Turn $10 into $1700!

I'm now near the beginning of a stretch of 8 work-days in a row! Unlike my last couple of casinos, it is almost painfully nice to be getting so many hours. Its almost too much of a good thing though.

My work-week begins on Fridays and ends on Thursdays. This week I'm scheduled Saturday-Thursday with only that Friday off. So that makes 6 days this week, and I'm also working July 4th weekend on Friday and Saturday, which is the first two days of the new work-week. If you count them carefully, that makes 8 days in a row. What makes it worse is that next week's days off (there are two of them) are split up between Sunday and Thursday.

With this move the past week and everything that has gone with it, I am getting to be one tired dude! I even have to get up early and do the walk-through at my old apartment in the morning, which cuts down on the sleep even more. So if you notice the much more sporadic number of posts here lately, you know why!!!

I did want to let you know about one thing that happened on my 3-card poker table Sunday. A younger couple were playing and I was pretty much beating the heck out of them. The guy lost his buy-in, so he just got out of his seat and stood behind his girlfriend while she put their last $10 on the pairs plus bonus. When I dealt the cards, I still had to go through the motions of dealing cards to myself and turning them over before turning her cards over. Even though the pairs plus bet is independent of everything and does not play against my hand, I still have to show my hand due to procedure. Well, I turned my cards over and much to the dismay of everyone, I dealt myself trips nines!!! We all quickly realized that if the guy had stayed in just one more hand, the nines would have gone to his girlfriend instead of me!! D'oh!!!

Well, her hand was a flush, so all was not lost. I paid her $30 and she put $20 back on the pairs plus. I dealt again, turned over my cards first, and then revealed her nice little STRAIGHT FLUSH, which pays 40-1. That's an $800 payout for the $20 bet! Remember, she had been down to her last ten bucks before this started. I cut out the 8 black chips (per player request) and handed them over after supervisor approval. She threw me a $25 tip, which I was cool with. It was less than 5% of her win, but any green tip is okay with me, especially at my current place. I guess they were just trying to play down their non-black chips at this point because her next bet was a $30 bet on the pairs plus and also a $5 bet for the dealer. I thought to myself that it was a little too late for that, but whatever.

Uh, not exactly. On that hand, I turned over my ace-four-deuce before turning over her TRIP ACES!!! I had one of the freakin' aces and she still managed trips aces, which pays 30-1. For her $30, that's another $900!!! Oh, and the dealer gladly paid out his $155 and down. So for those of you keeping score at home, there were 3 hands in a row in heads-up 3-card poker play where one of us got trips or better, she turned $10 into over $1700, and the dealers dropped just shy of $200 in tips. Since I had been absolutely crushing anyone that came to my table the whole shift, it actually felt good to dump someone some money for a change!!

A Lazy Move

I can say, for the time-being, that I have two pads in Vegas! My computer is still all hooked up at the apartment (where I'm writing this), but the desk and all other big things are gone. The main reason I'm still hanging out here at the apt is the fact that the gas has yet to be turned on at the house and I have about 3 loads of laundry to get done over here. Aside from the computer, my only possessions still here at the apartment are the stragglers that I was not able to get ready for the U-haul and could not fit into my car during yesterday's trip. They include a roll of duct tape, tool box, some clothes, and my air mattress/air pump that served me so well the first six months I was in Vegas with no bed!

The move Tuesday night was incredibly exhausting! After working a jammed up craps table for 8 hours, Chris and Jeff met me over here with the U-haul and helped me load up the couch, chair, ottoman, tv stand, tv, receiver, dvd player, speakers, mattress/box spring/frame, computer desk, nightstand, and about 7 misc. boxes and dufflebags full of crap. All of it was then moved into the house, where I immediately rehooked up the entire entertainment center and tried to get my things in order before taking a cold shower (remember, no gas) and getting to bed. I had to be at work at noon the next day. All three of us agreed that if we did move out of this new house, it will be AT LEAST 16 months down the road to avoid hauling furniture all day in 107 degree heat!!!

Around 8am, I awoke to the doorbell when the Direct TV guy got there. I only had about 4 hours of sleep at that point, but figured I'd just let him in and let Chris/Jeff take care of him. I showed him the living room where my entertainment center is located and then took him upstairs where he'd need to install the Direct TV in Chris' room. Upon entering the room, we were both met by a very DRUNK Chris and Jeff, who had NOT been to bed yet and who had downed about 2 bottles of tequila! Of course, they tried to get the Direct TV guy to do some shots with them and I just went back to bed. Again, I awoke about an hour later when the Direct TV guy was finishing up and needed someone's signature. Both Jeff and Chris were completely passed out at that point, so I signed the documents and sat down to fiddle around with the remote/DVR gadgets.

The new house is definitely an upgrade from this apartment in many ways. The main thing is the "elbow room". Sharing the house with 2 guys is WAY better than sharing this small apartment with Mikey due to the huge square footage difference. This apartment is so small that the two of us literally cannot co-exist in the kitchen at the same time! Aside from the square footage difference though is the fact that both Jeff and Chris pretty much keep to their rooms and almost never come out except to use the kitchen. That means I'll never have to share the TV with anyone and it also means I pretty much have total control over the entire living room, dining room, my bedroom, bathroom and the additional spare room upstairs, which I have use due to the fact that I took the smallest bedroom/bathroom of the three. The small room/bathroom means I'm paying $25 less per month in rent than Chris, who has the master, AND he is picking up the ENTIRE Direct TV tab every month. So if I ever get annoyed with the small bedroom, I only need to go out into my spacious living room and watch free Direct TV to feel better! It'll be an even better deal when the NHL season rolls around due to Chris needing his precious NHL Center Ice, which he'll add onto the Direct TV at that time. Now if I can only talk him into getting the NFL package!!

I've taken care of some other boring stuff today as well. Pretty much everyone that needs my new address has it (credit cards, work, etc. etc.) and I opened up accounts at a new bank today since my current bank has no branches anywhere near my new house. Tomorrow night is Weird Al here in Henderson. Since I'll be in the area anyway, I'll probably stop by and load up the computer at that point, which will just leave the cleaning for Sunday night and the Monday morning walk-through with the maintenance guy to hand in the keys and say goodbye to this apartment, which served me pretty well over the past 12 months!

See ya on the other side

It's Monday night and in about 24 hours, I'll be partially moved into my new rental house with Chris and Jeff! It feels weird to think that this might be the last night I sleep here. Because I haven't had many days off lately (getting called in Saturday just killed my free time), I still have a s**tload of stuff to do tonight before going to bed. The plan is for Chris and Jeff (who have tomorrow off) to get the U-haul and move all of their stuff in during the day. Then tomorrow night when I get off work, we'll move all of my stuff over there under cover of darkness. So I have to make sure that ALL of my big stuff (tv stand, nightstand, bed, computer desk, furniture, etc.) is ready to go as soon as I get home tomorrow night.

One real pain in the ass is my electronic equipment. The surround sound has to get disassembled tonight, and then reassembled tomorrow night after the move because I think Chris has the Direct TV guy coming sometime Wednesday. I'd like my stuff all hooked up upon his arrival, but since I don't have a day off until Thursday, Chris will have to be around when he hooks it up Wed. Man, I am going to be one tired dude come Thursday!!!

Thursday will probably be spent finishing the move while transporting all of the odds 'n' ends over. Friday night should be fun though! I've managed to talk Danielle into going to a concert that night at the Henderson Pavilion. None other than Weird Al Yankovick is playing that night to kick off his "Straight out of Lynwood, 2008 tour". It should be a real good time for $26!

I honestly have no idea at all when I'll get the computer hooked back up. It could be as soon as Thursday, but even if that is true, I might not have any time to do any blogging. So at this point, just think of this as a temporary hiatus for flyingwinnebago. My next post will come to you from the comfort of my new digs in Southern Highlands!

Don't be scared to win money!

Okay, I thought I better make a post tonight in case I don't have a chance before my move on Tuesday night. I thought I'd have all day today to get things done and get some packing finished, but for the first time ever, my casino called me into work today for the 1pm-9pm dice shift. So now I'm behind the 8-ball. I was on-call, so it shouldn't have been too big of a surprise. But I'd been on-call several times already with no call occurring. It'll be nice when I get my next paycheck, since today was kind of a bonus day that I wasn't expecting and next week I'm on the schedule for SIX days! Can you say OVERTIME baby! There was a very small amount of stress when I switched to day shift thinking they might shave some hours away from me. So far though, that's not something I need to worry about apparently!

So now onto the crux of my post. I've mentioned many times in the past how frustrating it can be as a dice dealer on the Strip when a shooter has one of those monster rolls, and people just don't seem to be very interested in winning much money. For starters, let me give you a breakdown of what my shift is like on a daily basis on the craps table. Like the rest of the dealers, dice dealers spend one hour on the table, and then we get a 20 minute break. That cycle occurs all the entire shift, an hour on and 20 off, etc. If you figure that all out, I'm working on the table for a total of 6 hours and I'm on break for a total of 2 hours.

During those 6 hours on the table, it is pretty safe to say that the table is "choppy" for about 4 of those hours. A "choppy" table is one that seems to be hitting some points and getting on some of those mini-runs that happen a lot, but then the 7-outs happen when everyone has their money out on the table and the fun is over. Honestly, it seems to me that the casino makes its profit from the choppy table, because it also seems the ice-cold table and the HOT HOT table kind of even themselves out.

With no real data to back me up, it just seems like the table is pretty cold for about an average of an hour+ every shift. A cold table is when there are plenty of 7-outs right after the points are established and everyone has their money out there on the place bets, hardways, etc. The frigid table is usually followed by a dead table for a matter of 15 minutes or so, since most people lose all their money in the icy conditions, or get fed up and leave with whatever they have left. That leaves about 45 minutes during my 6 hours on the table which are unaccounted for. As you might guess, those 45 minutes are usually filled up with very warm conditions.

A hot table is a table which is hitting plenty of points and plenty of place-bet numbers, maybe with some hardways thrown in, and it usually consists of one very hot shooter who rolls for 30 minutes to an hour. Now don't get me wrong. There are days when I'm just a soul crusher at the table and the casino has a great night! There are also days when, although very rare, when it just seems like 2 or 3 points are hit by every single shooter who gets the dice. Those are the shifts when I have to get used to seeing the same people for a while, because they obviously aren't going to leave when they're "winning".

So why did I put the "winning" in quotation marks? The reason is that, going back to my initial breakup of my shift, the hot table definitely makes an appearance quite often, but the tourists who I deal to simply don't know how to take advantage of the hot table when it finally occurs! I can't say anymore how many times I've dealt through a HUGE roll from a shooter who has the dice for 45-60 minutes, and when he finally seven-outs, I look down at the layout and people still have $10 and $12 place bets all over the place.

That, my friends, is why my table does so well at my current place of employment. When its bad, its really bad! But when its good, nobody knows what to do, so the table survives and the profit is made. My supervisors are more than happy to call the cage for a fill on red chips, because they realize that after about 20 minutes into a roll, we should be running out of green chips instead!

So now I'll do something that I will probably never do again, and I may regret doing based on some possible comments I may get later on. I'm going to teach you a craps "system". Now while dealing off-strip, every damn flea and his brother had a "system" that they used, and it would drive me NUTS if they tried to explain it to me, or to some hapless tourist who happened to get caught in their clutches. There isn't a system in the world that will promise you a win at the craps table, and most of the flea-systems are downright stupid! But what I'll try to do is let you play and have fun with your modest buy-in, but when that rare HOT table occurs, you'll walk away with much more money than most tourists.

Here are the rules:

1. Play your normal game and have fun!
2. When you're losing, do NOT increase your bets to try to make up your losses quick.
3. When you encounter a HOT table, PRESS. YOUR. DAMN. BETS!

The first rule is simple. Most normal buy-ins on a $5 or $10 table are either $100 or $200. Do what you normally do. Make a pass-line bet and back it up with odds. Make place bets across ($26 or $27 across), or maybe just place the 6 and 8 for $6 each. This is probably what you're used to doing and your buy-in will last a long while on a hot or choppy table. If the table is cold, then too bad. NO system will allow you to win money if the dice just aren't cooperating (and leave me alone darkside bettors, 99% of tourists play the pass-line and are not interested in the don'ts). If the table is choppy, then you may or may not hit a point, and you'll probably hit enough place bets to kind of break even on them without winning or losing much. Order drinks, clown around with your friends, maybe make an occasional dealer bet or two, and HAVE A GOOD TIME! That's an order.

The second rule is also very simple. Don't turn a choppy table into a personal cold table for yourself by getting greedy or stupid. Avoid the urge to suddenly throw $20 into the field because you "have a feeling" a field number is coming. Also avoid the urge to up your place bets to $54 across or something like, which would probably put more than 25% of your buy-in at stake at one time. Just be content to ride out your pass-line bet with odds and $32 inside, or the like.

The third rule is the main focus of the post! If you do find yourself suddenly at a very warm or hot table, don't be content with just keeping all of your bets the same and getting paid the exact same amount every single time one of your numbers hits! My advice on when to start pressing your bets is when you've hit at least one point number AND you've hit enough of your place bets so that you've broken even on them. For example, let's say you start with $26 across and you've hit the 6 a couple of times and the 5 or 9 a couple of times, you have now made up all of the place bet money you put out there. If you happen to have hit a point in there as well, guess what.....you just might be in the middle of a hot roll.

So take advantage of the possible hot roll. The worst that will happen at this point is that the shooter 7-outs as soon as you start pressing, but you'll still break even at worst for the roll! When it comes time to get paid on a place bet, just tell the dealer "press my bet please". He will give you a small amount of change from your bet, and then double it. If you had $6 on the 6, you'll now have $12 on it. So you'll get paid double the next time it hits. If you had $5 on the 5, you'll now have $10 on it and will get paid double the next time it hits. It's that simple.

When you bet all of the place bet numbers on a $5 table, you'll have $6 on the 6 and 8 to start and $5 on all of the other numbers. Given my criteria above on when to react to a "hot" table, start pressing your numbers when you've broken even on what you've put out there initially. But to get a little more complicated, I'll advise you to start "pressing one unit" on each number for a little while until the table gets scorching hot, which will give you some kind of payout each time while also putting more money on each number as well. "One unit" is the amount you start with on the number at the beginning. If you have $6 on the 6, then one unit is $6.

So let's just use the number 6 as an example. You start with $6 on it like usual. The shooter rolls a few numbers and you decide to press it. The dealer will hand you $1 and put another $6 on your bet, making it $12. When it hits again, you say "press one unit please." The dealer will hand you $8 and will add another $6 onto your bet. You know have $18 on the 6. It hits again! "Press one unit please." The dealer will hand you $15 and add yet another $6 onto your bet. You know have $24 on it. IT HITS AGAIN! Clearly we're in the warm zone! "Press one unit please." The dealer will had you $22 and add yet another $6 onto your bet. You know have $30 on the 6 and have been getting some money back every time it hits. You're making money, AND you're adding to your bet so when it hits again, you win even more money.

At this point, some of you might be saying "Rob, you're full of it! Place bet numbers NEVER hit that many times before a 7-out!" I'd say you're wrong. Hot rolls DO happen, but most tourists don't really fully realize it because they're so happy collected $7 payouts after more $7 payouts without ever pressing. A roll happened just today where a shooter had the dice for about 35 minutes, and I was still paying stupid little $6 place bets at the end of it all!

So getting back to the pressing, I would advice pressing one unit until you get to the magic GREEN BARRIER! That is when you get to $30 on the 6 and/or 8, and $25 on the 4,5,9, and 10. At this point, you're place bets look green and you are now getting green with your payout every one of them hits. This is the situation I referred to earlier when the supervisors might be thinking about calling for a fill on the green chips, instead of the reds.

Going back to the 6, you now have $30 on it. I'm not completely opposed to just taking the $35 payout when it hits with this much on it, but ONLY ONCE! If the numbers are still hitting, then you've found that very rare SCORCHING HOT shooter. TAKE ADVANTAGE NOW!! Press the $30 bet FULL to $60. Do NOT press one unit! It annoys the dealers, its harder to pay and you're just being a pussy at this point if you do it. If the 6 hits with $60 on it, press it another $30 to $90. If it hits again, press it another $30 to $120. Hell, if it hits again, try a full press all the way to $240.

Once again, I am not being completely ridiculous here. Really hot shooters are rare, but they do happen, usually about once a shift (maybe a little less). This "system" is simply allowing you to realize when a hot roll may be occurring and taking full advantage of it when it happens. I will admit that I do not use this system, because I hardly ever gamble anymore. If I tried to use this system, I would be killed by the cold and choppy tables and would probably go broke. But tourists are only in town for a short while and are usually gambling with budgeted funds. When you step up to the table, you just might be lucky enough to walk right into a 45 minute HOT roll, and I hope now you know a little bet more about taking advantage of it!

And by the way, the more cash people win, the more they are prone to tip and make dealer bets along the way. I've seen many tourists win about $400 off HOT rolls, when they could have won $1500 using my system above. If you wish to tip the dealers, make a few bets for them in the middle of the hot roll. Its okay if you tip them at the end, but we'd much rather make money off the casino during the roll as opposed to just taking your money at the end of it!

Edited to add: Yes, I see the bad grammar and wrong spellings up there, but I'm too lazy and pressed for time to do anything about it. Just deal with it.

A Strip View

Okay, I'm back from a couple of days playing tourist down on the Strip. For starters, its not really all that exciting staying in a hotel down on the Strip when you actually live a mere few miles away from it. The only gambling I did was putting a few bucks through a video poker machine one night while a very bored Danielle looked on. If you don't gamble, and you don't have a budget that will allow you to see a $100 Cirque show, mid-strip is pretty damn boring! I do thank Jack21 though for the free room the past couple of nights though. The Flamingo is a nicer place than I gave it credit for, and it was pretty nice being able to get up less than an hour before my shift started and still being able to punch in with minutes to spare!

I just got back from Main Street Station where Jack21 is staying and Mikey and I had some pretty good fun at the table games. I was playing with some "scared money", so I didn't put too much out there and thus, just broke even for the night. Jack did okay, but Mikey tripled his buy-in by the time we called it quits. The week of work/fun is over though and now I must concentrate on my upcoming shifts and the move. My first night in the new house will be this upcoming Tuesday night, so don't expect a whole lot of activity on the blog this upcoming week.

One interesting story from the past couple of nights did happen at the Venetian. Danielle had never seen the Palazzo before, so we stopped by for some gawking on Tuesday night. After seeing all there was to see at the Palazzo (the fourth time for me), we walked back to the regular Venetian, passing by the restaurant where Jeff (my soon-to-be roommate) works. He wasn't around so we didn't have anyone to hassle at that point. Since it had been a while since I had walked through the Venetian casino, I led Danielle down a couple aisles of table games, just to see what they offered and what table limits they were spreading at the time. At one point, Danielle pointed at the floor and said she spotted some chips down there. I told her to pick them up and suddenly she was $2 richer as she now owned two white Venetian chips. Since she was pretty sure they just dropped off the cocktail waitress' tray , she started following her to give them back. I followed......and suddenly I spotted yet another chip on the floor next to the rapid roulette tables. After playing the role of "deer in the headlights" for a brief moment, I bent down and swiped up one big Venetian black chip off the floor! That's $100 baby!

To make a short story long though, we ended up at the security podium filling out a lost-and-found slip for that $102 we found. If someone doesn't "claim" the money within 25 days, I will have made a decent night of tokes for the night. But as Chris pointed out, the casino could simply say someone stopped by to claim them and just locked it up for the bottom line. I'm not really expecting the cash to be there, but it obviously won't stop me from making the walk down there 25 days from now, just to see for sure.

Taking away, the moments that make up a dull day...

I've now worked 2 shifts on day shift and in about 10 minutes I have to get ready for my third. It seems for the most part, I'll be working the 12noon to 8pm shift, with a little more than half of my shifts being spent on the dice table. So the scheduling side of things seems to be good!

One thing about day shift though is that I can actually go out and do stuff with my free time at night, as opposed to being cooped up in the apartment after getting home at 5:30am after work. Last night, I spent the evening chilling out at Danielle's and tonight I'll be able to go over to Chris' place and take part in the weekly Monday night poker night over there, which I haven't been able to do for months! Of course, when we move into the new place, we'll probably host it so it'll be more accessible, but this new shift seems to be working out just fine so far.

What I haven't been able to do is find time to make decent blog posts. Time seems to be a commodity this week as well since Jack21 over on T2V has offered to put me up in a free room for two nights at the Flamingo on the Strip since he had an offer that he wasn't going to use. He gets in today and I'll be meeting up with him sometime tomorrow to get checked in and maybe hang out for a while. That means I'll be away from the computer until sometime Thursday.

One thing I really need to do is post that "advanced craps post" like I've talked about. It won't be too tough, it'll just stress the need to PRESS YOUR BETS when the table is hot. Yesterday, my dice table had to call for TWO fills, to replace all of the red chips that vanished from the table. Tourists just don't seem to be interested in making money at my place of employment. When a six rolls 5 times in a row, put more money on it and make some cash! We shouldn't have been running out of reds, we should have been running out of green and black after a couple of monster rolls occurred late in my shift!!

That won't be 'till later in the week though. I need to get to work now and I'll be playing role of tourist the next couple of days while being able to walk to work in the morning, which will be nice.

Raising the Cup

While watching the Stanley Cup playoffs during the past couple of months, this commercial kept popping up. I just think it is one of the coolest promos I've seen.

A Stolen Survey

Here's one of those email surveys you get in your inbox every once in a while in which Mikey has answered and I have unceremoniously stolen. Feel free to reply with your own answers.

1) What was the last CD you listened to? The last non-bootleg CD I've listened to was Nektar's Remember the Future album. Don't worry if you've never heard of them.

2) Do you have Tivo? If yes, what shows do you record? I've got DVR and usually watch the recorded episodes of Jeopardy and Deadliest Catch with Mikey. I also record NASCAR races and other sports events that occur when I'm either sleeping or at work.

3) What book is currently on the nightstand? The Pink Floyd biography I mentioned in my last post.

4) What was the last DVD you watched? Remember That Night, David Gilmour live at Royal Albert Hall (a venue that I have recently learned he was supposedly banned for life from in the late sixties).

5) What was the last thing you purchased online? The book and another David Gilmour DVD, which come to think of it, is probably waiting for me down at the complex office.

6) If you were given $50,000 and told that you had to use it on a new vehicle, what would you buy? How much do Zambonies cost???

7) If you were given $50,000 and told you could use it on anything, what would you spend it on? I'd send a little to the family back in Ohio and use the rest on boring stuff like a retirement account and just keeping some for a rainy day. Although, now that I think of it, I probably would splurge and take about a grand of it to the craps table at my old place of employment, making sure to call out every damn stiff at the table while hopefully turning my buy-in into yet another 50 grand to "blow up" the shift and piss off my old boss!

8) If you were given ten days of vacation to go anywhere you want, all expenses paid, where would you go? Ireland

9) If you could attend one major sporting event, which one would it be? Oh man, so many to choose from. I'm tempted to say the Indianapolis 500 since I've never been, but I'd obviously want to do a Super Bowl or NCAA championship game if the Steelers and/or the Buckeyes were involved.

10) What was the last alcohol you purchased? A 12-pack of Corona plus a lime.

11) The last time you went out for breakfast, where did you go? Lunch? Dinner? Breakfast was at a chain called Coco's with Danielle. It was her breakfast, but my dinner at around 9am. The oddity known as "lunch" doesn't really exist for me while working swing shift, since it would occur around 1am if I ate it. We'll see how that changes on day shift. Dinner would have been at Amore's, the Chicago pizza place on the west side of town where I ate around 12noon before coming home and going to bed.

12) Favorite fast food joint? Chipotle. However, I've noticed that the food at the Chipotle locations here in Vegas aren't ever really as good as the ones back in Columbus, Ohio. So I guess for good fast Mexican burritos, its not necessarily better if you're closer to Mexico and have them made by actual Mexicans. Go figure!

13) Which modern technology baffles you the most? Text Messaging! No, I'm not stumped by it as I usually text people a few times a week. I'm just baffled at how teens can substitute texting with actually calling someone up and talking to them. Seriously, why do they feel the need to constantly type s**t into the phone as opposed to just calling them!?!?

14) If you could live like a hippie, following a band around on tour, which band would it be? Most of my favorite bands are into their sixties, so the choices are dwindling. The Who, YES, and of course Pink Floyd if they ever re-united (I'm not holding my breath though).

15) Which do you own more of--purses or shoes? Shoes. Stupid question.

16) What was the last thing you bid for on Ebay? It's been a while, but it was a ticket to an Ohio State vs. Minnesota football game two seasons ago.

17) Do you have a secret crush on anyone? No, I'm not in high school!

18) If you could go back in time 25 years and give yourself some advice, what would it be? I don't know what I'd tell an 8-year old version of myself, but a couple things would include NOT transferring out of Ohio State. Just stay a true Buckeye and find a degree you'd like to complete in Columbus, and then see what happens. Also, in 1993 you'll have an opportunity to see Pink Floyd live during their PULSE tour. DO IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! The freakin' tickets aren't THAT much!!!!!!

19) When was the first time you got high? I only smoked pot once, which occurred within the past 7 years or so. Not impressed in the slightest. I'd prefer to stick with easy-to-find, legal and delicious alcohol!

20) Who was the last person you sent flowers to? Danielle. Actually, that's not technically true since ftd.com f****d up my order and I had to end up buying her some flowers on my own instead of surprising her at work with them. So I guess the true answer would be Deb, my ex back in Ohio about 3 years ago. Lesson learned though......don't order flowers from a web site like ftd.com or flowers.com. Just call up your local florist and order them that way, which is what those web sites do anyway while charging gouging fees and providing crap-ass service!

21) What was the last foreign country you visited? The one and only foreign country I've visited is Canada. Yes, I need to get out a little more!

22) If you could host a Jon Favreau-style dinner party, that would be filmed and broadcast on cable, who would your four guests be? And where would you dine? Who is Jon Favreau? Is he related to a Green Bay quarterback?

23) Do you have any weird food habits? When eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, I'll pick out and eat all of the oat cereal first, leaving a bowl full of sugary milk and marsh mellows to enjoy! Sometimes a marsh mellow will stow away on the bottom of the spoon, which draws my ire! I remember my ex Deb did the exact opposite, eating the marsh mellows first, which was just crazy! No wonder we never worked out.

24) Which company has made you suffer the most, customer-service wise? Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The only month I've EVER gone over my cell phone minutes was the month they decided to put me on hold for 30 minutes EVERY time I tried to call them!!!

25) If you had the chance to pelt one public figure with garbage and rotten fruit without getting caught, which one would it be? George Bush, but not too hard since I wouldn't want Cheney to have to take over!

Feeling Down Under

It's been pretty tough to post this past week. I really haven't had much to talk about and I haven't really seen anything on the internet that I could make fun of. I just got home from 8 hours at "work" and my normal routine that past few days is to spend some time reading my brand new book, which is a biography of Pink Floyd. It's been pretty damn interesting so far, but I've only gotten through the first couple of chapters. Basically, I'll read for a while and every time something new introduced, I'll get onto the internet and research it a little more or do something related to the subject matter. For example, I just got through reading about their debut album in 1967 (Piper at the Gates of Dawn) and it had been a while since I've listened to that album. So as soon as the chapter was through, I spent about an hour listening to it as well as some other rare early stuff on youtube and in my bootleg collection. As you can see, its a slow read! But what else am I supposed to be doing after getting off of work at 5am!?

Work was incredibly slow this past shift! Believe it or not, I only dealt on a live game for 3 hours and 40 minutes. I had one other stint as a "mucker" on a roulette table and the rest of the time I was on break! It was just that slow! It also didn't help that every time I got sent to a table, it was usually just closing. So instead of sending me to a different table, I was just sent on break again! It doesn't matter much to me though since I'm getting paid the same either way. The slowness of the shift doesn't bode well for tokes though.

The reference in the title refers to a players that I dealt blackjack to last night/this morning during one of my brief stints on a live table. He was from Australia, he had just flown in about five hours previous to me seeing him, and he was completely blitzed out of his head!!! I don't know what he'd been drinking during those five hours, but it had to have been STRONG! Anyway, about 10 minutes into the session I just happened to ask him where he was staying. He though for a minute and said, "Um, I'm not really sure mate. I think it starts with an 'M' or something." So for the next couple of minutes we were trying to help him remember what his hotel was. He was sure it was on the Strip, which meant it was either the Mirage, MGM, Mandalay Bay or Monte Carlo. Every time we mentioned one of them, he was SURE it was that particular one......until we mentioned the next one! He looked in his wallet but no room key was to be found. Amongst his deep thoughts about his current abode, I was tapped out. So I don't really know if he figured it out or not. I can just picture that scenario in the taxi cab though! "Where to buddy?" I.....don't......know!

Skipping Grave

I got into work last night after my very quick 3-day weekend and went to check my schedule for next week. After looking in the book for a few moments, I could not find myself anywhere which meant that I was either laid off again without being notified, or my request to change to day shift went through quicker than expected! Sure enough, a quick browse through the day shift schedule had me down for four days next week, on day shift with 3 of them being on dice! Woohoo!

This marks a break-up in my Vegas shift carousel. When I first started at Nevada Palace last year, I was on swing shift, which varies from casino to casino but usually starts and ends around 8pm-4am. When I moved to the Henderson place, I started on swing but was quickly moved to graveyard after a couple of weeks. After 10 months on grave, they switched me to day shift for a month or so before ceremoniously laying me off. The place on Boulder Highway where I dealt after that worked me on swing, which completed the full circle of shift changes. After leaving Boulder Highway and moving to my current place on the Strip, I stayed on swing....with this week being my last on that shift. So I've now skipped right over grave and am back on days.

It looks like I'll be working either the 1pm-9pm or noon-8pm shifts to start, which means I will be mingling with my swing shift buddies from time to time for an hour or so. I know day shift does have some 10am-6pm shifts and the like, but I guess I'm the new guy on the shift so I'll have to wait for those.

As far as the start and end times go, its almost the perfect shift for me. I can still sleep in and avoid rush hour (on both ends), but I won't be getting home at the crack of dawn anymore and having to sleep through the day! That'll be nice! Also, Chris works day shift as well, so when we move into the house, I'm hoping that we'll be able to carpool a couple times a week if our work-days happen to match up. Whenever he floor sups, he works 2pm-10pm. I know I don't really mind waiting around after work for him, but I'm not sure what he will think about leaving an hour early. We'll see.

I was initially worried that day shift would hurt the amount of hours I've been getting. However, I'm on for four days next week (a full 32 hours), so I'm not too worried about that anymore. The fact that they seem to be giving me more dice time is also a big plus. One can only deal so much Let it Ride, Big Six Wheel and Casino War before one's wits are shot to hell! They also gave me my very first Saturday shift on this new schedule. It doesn't seem like the Saturday toke rates are too much bigger than the weekdays, but I guess I won't complain too much since every little extra bit helps. Of course, I'll say that until college football season gets here and I'll be clamoring for graveyard shift again so that I can loaf in front of the 3-TV system again!

Do Laundry, check! Find House, check!

Well, the great house hunt of 2008 has passed almost as quickly as it began! We ended up getting that place near South Point. So basically, if you don't include the time spent on the computer finding listings, the hunt ended less than 48 hours after the first official showing that Jeff and Chris did on Wednesday!

All three of us showed up as soon as their office opened at 9am yesterday. We turned in our applications (along with a $50 application/gouging fee each), and about 3 hours later Jeff got the call that they'd rent it to us. I think it is still up in the air whether or not the house got as much attention as the lady told us, but if it did, I think the fact that all three of us have good, steady income and credit scores well north of 700 played a role in the expediency of their decision.

Some important details still need to be ironed out though. The obvious question will be who gets which bedrooms/bathrooms. There are 2 regular bedrooms upstairs, which are a little bigger than average, a GINORMOUS master bedroom and a very small bedroom/den downstairs across from the 3/4 bathroom (shower, but no tub). Whoever gets the downstairs room will probably be able to fit their bed in there, and nothing else. So that same person will probably also have use of the extra bedroom upstairs to put his computer and other stuff. The other regular bedroom will go to another guy who'll have use of the full bath in the hallway. Of course, the other one will get the master, complete with the big bedroom, a separate "sitting room", a big bathroom and a big walk-in closet. I swear, that master room itself is almost as big as my entire apartment back in Bowling Green! I also think the dude who gets the master will probably be paying a little more per month, but stuff like that will be hammered out later.

Here's a few pictures of the place that I got off the web site listing.

Here's a front view from the street. It's got a two-car garage.

This is the view from the far end of the living room looking back at the front door. Honestly, all three of us combined still don't have enough furniture and stuff to fill this room. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do with the space.

This is an alcove extended from the living room. Its off to the left as you look at the picture above this one. Again, I'm not sure what will become of this space. It might be tacky, but it might be relegated to storage space, since storage is one thing the house doesn't really have.

This is the entire backyard. Nothing but stones and a few bushes. If you think its ugly, you're right. However, it'll work because none of us wanted the hassle of having to mow and care for a lawn (like they need to do at their current house) and my only hope was for a small porch area to put a grill, which I got! Why they decided to put a pic of the backyard on the listing and NOT the master bedroom is beyond me!

Here's the kitchen. That picture above of the living room was taken from next to that far left kitchen counter in this pic. So the living room is actually bigger than the picture above makes it look to be.

So now that the house-hunting is out of the way, its time to enjoy the last day of my three-day weekend. I wasn't able to do anything with Danielle last night because I was so exhausted/sick from the previous couple of days. I went to bed around 5pm last night and woke up around 5 am this morning. Nothing like a sound 12 hour sleep to help shake the sore throat and cold. I'm still a little congested, but its not bad enough to keep me cooped up another night. Tonight, Danielle and I have plans to go have dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Cozymels, which is located just a few blocks east of the Strip on Flamingo. Dave P, a guy from T2V and who also reads the blog, sent me a comped voucher for the place, so we're looking forward to a nice free meal tonight. Thank you Dave!!!

Aside from that, I need to get crackin' on some organizing, etc. I already have 1 load of laundry done (out of 3), but my bedroom is ridiculous right now. It was a small miracle that I was able to find that voucher so easily because its tough to see the top surface of my nightstand, desk and table that I have in the bedroom. I probably won't do any real cleaning/scrubbing until its time to move out in about 3 weeks, but it would be nice to be able to find a paystub or rent receipt without going nuts for a change!

The Man and the Journey

Don't think the title of the post is too deep, its just the name of the Pink Floyd bootleg I'm listening to right now and I couldn't really think of a good name for the post, so there you have it.

Since my days off were split last week, I'm now in day 2 of my 3-day weekend. It's 4am and I'm up at the computer since my body has decided that it still wants to stay on a swing shift schedule on the day's off. Unfortunately, as soon as the weekend started, I developed a pretty killer sore throat, so it would be nice to actually get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time, but I had to be up early anyway, so whatever.

The reason for needing to be up early is that I'll be heading over to Chris' around 8am. In case you're not up to speed, I'll be moving out of my current apartment at the end of the month and moving in with Chris and one of his current roommates that live with him over at the big house in Mountain's Edge. Unfortunately, we could not find a 4th roommate, so we've been in a house-hunting search for the past couple of weeks (their current place is way too big and expensive for only 3 people). Yesterday, after about 3 hours of sleep, I met up with Jeff (the other guy) and we hit the streets checking out places. One of the very finicky touches we've put on the search is the "need" for 3 bathrooms with at least a shower in each so that we can each have our own bathroom.

Jeff saw one place earlier in the day and I met up with him before the 2nd appointment. Out of the 3 places we saw (4 total for Jeff), one in particular completely jumped out at us and pretty much blew us away! It's located just on the west side of I-15 very close to South Point casino. 2800 square feet, 3 bathrooms with a shower in each, built 3 years ago, and the best part of it all, the rent split three-ways would be about $100 less per month than what I'm spending now in this tiny apartment in Henderson!!! While talking to the lady on the phone, she mentioned how this particular place was getting a lot of attention, but it just sounded like she was giving us a usual sales pitch. After about two minutes of checking the place out, it was obvious that she wasn't full of it!

So we've all filled out the applications and have them ready to go as soon as their offices open at 9am. Unfortunately, its not first-come first-serve with them, as they take multiple applications on a place, look at them and decide who is best to rent to. But lets keep our fingers crossed! Our killer credit numbers added to our proof of good paychecks and past rental histories should be enough to sway them towards us, but you never know.

I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend will entail. Hopefully I'll be able to get some rest and shake this cold before going back to work Sunday night. Much to my delight, I'm on the schedule for 5 straight nights next week with 3 of them being on dice!

"John" Glenn's legacy

Space shuttle Discovery is up there right now, delivering essentials to the international space station. They will also attempt to install a one BILLION dollar state-of-the-art lab provided by Japan! The lab is MUCH more sophisticated than either of the station's other two labs, and will be able to provide modern science with answers to many questions regarding that wondrous final frontier.......space.



The astronauts also need to fix the shitter!

A Critical Mission


So, I guess this bears the question.....how much of an astronauts ass-crack is able to show while doing the plumbing if they have to wear those bulky space uniforms?

A NASA stock photograph of shuttle Discovery's mission specialist preparing for the current historic mission.

It's unclear what the object in this picture is. It's either a $1,000,000,000 state-of-the-art Japanese laboratory, or a $64.99 Home Depot portable lavatory.

Flea Wannabe

Not much time to post today, but I did want to say that I found a perfect way to completely kill 3 hours between the end of my shift this morning and the opening of the human resources office. That would be:
-walk to Slots-A-Fun
-play $1 blackjack for 3 hours
-walk back from Slots--A-Fun with my nice $5 profit!!!

Now I can buy an extra gallon of gas! I should post more about that interesting 3 hours, but Rob needs his sleepy!

Oh, but one thing before I go.....I saw the most horrifying sign while at good ole Slots-A-Fun..........

$3 Let-It-Ride!!!

The Normal Stuff

There hasn't been much to report lately from Sin City. I had a three-day weekend these past few days and only worked a 6 hour shift Sunday night. Before you say anything, NO I did not take early out (EO). Like I've said before, there has been exactly one night since I started dealing 15 months ago where I've voluntarily requested EO, and that was when I was sick while working on Boulder Highway and my friends from Ohio were coming into town the next morning. My shift just happened to be 6 hours last night, which happens for some reason about twice a month.

Since its been a while between "casino-related" posts, I just thought I'd drop some tidbits from work since its now been about 6 weeks since I started dealing at my new place on the Strip. First, speaking of EO, its a little surprising how little EO is requested from my fellow dealers on a nightly basis. The tokes usually hover around $90 a night, so they're not the greatest, but a large percentage of my co-workers work some other part-time job. Honestly, I have no idea how they do it! Some of the dealers who work graveyard come in at the end of my shift looking like zombies since they just got off of an 8-hour shift somewhere else on very little sleep. But like I said, there are only a few people on the EO list every night. Its funny in that the "nice" place that I worked at in Henderson for ten months before being "downsized" was about a $47,000+ a year job for those lucky enough to be full-time, but in saying that I'll also say that I've NEVER heard people bitch about their lives so much than in that breakroom! On the flip-side, a full-timer at my current Strip place only makes about $35,000 per year (give or take) and I RARELY run into those once-common gripe sessions in the break room. All-in-all, people seem generally happy at my current place, myself included.

Getting back to the EO subject though, there are two types of EO, forced EO and voluntary EO. Don't think that I was making even close to that $45,000 that I mentioned earlier at the Henderson place. Usually, I'd be lucky to get three days on the schedule, and way more times than not I'd be forced home early by my a**hole supervisors. I had absolutely no say in it. Perhaps I'm venting a little too much right now, but its crazy how that company keeps making it onto these national publication "best places to work" lists, and yet I spent ten months of my life realizing that it couldn't be farther from the truth. In the case of my current company, it has somewhat of a reputation for being an "evil" enormous entity, but so far I've been averaging 4.5 days per week on the schedule and I have yet to be sent home against my will ONCE! When my grandma passed away the day before my first shift, I went in the next night before working even one minute at a table and talked to my main shift boss. He IMMEDIATELY whipped out the schedule from the desk and whited out my name from the on-call list, thus allowing me to fly home the next day!

Some other pluses to working at my current place:
- Kick-ass employee dining room - At least compared to Boulder Highway and Henderson. They even have a carving station during swing shift. Is it the best cut of prime rib I've ever had, hell no....but its FREE prime rib!
- Much more variety of games - At Henderson, I ONLY dealt dice and blackjack, but mostly blackjack. On Boulder highway, I always dealt dice, and it was to some of the most dreadful vermin you'll ever meet. At this point, I've mastered every single game in my Strip place after only about 3 weeks (except roulette).
- Fun tourists - I've worked on the Strip for 6 weeks now, and I've never dealt to the same people throughout my entire shift. While off-strip, it was a nightly occurrence. Tourists have lives and things to do. Off-strip fleas have no lives and some of their only point for existence is to slowly waste away at a $3 craps table for ten hours a day.
- The company encourages fun! - What other casino have you ever played at where the company EXPECTS the dealers to high-five players, shake their hands and lets them use their cell phones at the tables without sweating it (within reason)?

Now don't get me wrong, there are some downsides to my current place. One reason the tokes are much lower is that, in general, tourists don't seem to know how to tip. NO, I'm not saying everyone is a jerk or anything because for the most part, all of my non-LIR playing customers are cool. Sure, you'll see me blog about some asshat after a shift, but those are the exceptions (which make for more interesting blog fodder). But I routinely see some tourists winning $500-$1000 on a craps or blackjack table, and they'll just throw in like $10 at the very end when they color-up. Uh, I guess I appreciate that $10, but tipping someone who makes minimum wage exactly 1% of your winnings is somewhat of a kick in the nether-regions. But I can't be too angry with them because the majority of them simply don't know that I survive on tips and they'll still genuinely thank me for a good job, which NEVER happened dealing to the burn-outs off the strip!

Am I butt-kissing my current place a little right now. Uh, probably, but all of my points remain valid. So I'm not just saying this stuff because I recently found out that a wife of a "big wig" in my company reads my blog every once in a while! ;-)

For this week, its one down and three to go at this point. I'm on dice for 2 out of the next 3 nights, which will be nice. Since we're always pretty busy, the shifts seem to fly by on the craps table! Tonight, I'll be getting out of bed and heading over to Steve's to hopefully watch the Red Wings wrap up the Cup on home-ice. Then its off to work for 8 hours, and then more Strip wandering while I wait around for the HR office to open at 8am. Any ideas on what I should do (no gambling) on the Strip at 5am for three hours???