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.