still sitting there when I left that afternoon. And he must've bought in for at least a thousand dollars. At a 4/8 game. Seriously. It was the kind of guy you dream about having at your table when you're playing poker. He would call every raise all the way down to the river, and nine times out of ten, he had a completely junk hand. He was seriously the worst poker player I've ever seen--and I've seen some bad ones! All day long, I think I saw him fold maybe five hands pre-flop, otherwise he was in it till the bitter end.
Dealing to him was exasperating, too, because even though he'd been there all day long at a structured game where the bets never changed, every time the action was on him, he'd ask How much is it? or Can I check? or some other dumbassed question. And he took forever to make a decision, which was stupid, because everyone at the table knew he was going to call every time. It's like he learned all he knew about poker from watching TV. We were talking about him later and a couple of the other players thought there might have been something wrong with him mentally, but having worked in the casino for so long, people pissing their money away for no good reason just doesn't phase me anymore.
On the other hand, as much of a pain in the ass as he was to deal to, with all that calling, he'd occasionally run somebody down and rake a huge pot. And whenever he did, he'd tip $4 or $5 every time, which is pretty damn nice on a 4/8 game. So I let the other players do the berating, while I just sat there being nice to him, thinking that I'd ride the gravy train until he went broke. But he never did, he just kept pulling hundred-dollar bills out of his pocket and re-buying. Who knows how long he stayed there, but people were making a killing on this guy.
I managed to stick around until 2:30 or so, getting out once one of the side games broke. But it was a damn good shift, money-wise. So, on the way home, I stopped back at the Wally-world Supercenter and did a bit of shopping. I bought that mini-fridge and coffeemaker I was talking about the other day. I really wanted a stainless steel fridge, but they were like $150 or more, while the white old-school ones were on sale for just $79. So I got a white one. And a brand-new Mr. Coffee machine was only about $25 or so, and one of them found it's way into my shopping cart. I got a few other toiletries and such before calling it a day, and made my way home.
So last night, instead of going out or playing in a poker tourney (which I was sorely tempted to do), I stayed in, and armed with a box-cutter, I got busy setting up my new 'toys'. There was a little more furniture re-arranging going on, but once I got the appliances in, I spent some time setting up my new printer/scanner that I bought like a month ago, but had remained sitting in the corner, still in the box the entire time. The printer, which I thought I got a great deal on, didn't include a USB cable, but luckily I had a bag full of coaxial and USB cables I've collected over the years, so that wasn't a problem. And then I found out that it only included one color ink cartridge, and no black one. I thought it was a bit odd, and kind of cheap on the part of Lexmark, but oh well--I managed to get the software installed on my laptop, and got the jets aligned and so forth, so it works. I just have to go down and get a black ink cartridge at some point this next week.
For dinner, I was thinking about calling Grimaldi's and getting a pizza to-go, since I haven't eaten there since my birthday in April (entirely too long ago!) but instead I just made a pimento & cheese sandwich and had some Pringles and a glass of milk. Yay-exciting Friday night in Vegas, huh?
When I went down to the kitchen, I noticed a package on the table in the entry hall addressed to me. I'd gotten an email from T-Rev, Seahawks fan and dog-hater, telling me to expect a parcel this week. Back when he was here a month ago, we were joking around, talking football smack, and he said he was gonna send me a Jack Youngblood bobble-head doll. I thought that would be cool, because Jack Youngblood, as you all know, is my all-time favorite player. So I thought that's what would be in the package.
So I took it upstairs, and with my handy-dandy box-cutter still sitting on the desk, I opened it up. Instead of a bobble-head doll, there was something MUCH better inside. It was a Riddell miniature old-school Rams helmet, autographed by none other than the original Ocho-Cinco, Jack Youngblood! Included was a photo of him autographing it, along with a certificate of authenticity. I was shocked at how cool that was, so I immediately fired off an email to T-Rev, thanking him profusely and telling him that I would do my best to limit my Seahawks smack-talk this season. It's gonna be tough...
Anyhow, after my chores were done, I watched TV for a bit, but around 10pm or so, I was just too tired to keep my eyes open, and so I just hit the lights and fell asleep for the night. That hectic three-day workweek is just a killer, don't ya know...
Mikey
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