Christmas in a casino

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Got my first Christmas card of the season.

It came from the sweetest dealer in Las Vegas, Monica from Vietnam. She is the epitome of fresh and sweet and innocent. Though she's tasted the sadness of widowhood in her 20s she is a spring of goodness and cheer, perfect for Christmas.


Monica

How to Survive and Thrive as a Break-in Dealer

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Okay, so you're on the way to fame and riches as a Las Vegas dealer. Sure you're in a house now where you're earning under a $100 a night usually. But one day if you play your cards right (hahaha) you'll be earning over $70,000 a year.

But how do you make sure you survive the many pitfalls of a break-in dealer? How do you thrive in the meantime?

Here are some simple guidelines that can help you make it to the Big House.



These come from dealers with decades of experience in Las Vegas gaming, so listen up and make sure you stay on the right track.

First Rule: Never correct your own mistakes on a table game.

When you make a mistake on the table always call the Floor over. Remember you're being watched by Surveillance and you're handling thousands of dollars so every move you make is being watched by the Eye carefully.




Even if you've called your Floor over several times already and you don't want to look stupid by calling him over again- call the Floor boss over anyway. You just have to do it.




My dealing mentor who has 30 years experience told me that she's seen dealers get fired for making their own corrections. (I HATE when that happens...) And these are dealers with years of experience. A break-in dealer on probation or with less than a year's experience is even more vulnerable.



Second Rule: Never argue with your Floor.

Just do exactly what they say. He is the supervisor and if anything goes wrong it's on him or her. Plus when things are stressful during a game and a fast decision needs to be made it is best if only one person is making it. There is little room for a quarrelsome dealer in a break-in house.

More to come ...

AND what questions do you have about dealing that you would like to know? Email me at jimbo123@live.com.

Jobs Galore in Vegas!

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Ok, folks, this is the first wave of the great opportunity for Vegas dealers (and all hotel employees as a matter of fact).

Vegas Baby has been very unsatisfied with his financial outlook lately. Having to dodge cops because of not being able to register his car, let alone cover his other bills has been driving him to distraction, not that that is hard to do.

Some days he would just sit at home in his digital cavern doing his own online thing and avoiding going out, not leaving the house once to spare him unnecessary drama and terrible costs if he gets stopped by Metro or the Highway Patrol.

He asked to be promoted to dual rate supervisor/dealer since many of his fellow scrub dealers are doing so and they are getting almost 40 hours of work every week. He then hit up break-in casinos around town, especially downtown for full time jobs. As well as signing up at the Dealers Employment Agency and a Temp agency for telemarketing gigs. None of which yielded any fruit.

Now suddenly he realizes that the first big shift in the dealer employment in the Vegas scene that his Vegas Mom and Dad have been telling him about which will make dealing a very lucrative career in a third of the time it took them is upon him. The first wave of an impending three. Next is City Center and then the Encore.

City Center

Wynn's Encore

Just 3 days ago Vegas Baby planned on settling for 40 hours a week at a break- in casino so he could make ends meet at about $31 grand a year. But as he became aware that the new casino expansion opening was looming and he was coaching a fellow break-in at the Imperial Princess who had 9 months experience to shoot for the top casinos and start making $70 grand a year plus, it hit him.

Vegas Baby has Juice.... Sure he has to learn his games and still hit the pavement to hustle for the good jobs but not like this gal did. Sure she was a cute young and pretty Asian girl, but she didn't have a patron in the industry that's famous for connections to achieve career advancement. He has Juice!



So he called Vegas Mom and introduced the idea of exercising said juice next month. She sputtered and backtracked.... Vegas Baby realizes she doesn't want to be embarassed by her ADDled brained son. And he understands her sentiment. No one wants to look bad to peers they have known for decades.



But Vegas Baby has grown much in the past decade. Sure he got into trouble in his 20s and never held a job for long until his 40s. BUT he did hold a banking job for over 6 years recently and he is sure that fact motivated Vegas Mom to encourage him to get into gaming with the idea of her using her influence for him- something she never would have done 10 years ago when he tried dealing previously withou daring to breathe a syllable about using her juice for him.



So, this is the scoop for the Vegas dealing scene:

The Venetian, a very posh megaresort, is about to double with an expansion called The Palazzo. Where they will be hiring beaucoup dealers- and there will be hundreds of them who will be putting their 2 week notices in around Wednesday, November 28th, he would guess, since Palazzo's Orientation starts on December 11. So he figured the rest of the casinos in Vegas will get the idea that they will have to do massive hiring around Monday, December 2nd. And smart, savvy dealers like him and those who read this blog will be hitting the casino bosses up that Monday.

Sooo, while Vegas Baby will be hitting up break-in downtown casinos and elswhere in town, hell, even Mesquite! he is also gonna probe for positions at his 3 fave casinos all of which generate more than $70,000 a year in income and are truly dream jobs as far as morale and a great working environment go.

Vegas Baby is getting excited!

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Might be the last blog post for a while...

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Vegas Baby has been in a funk for a few days lately. His atrocious financial problems are overwhelming his ADDled brain.

He expects the cable company to cut off his Internet connection tonight since his check by phone payment bounced this morning.

So, Vegas Baby is thinking of any last things he might wanna say to the three and a half readers of his blog....

There is a minor controversy at his casino about which hand to use to pay the 2 spots that are to the dealer's left on a multi-deck blackjack game. The issue is when a dealer pays those spots with his right hand then he basically turns his back on the right hand spot (third base), leaving open the possibility that player could cap his bet or something. He was trained to pay with his left hand to prevent such a thing. So, when he saw Liao, the sweet, mild-mannered new dealer, pay with her right and corrected her on it she said she was trained that way.

So Vegas Baby brought it up to a floorman and he agreed with her, pointing out it would cause the dealer to no longer cover the exposed card on the shoe and decrease game protection. Another floorman told him paying with the right hand was Imperial Princess's policy but a left handed payment was so small an issue they don't correct dealers on that during a game. That floorman also said since the third base player is already paid off at the end of a hand then there is no longer a concern about him capping his bet.

So, the next hour Vegas Baby was on a multideck game the first base player busted and as he went to pick up his lost bet he realized that indeed at this point in the game his back would be to the third base player. So, he decided to stick with his training on that.

He called Vegas Mom about it and she said her standard, "Do what the Floor says, don't argue..." but also said it was ridiculous to pay with one's right hand. The first floorman said in order to avoid third base capping to "walk the table" which means step toward the first base player when taking the bet with the right hand to make it easier to keep an eye on third base. But the right handed action still seems to Vegas Baby to make his back turn too much to effectively protect third base.

Vegas Baby thinks the value of covering the front card on the shoe is low compared to preventing capping a third base bet....

For any dealers who might be reading this (all one of you), what say you? Vegas Baby wants to know.

Kudos To The Most Powerful Black Man In America

and quite vilified too, since he doesn't fit the politically correct mold of a powerful black man.

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Clarence Thomas who grew up facing discrimination, segregation, utter poverty (he once lived in an unheated house with no plumbing and raw sewage in the backyard) under a deeply principled father figure went on to become a Justice of the Supreme Court.

For that and his unapologetic conservative views he was said to be not black enough, an Uncle Tom,

amongst other things and at his confirmation hearings in the US Senate he was bullied and browbeaten in a liberal litany typical of qualified conservative judicial appointees, but then came Anita Hill who falsely accused him of sexually harassing him. The sheer ludicrousness of her claims are another story.

But this man stopped the liberal crank senators in their tracks and left them speechless with one simple statement. After which they went on to send his nomination to the floor where he was successfully confirmed. The bold and truthful statement that shut the mouths of his detractors? Well, here it is:

This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.

You can hear it for yourself at 5:25 of this YouTube video, which is part 3 of a 60 Minutes interview last Sunday of Clarence Thomas.


Well, this week his autobiography was released, My Grandfather's Son. I bought it as fast as I could. You can get it from Barnes and Noble, but it must be selling fast because they take 1 to 3 weeks to ship, Amazon takes 3 to 6. I bought it at the local Borders.


Let me recommend this books, folks, it shows how a great thinker was shaped by his childhood. It shows the struggle and sufferings one must endure to achieve greatness. If you want to be great, read it and take the lessons to heart.

*** Vegas Baby knows this is a departure from his usual writing style, but he was overcome with passion for the truth and admiration for a truly great man and could not help himself. So deal with it.

Dark days ahead...

Once more doubts about his successful future assails Vegas Baby....

He is awash in cash debt. New car's down payment, insurance and registration has absolutely no room in his weak, spindly budget. He realized he should have seen this coming, but when it comes to details, he rarely has such foresight....

And to complicate matters he made a huge mistake and totally depleted his bank account. He felt the extreme fool with $8 to his name for another 10 days before payday.


Sooo, on his Task List on his smartphone he has a) pick up button extenders and b) get $2500.

And to think, he spent $2000 on his dying Caddy's cooling system just before it overheated and killed the engine.

Oooh, he could use that money now. That was the last of his savings from his 6 years in the credit card industry. But, he does have his angel who is gonna send him $350 which is a big sigh of relief....

Saving The World

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She really doesn't believe that I am saving the world by playing Solitaire and drumming to music. I explained to her how I was beating back the dark forces of defeatism every time I won a game- which she calls Patience in her British manner, they have such silly ways with the English language.

“I began to realize the import of winning at Solitaire, Mary, when I noticed that just before I would win it would appear so bleak. The right card just wouldn't show up and there was the looming threat of the order I was trying to create being bogged down by the forces of chaos.” I said to her over a few pints of ale. That's Anglo for beer, silly Brits.

“Rubbish!” was all she said.

“Yes, dear, I was winning out over the rubbish of the cosmos!” I said, wiping my chin and looking at her hazel, mocking eyes. She has constantly insulted me from the week I fell in love with her. Apparently the Redcoats think that's endearing. I still hadn't forgiven her for calling me an idiot in front of my friends during the Superbowl last year.

I waved my hands in the air. “You see, we are in a constant battle with chaos, the waste of the world clouding our creative expressions. And when I win at Solitaire, when I persevere once again at the task of organizing that small universe and pay no attention to the nagging doubts clawing at the back of my brain, telling me to just give up, it's useless and will get me nowhere- when I overcome all obstacles strewn in my path, I add to the victory and success of the whole planet! Don't you see?”

“Pillock!” Was her brief reply. I looked at her, trying to remember the distinction between pillock and bullocks and bollocks, my mind swimming in more confusion. There were thoughts of idiots, big male steer and testicles rolling around in my head.

“And when I do synchronized percussion to my favorite songs I am also beating back the forces of chaos....” I said, downing the last of my ale.

“Synchronized percussion, bloody hell, you cheeky bugger!”

“What?” I protested.

“Your use of English is a bit overmuch, you pikey.” She said, and then tossed back the last of her ale. “You really mean drumming- synchronized percussion... really!”

“Well, it denotes more of what I wanna say. Drumming is- is so generic!”

“Rubbish! It's the everyday way of speaking. You've been reading too much Macbeth, my literary genius...not!” She said, her hazel eyes once again mocking me. “And don't use denote, pah- ur such a ham.”

I sighed and said, “So, you really don't believe I'm bringing one iota of good into the world?”

“Not by your Patience and banging your fingers on the table top, you silly bugger. You do it by being open and kind and by spouting your values in your silly, playful way.” She said, her soft green eyes staring directly into mine.

“Hmmm,” I said, “Mary of South London... I love you.”