Saturday, April 14, 2012

I Don't Work Here, Honestly, I Don't

Sometimes I play so much at BSC when I’m in Vegas that it seems like I work there.  Sometimes the dealers even treat me that way.
A few months back, I was playing at my then usual 2/4 game, and I felt a tap on my shoulder and I heard Mike say—to me— "Last hand." This is what dealers say when they are about to replace another dealer at a game.  The tapping on the shoulder is also part of it.  This process is called the "push."  Dealer A is pushing dealer B. Dealer A becomes the new dealer at the table and Dealer B either is on break or moves on to his next table.
I laughed and said, "What, you're pushing me?"  He said "Yeah, why not?  I'll take your seat and play and you can deal for me.  Anything I win, I'll split with you."  I said, "Oh, you want to play with my money???"  He said, "Why not....you'll make money dealing!"  I laughed and said, "yeah, right."  Mike never made it over to deal at my game.
Later that night when Monte, another one of my dealer buddies (like Mike) came to push the dealer, he told the dealer he was replacing that he was done with his shift for the night.  Monte told him,  "You're done.  You're out of here.  Go home."  As the dealer left, Monte then turned to me and said, "You heard me....You're done, you're out of here, go home."  I laughed and said, "Oh wow, you're cutting me off?"  Then I told him the story about Mike and he cracked up.

Now, on my last trip my knowledge of the dealers sort of intimidated another player.  I had just taken a seat at 1/2 game and said hello to Rachael, the dealer, still another one of my dealer pals.  I gave the chip runner what I thought was $200, but I had just one $100 bill and the rest were in twenties.  When the chip runner came back, she gave me $220.  I questioned this, and and asked Rachael if she remembered whether the chip runner said "$200 behind" or "$220 behind"?  She had no idea.  I chuckled because the dealer is really supposed to know that.  I figured out that I must have given the chip runner an extra $20 and returned the extra chips, saying I only wanted $200 (not that it makes much difference).

Since Rachael is a pal, I decided to tease her just a bit about not knowing how much I gave the chip runner.  Nothing major, just "Isn't it your job to know how much is behind?"  But she was kind of preoccupied and I guess didn't realize I was just having fun with her, so she got a tad bit defensive.  The last thing I wanted to do was piss her off, so I immediately said, "It's ok, I was just having some fun.  Besides, I know it's your Monday right?  So you're forgiven."

You see I knew Rachael's schedule and knew that she had been off the past two days.  I also knew that she must have just started her shift within the past hour or two.  And that's kind of the point, that I know BSC so well I even know the schedules of many (but not all) of the dealers there.  Rachael acknowledged I was correct and then laughed and we moved on.  No harm done.

But this conversation hadn't gone unnoticed by a female player at the game, who had been there for hours.  She said, "Wow.  You know the schedules of the dealers.  I think I'm a little intimidated by that."  I just laughed but didn't really respond.  Eventually, I moved next to this woman and we chatted amiably throughout the game.

Eventually Brent came to deal.  Brent is all over this blog, the last time I talked about him was in the post about protecting your hand, here, which has become to date the single most popular post on this blog (yes, even surpassing the debut of Prudence, sorry Prudence).  If there's one thing I know, it's Brent's schedule.  So after a brief restroom break, as I sat down to my seat and saw that the woman I had been chatting with wasn't in the hand, I said to her, "Now this guy here (pointing to Brent), his days offs are Mondays and Tuesdays."***  Brent of course said that's right and the girl was indeed impressed.  By this time though she had seen me play for awhile so she knew she had no reason to feel intimidated by my play.  Actually, Brent and I have done this same bit with other players over the past few months.

But when Brent was about to be replaced 15 minutes later by a female dealer, oh, let's call her Nancy, he threw me a curve.  He looked straight at me, pointed behind me to Nancy and said, "Nancy.  Days off?"

I wasn't prepared for that.  I didn't know her days off cold.  I had a feel for one of them, but wasn't sure if the other day off was the day before or the day after the one I had in mind.  So I kinda guessed.  "Thursday and Friday?"***  Yeah, there was a question mark in my delivery.

Brent said, "That's right!"  Of course, the girl was impressed, and frankly, so was I.

So I said, "Damn, I'm better than I thought!"

But I don't work at BSC, I really don't.

***--In an absurdly, needlessly paranoid effort to protect identities, yes, I actually have given false days off to Brent and Nancy.  I know, I'm crazy.

10 comments:

  1. I dunno Rob, it just seems to me that if you are so concerned about protecting identities you shouldn't write about the people. Things are what they are. Unless there is some illegal activity going on, I just don't see the need for all the cloak and dagger.

    Uhhh ... your name IS really Rob, right? lol

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    1. LightNing, I'm not sure if you are somehow really bothered by the use of fake names or just kidding. But let me respond seriously....

      First of all,If I didn't write about these people, I wouldn't have a blog!

      Ok, so when I started this blog, I wasn't really sure what it was going to be like, and so I thought the safest thing to do was keep identities a secret, and just see how the blog developed. It was easier to keep the toothpaste in the tube in the first place than try to put it back in there once it's be let out.

      Now that I know more of what the blog is, I see no reason to change. I like the idea of giving "plausible deniability" to the stars of my stories, especially when they had no idea their actions would be told in cyberspace at the time they were doing them.

      And...it's kind of fun for me with the whole pseudonym thing, and its actually become a bit of schtick on the blog, like the "woman said" stories, the Pocket Kings thing and my alleged "bosom obsession." So why change now?

      In fact, the changing the days offs of "Brent" and "Nancy" was done as much to be funny as for any other reason.

      I really don't see why it should bother you--or anyone else--that I don't name names, which in most cases, you wouldn't know anyway.

      And yes, ironically, I'm one of the few people on the blog that is identified by his real name! But then I don't reveal my last name. It isn't "Vegaspoker" you know.

      I appreciate your point of view but I don't see it that way. And let me warn you, if the whole "cloak and dagger" thing bother you, you are really going to hate my next post. Sorry.

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  2. Well Rob, it's your blog and you have certainly been successful the way you have done things. Just my suggestion for how I thought it could be better.

    Don't worry -- nobody listens to what I say anyway. If they did there would be world peace and a thriving economy. Oh -- and Josie would be taller and Tony would eat baked potatoes ...

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    1. Thanks, LightNing. Glad you didn't tell us how you would bring about world peace or a thriving economy because another one of my silly rules for this blog is NO POLITICS. Unless you are talking Metta World Peace--Lakers talk is totally acceptable.

      Although I would be interested to hear how you could make Josie taller, as I'm sure would she.

      In honor of your objections, however, I think I'm going to dedicate my next post to you, as I will be going a step beyond giving people fake names! You will be honored, or totally pissed, one of those two.

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  3. A friend of mine once said "Better to be pissed off than pissed on." lol

    btw -- I did sneak in at least a little bit of politics ... he he. That's jusy how I roll. lol

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    1. But think about it, L36 (hey, now I don't have to worry about forgetting the "n"!).....if you were pissed ON, wouldn't that make you pretty pissed OFF?

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  4. Thank God my parents showered my with attention as a child, otherwise I'd have to one-up Brent and do something outrageous the next time we sat down to the same session.

    Are you coming back for the Grand Challenge? You seem to hate Omaha but I'm actually pretty good at it. Stake me and I'll give you a cut.

    Degenerately yours,
    Prudence.

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    1. Oh Prudence, how I have missed you! I'm glad you got showered attention by your folks, but that's no reason not to try to do something outrageous when next we play together. I always need fresh material. Besides, you know you can outdo Brent! Piece of cake!

      My current plan is to return to Vegas very soon, before this week is out, but there's a chance I may have to delay my trip, so we'll see.

      O....om.....oma.....you mean that card game named after a city in Nebraska? Ugh. I hate that game so much.....I don't think you could get me drunk enough to get me to stake anyone--even you--in that horrid game.

      Speaking of getting drunk, are you back to your old habits? See above about needing material.

      Oh, and I absolutely LOVE what happens when you click on your name above. LOL. That's just awesome. I hope you have reserved that website. I can't think of anyone better to run a site with that name!

      See ya soon, Pru!

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  5. Keep the Lakers talk on this blog... ;) I almost included that in my ramble today, that the Lakers and USC fans will be a drawback of moving back to the desert...

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    1. OK, first of all, don't ever, ever, EVER mention that other school in Southern California on this blog again. The only person worse than a Celtics fan is a fan of that school that plays its football games in the L.A. Coliseum.

      Even though they've been sucking in both basketball and football lately, the only school we support on this blog is UCLA.

      As for Laker talk in the desert, I assume you mean Vegas. Well that's the good thing about Vegas, you see people from all parts of the country, supporting all types of team. I know that Vegas is a Lakers town, which is great, but I can't tell you how many times I've vomited on the poker table when I found myself sitting across the table from some dork in a Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce (etc) jersey. I think it should be banned, but hey, that's just me.

      If you head to Vegas, you can no doubt find Spurs fans without much of an effort. Further, a lot of the male players will look an awful lot like Greg Popovich, if that's your thing.

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