Tomorrow is orientation, finally. The waiting, as Tom Petty would say, is the hardest part. While I've been waiting for this whole deal to start, I've been trying to keep busy. Managed to finish blackjack class and moved on to learning craps. I thought that would be a good idea, but it turns out there's a lot to remember in dealing craps, especially in terms of mathematics and formulas to make life easier for payoffs. There are a lot of formulas. A LOT. After a couple of days of learning the mechanics of dealing craps we moved on to learning these formulas, and I quickly realized that attempting to learn all of that information might compromise my need to concentrate on remembering all the stuff I need to for poker, so I throttled back on that. At least the waiting is over now.
Time to put the penguin suit on and get to work!
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
All-In!
So after 5 grueling weeks of some of the most intense instruction I've had to go through, I have accomplished that which I set out to do; I am officially a World Series of Poker dealer.
I have to give a big "thank you" to Kim Smith, Jimmy Sims and Kate Owens for their patience and ability to convey so much information to so many in such a short amount of time. I had underestimated how much there is to know to be a dealer in the WSOP and they were able to give us everything we needed to succeed.
So now I wait until the festivities start! I'm just anxious to get back to work. I've been unemployed now for nearly 6 months, and it's driving me insane.
Going to take care of some logistics early next week and then just watching the days go by until I can get to it!
I have to give a big "thank you" to Kim Smith, Jimmy Sims and Kate Owens for their patience and ability to convey so much information to so many in such a short amount of time. I had underestimated how much there is to know to be a dealer in the WSOP and they were able to give us everything we needed to succeed.
So now I wait until the festivities start! I'm just anxious to get back to work. I've been unemployed now for nearly 6 months, and it's driving me insane.
Going to take care of some logistics early next week and then just watching the days go by until I can get to it!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
My Brain On Pot (Limit)
So I'm closing in on the finish line. The last three weeks has been a whirlwind for me. So much information to process, so many things to learn. I don't remember dispatch school being this challenging! One of the things that really had me concerned was learning how to deal a pot limit game. For those that don't know, pot limit means that a player can bet a maximum of what is already in the pot. This sounds relatively easy on the surface, but consider that while I'm trying to calculate what a pot bet would be, I have to remember what was already in the pot, action before it, and oh yeah, I still have to actually be a dealer! When the time finally came, I found that I was better at it then I thought I would be. Even more surprising, everyone seemed to be having issues, including the instructors. It's not easy! :)
Next week will be auditions. I'm nervous, but I feel pretty confident, and I suppose that's the most important thing. Everyone will make mistakes, it's how you handle recovering from them that separates you from others.
As I've been going on with the poker, I have also been learning to deal blackjack. Progress with that has been slower as my priority has been learning poker, but that is also coming close to audition time. Once I'm done with that, I'll move on to learning craps, which I'm sure is going to take more time. Progress with that might slow dramatically once the World Series starts depending on how many hours I get working there, but it is important that I get that finished and polished by the time I'm looking for a job, as I already have what amounts to an invitation to audition when I'm done with my commitment to the WSOP.
More to come soon! Sorry this one was a little scattershot. Lots of things distracting me around here, so I have to keep starting and stopping!
Next week will be auditions. I'm nervous, but I feel pretty confident, and I suppose that's the most important thing. Everyone will make mistakes, it's how you handle recovering from them that separates you from others.
As I've been going on with the poker, I have also been learning to deal blackjack. Progress with that has been slower as my priority has been learning poker, but that is also coming close to audition time. Once I'm done with that, I'll move on to learning craps, which I'm sure is going to take more time. Progress with that might slow dramatically once the World Series starts depending on how many hours I get working there, but it is important that I get that finished and polished by the time I'm looking for a job, as I already have what amounts to an invitation to audition when I'm done with my commitment to the WSOP.
More to come soon! Sorry this one was a little scattershot. Lots of things distracting me around here, so I have to keep starting and stopping!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Shuffle Up and Learn To Deal
So tomorrow evening I start the WSOP dealers school. I am a little nervous, but I think my week of blackjack instruction has made me much more comfortable handling cards and chips. Unfortunately, I have to now switch gears in my head and start thinking poker and not blackjack! I'll get it sorted soon enough, though. I have no real idea how many dealers are actually going to be dealing the WSOP. In 2009 they actually had a shortage of dealers for a portion of the events, so hopefully this translates into more work for me.
Going to be interesting trying to balance two schools at once, especially once Melissa starts working, but at least the blackjack/craps school is ultra-flexible about what days I come in. It's basically a "show up when you want" sort of deal. The place was a zoo for most of the week last week. It appears a bunch of casinos have gone on a hiring spree for "party pit" girls. Party Pit girls are basically model level ladies who get stationed in high traffic areas with the idea to attract horny dudes (or ladies, if that's their tilt) over to play their blackjack tables that pay 1 to 1 on blackjacks, making it an astonishingly BAD deal for the players. Ostensibly the concept is that the player won't care cuz there's boobs in his face. For this, the ladies apparently make quite the coin. I heard something on the order of $350 a day guaranteed minimum. Anyway, the school is crawling with these ladies, all taking a cram course in blackjack dealing. That, along with the craps teaching (which is loud) and the poker instruction (which is also loud and sometimes abrasive... the instructor is kind of a Sergeant), and you've got yourself a pretty authentic off strip casino experience, minus the blue haze. The only irritating thing is fighting to get a chance to deal some. Friday was a welcome relief. The blackjack instructor there on Thursdays and Fridays is right up my ally and I've learned a ton from him. He was there on Friday and the room was MUCH less crowded on account of no craps or poker classes and half at least of the party pit girls taking the day off.
Tomorrow I'll go in in the morning for some more blackjack goodness, then I FINALLY get to see my son. It'll be good to get the family back together. Now all that remains is to get my stuff!
When we contracted PODS to store and ship our stuff, part of the conversation was how long it was going to take to deliver all of our stuff to Las Vegas. Somehow we got the quote of "two or three days". Yeah, not so much. Two or three days is what it would take to get the stuff from the Las Vegas storage facility to our front door. What they neglected to mention was the 7 days it would take to truck the stuff from Illinois to Nevada, so instead of 2 or 3 days, it's gonna be 10 days. Our stuff arrives on the 12th. Weee. So we've been on cheap-ass air mattresses for the last few days. My neck is killing me from the equally cheap-ass pillows we bought. Just gotta get through this next week.
I did manage to climb my first rock though! I'm going to have a lot of fun exploring this new land!
Going to be interesting trying to balance two schools at once, especially once Melissa starts working, but at least the blackjack/craps school is ultra-flexible about what days I come in. It's basically a "show up when you want" sort of deal. The place was a zoo for most of the week last week. It appears a bunch of casinos have gone on a hiring spree for "party pit" girls. Party Pit girls are basically model level ladies who get stationed in high traffic areas with the idea to attract horny dudes (or ladies, if that's their tilt) over to play their blackjack tables that pay 1 to 1 on blackjacks, making it an astonishingly BAD deal for the players. Ostensibly the concept is that the player won't care cuz there's boobs in his face. For this, the ladies apparently make quite the coin. I heard something on the order of $350 a day guaranteed minimum. Anyway, the school is crawling with these ladies, all taking a cram course in blackjack dealing. That, along with the craps teaching (which is loud) and the poker instruction (which is also loud and sometimes abrasive... the instructor is kind of a Sergeant), and you've got yourself a pretty authentic off strip casino experience, minus the blue haze. The only irritating thing is fighting to get a chance to deal some. Friday was a welcome relief. The blackjack instructor there on Thursdays and Fridays is right up my ally and I've learned a ton from him. He was there on Friday and the room was MUCH less crowded on account of no craps or poker classes and half at least of the party pit girls taking the day off.
Tomorrow I'll go in in the morning for some more blackjack goodness, then I FINALLY get to see my son. It'll be good to get the family back together. Now all that remains is to get my stuff!
When we contracted PODS to store and ship our stuff, part of the conversation was how long it was going to take to deliver all of our stuff to Las Vegas. Somehow we got the quote of "two or three days". Yeah, not so much. Two or three days is what it would take to get the stuff from the Las Vegas storage facility to our front door. What they neglected to mention was the 7 days it would take to truck the stuff from Illinois to Nevada, so instead of 2 or 3 days, it's gonna be 10 days. Our stuff arrives on the 12th. Weee. So we've been on cheap-ass air mattresses for the last few days. My neck is killing me from the equally cheap-ass pillows we bought. Just gotta get through this next week.
I did manage to climb my first rock though! I'm going to have a lot of fun exploring this new land!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Dry Heat!
So my promise of updating this blog every day with something or another has apparently already fallen flat on its face. The last week has been, in a word, chaos. Winter had one last laugh at us when we left last week the day after a significant snow storm crushed central Illinois, and so there were portions of the trip on the first day that were downright scary. After that, it was smooth sailing. Long, but smooth. I do have to state at this point, this country is friggin awesome. The last day especially coming up through the mountains is some scenery the likes of which you must behold to believe. Just stunning, and I know I'm going to find plenty of things to explore out here.
Anyway, we certainly hit the ground running. Residence has been established. In less then 2 days of work, Melissa is already getting interviews. There have been a few bumps in the road, the most significant of which was that the money that was to be delivered to us from the bank for relocation has yet to show up. This sucks on its own, but we were told that the check was being overnighted and was supposed to show up the day we were leaving. No worries, since we wouldn't need that cash for a week anyway as it's the money we'd use to move our PODS with our stuff in it over to the new residence. Trouble is, we arrived, the check still hadn't. The contact at the bank suddenly stopped answering his phone, and my blood pressure started climbing. Finally I get in touch with someone there who actually answered the phone and come to find out the bank is still waiting for confirmation the deed is recorded with McHenry county, which is amusing considering the house is LISTED FOR SALE already. Guess the joke is on whoever tries to buy the house, since according the public record I still own it.
Mind = blown
Anyway, this had the unpleasant effect of preventing us from getting our belongings moving to the new digs. Thankfully, family stepped in to help out and our items are on their way... Sort of. See, when we arranged all of this one of the questions we asked was how long from the word "go" would our stuff be in our driveway in Las Vegas. The answer we got was "2 or 3 days". Well, not so much. Actually it'll take them 7 days to get the box to Las Vegas, and FROM THERE 2 or 3 days for it to end up in my driveway. Certainly information I could have used when we bought the damn service! So yes, our stuff is on the move and that's a God send, but we're still living in a house with nothing in it for a touch over a week. I've given up being upset about this. Instead I went to Walmart and bought 4 air mattresses. Fun with roughing it inside. Hopefully our guest will understand. Certainly our kid couldn't care less.
So the work continues out here in paradise. I went to my first day of school today. Found out that being a lefty sucks when dealing blackjack. Everything is geared to righties. Maybe it's better off. Now I HAVE to learn everything from scratch. Glad to finally be doing something productive.
Anyway, we certainly hit the ground running. Residence has been established. In less then 2 days of work, Melissa is already getting interviews. There have been a few bumps in the road, the most significant of which was that the money that was to be delivered to us from the bank for relocation has yet to show up. This sucks on its own, but we were told that the check was being overnighted and was supposed to show up the day we were leaving. No worries, since we wouldn't need that cash for a week anyway as it's the money we'd use to move our PODS with our stuff in it over to the new residence. Trouble is, we arrived, the check still hadn't. The contact at the bank suddenly stopped answering his phone, and my blood pressure started climbing. Finally I get in touch with someone there who actually answered the phone and come to find out the bank is still waiting for confirmation the deed is recorded with McHenry county, which is amusing considering the house is LISTED FOR SALE already. Guess the joke is on whoever tries to buy the house, since according the public record I still own it.
Mind = blown
Anyway, this had the unpleasant effect of preventing us from getting our belongings moving to the new digs. Thankfully, family stepped in to help out and our items are on their way... Sort of. See, when we arranged all of this one of the questions we asked was how long from the word "go" would our stuff be in our driveway in Las Vegas. The answer we got was "2 or 3 days". Well, not so much. Actually it'll take them 7 days to get the box to Las Vegas, and FROM THERE 2 or 3 days for it to end up in my driveway. Certainly information I could have used when we bought the damn service! So yes, our stuff is on the move and that's a God send, but we're still living in a house with nothing in it for a touch over a week. I've given up being upset about this. Instead I went to Walmart and bought 4 air mattresses. Fun with roughing it inside. Hopefully our guest will understand. Certainly our kid couldn't care less.
So the work continues out here in paradise. I went to my first day of school today. Found out that being a lefty sucks when dealing blackjack. Everything is geared to righties. Maybe it's better off. Now I HAVE to learn everything from scratch. Glad to finally be doing something productive.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
But For The Grace of God
The night is cold, snowy and generally very Northern Illinois-like. It is the night before M and I start our journey west. We've done this once before, but this time we do not intend to turn back. There are many things going through my mind, but remarkably there are many things that are not. I am mildly curious why this is so. I should feel something. Fear, elation, stress. Yet I don't feel any of these. I suppose I can say I am just ready to make this shot. But for those who don't know the whole story, allow me to digress.
I am 40 years old. I have, with the exception of 5 years of my life, lived in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I have grown up here. At 14 I started my working life, answering phones and slapping out pizzas at Domino's. Over the ensuing years I had a long career as a computer/telecommunications technician which fell apart once everyone realized the world didn't end in 2000. I burn through my savings trying to survive. I then reinvented myself as an aircraft dispatcher which I did for most of the next 13 years, with 6 years in between as a 911 dispatcher. Both of those careers ended in spectacularly disappointing fashion. Having bought a house who's value subsequently collapsed taking $22000 of cash and $60000+ of equity down the drain with it, I have, literally, nothing left. Luckily, I have some cash in hand from again burning up my retirement, selling my motorcycle and hopefully soon some money from the bank as a "thank you" for quietly vacating our newly foreclosed on house, though I have become suspicious of everything until I see it, lately.
After the last few years and the murder of two promising careers in three years, I have become a different man. I am old school. I am the kind of person who, when it comes to business, will look you in the eye and tell you what I must. I have a character trait that has me trust that a man's word is his bond. It's the way I was raised, it's how I am. If I asked you if we had a problem and you said we did not, I trust you're being honest. Never would I consider embracing a co-worker while aiming a knife at his back. Unfortunately, this trait has allowed me to be blindsided at times such as now. My trust in my co-workers to be honest in one case, and my trust in my superiors to be honest in the other.
A few months before the airline I worked for fired everyone and shut the doors, I started looking around for my next big dispatching opportunity. I've been doing this for many years. At my last gig I was a manager and ultimately a director, albeit for a very short time. This unique professional resume has rendered me in a perfect storm. I'm overqualified for one job, under-qualified for another. I either go back to the very beginning of this career line after 13 years and start from scratch, or I starve my family to death waiting for a break I will likely never see. To start again would mean I might never be able to provide the stability and life my family deserves. Beyond that, I'm simply tired. I'm tired of being at the mercy of so many variables I cannot control. Though this is true of all professions, the airline industry is unique in many ways. As a dispatcher at a regional, I am subjected to the whims of management, the management of the airline that contracts us, the leinholders, oil prospectors, and any other of a hundred things that change the cost of running the company. Airlines are seniority driven. I start at the bottom. If I move to a new airline, I start at the bottom. I'm at the age where I would need to consider that wherever I am, there I must stay, for the sake of health, retirement, education of my son. In short, I am too old to bounce around from airline to airline hoping to get the nod from a "major" where I can make my stand. I took my shot, and I missed. So anyway, I had a few prospects that I was looking at, but one in particular I was interested in was in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the pay to start wasn't fantastic, so I started to think about ways to supplement that income. One of those things I looked into was dealing. I did some research, made some contacts and visited LV to talk to some of them and discovered that not only is it a job that the people that do it enjoy, but they also make a decent wage doing it. My wheels started turning but I wasn't really seriously thinking about it until a few months went by and no airlines were calling me for interviews. There were plenty of copies of my resume out there, but it just seemed no one was interested in a management dispatcher with but a couple of months of management experience. Not enough experience to be a manager, and hesitation to hire a former director as a line dispatcher. Perfect storm of suck. As I mulled over this hurdle, the bomb dropped where I worked. I was suddenly unemployed.
Cut to now. After a quick consultation with a friend in Vegas, I have enrolled in a poker dealer class with the short term goal being a gig dealing the 2013 World Series of Poker. I will parlay this with also learning how to deal craps and blackjack so that when the WSoP gig ends I can work both of those skill sets to quickly land something.
So, in 10 hours time I embark on the next stage of my life. I feel anxious, hoping that M and I can get things going quickly when we arrive. We must find a place to live, M must find full time work very quickly. These are both challenges. I feel hopeful that I can rediscover what I lost so many years ago. On the surface and in the immediacy, I am doing this to give my family the best shot to not only survive but thrive. On a deeper level, I am embarking on a journey to find myself. Anyone who has known me since I was a teenager knows that I am not the man I was. I want to feel again. I want to experience joy, excitement, anticipation. I want to feel alive. I want to breathe deep the world around me, feel its energy.
"Fortune favors the bold" wrote Virgil. It's time to be bold.
I am 40 years old. I have, with the exception of 5 years of my life, lived in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I have grown up here. At 14 I started my working life, answering phones and slapping out pizzas at Domino's. Over the ensuing years I had a long career as a computer/telecommunications technician which fell apart once everyone realized the world didn't end in 2000. I burn through my savings trying to survive. I then reinvented myself as an aircraft dispatcher which I did for most of the next 13 years, with 6 years in between as a 911 dispatcher. Both of those careers ended in spectacularly disappointing fashion. Having bought a house who's value subsequently collapsed taking $22000 of cash and $60000+ of equity down the drain with it, I have, literally, nothing left. Luckily, I have some cash in hand from again burning up my retirement, selling my motorcycle and hopefully soon some money from the bank as a "thank you" for quietly vacating our newly foreclosed on house, though I have become suspicious of everything until I see it, lately.
After the last few years and the murder of two promising careers in three years, I have become a different man. I am old school. I am the kind of person who, when it comes to business, will look you in the eye and tell you what I must. I have a character trait that has me trust that a man's word is his bond. It's the way I was raised, it's how I am. If I asked you if we had a problem and you said we did not, I trust you're being honest. Never would I consider embracing a co-worker while aiming a knife at his back. Unfortunately, this trait has allowed me to be blindsided at times such as now. My trust in my co-workers to be honest in one case, and my trust in my superiors to be honest in the other.
A few months before the airline I worked for fired everyone and shut the doors, I started looking around for my next big dispatching opportunity. I've been doing this for many years. At my last gig I was a manager and ultimately a director, albeit for a very short time. This unique professional resume has rendered me in a perfect storm. I'm overqualified for one job, under-qualified for another. I either go back to the very beginning of this career line after 13 years and start from scratch, or I starve my family to death waiting for a break I will likely never see. To start again would mean I might never be able to provide the stability and life my family deserves. Beyond that, I'm simply tired. I'm tired of being at the mercy of so many variables I cannot control. Though this is true of all professions, the airline industry is unique in many ways. As a dispatcher at a regional, I am subjected to the whims of management, the management of the airline that contracts us, the leinholders, oil prospectors, and any other of a hundred things that change the cost of running the company. Airlines are seniority driven. I start at the bottom. If I move to a new airline, I start at the bottom. I'm at the age where I would need to consider that wherever I am, there I must stay, for the sake of health, retirement, education of my son. In short, I am too old to bounce around from airline to airline hoping to get the nod from a "major" where I can make my stand. I took my shot, and I missed. So anyway, I had a few prospects that I was looking at, but one in particular I was interested in was in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the pay to start wasn't fantastic, so I started to think about ways to supplement that income. One of those things I looked into was dealing. I did some research, made some contacts and visited LV to talk to some of them and discovered that not only is it a job that the people that do it enjoy, but they also make a decent wage doing it. My wheels started turning but I wasn't really seriously thinking about it until a few months went by and no airlines were calling me for interviews. There were plenty of copies of my resume out there, but it just seemed no one was interested in a management dispatcher with but a couple of months of management experience. Not enough experience to be a manager, and hesitation to hire a former director as a line dispatcher. Perfect storm of suck. As I mulled over this hurdle, the bomb dropped where I worked. I was suddenly unemployed.
Cut to now. After a quick consultation with a friend in Vegas, I have enrolled in a poker dealer class with the short term goal being a gig dealing the 2013 World Series of Poker. I will parlay this with also learning how to deal craps and blackjack so that when the WSoP gig ends I can work both of those skill sets to quickly land something.
So, in 10 hours time I embark on the next stage of my life. I feel anxious, hoping that M and I can get things going quickly when we arrive. We must find a place to live, M must find full time work very quickly. These are both challenges. I feel hopeful that I can rediscover what I lost so many years ago. On the surface and in the immediacy, I am doing this to give my family the best shot to not only survive but thrive. On a deeper level, I am embarking on a journey to find myself. Anyone who has known me since I was a teenager knows that I am not the man I was. I want to feel again. I want to experience joy, excitement, anticipation. I want to feel alive. I want to breathe deep the world around me, feel its energy.
"Fortune favors the bold" wrote Virgil. It's time to be bold.
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