Thanks

A quick "thank you" to Wildcat Fan for sending me the 2-for-1 coupon to the 2nd City show at the Flamingo! We'll probably use it this Saturday night for the 2nd City "scriptless show", which is comprised of all improvisational sketches, not the scripted sketches like in the regular show. It should be a blast!

Thanks man!

Canada's Loudest Band

Well, I'm back from the Rush concert on Saturday night and my ears are still ringing! They definitely took it up to 11 tonight as it was easily the loudest concert I've ever attended! As far as concerts go, I'd have to put it down the ladder a bit behind the likes of Waters, the Who and Yes, but that doesn't mean they didn't rock my ass off! I still can't get past the fact that these guys are in their mid-fifties and can still put on a show like this one! The individual talent on their specific instruments is just amazing. The show started around 8:10pm and ended around 11:20pm, with a 10-15 minute break.

As I mentioned in my other post, I'm definitely not a Rush officionado and haven't really actively listened to many of their songs with the exception of those played (and overplayed) on classic rock radio stations. In fact, I think I was referring to "Gene Geddy" all night for some reason when talking with Danielle when the his actual name, of course, is Geddy Lee! However, I did go in with the knowledge that Neil Peart may be the best rock drummer in the history of the world and his drum solo tonight was a thing of beauty (though I could have used just a little more cowbell). I doubt if I'll ever hear a better drum solo, live or otherwise, for the rest of my life! It was that good!! His equipment was awesome, rotating a full 180 degrees numerous time throughout the performance to give him access to every little toy he had on that thing.

The big screens were also very cool. Some of the video sequences shown included cameo appearances from the McKenzie Brothers, Jerry Stiller and the South Park cartoon kids, with Cartman making up his own lyrics for Tom Sawyer mistaking him for Huckleberry Finn.

Our seats were supposed to be up near the nosebleeders stage left, but since Danielle had worked as an usher in years past and knew someone there, we got an upgrade to a great section stage right (as you can see in the pics). That once again proves that when in Vegas, its all about who you know!

Here's a few random pictures of the night. As I've mentioned before, I don't own a digital camera. Even though my camera phone takes pretty decent pics, the sound quality of the videos severely lacks. I'll put a few videos on following the pics for what they're worth, but you might want to turn your volume way down before watching them. It was SO LOUD that any decent quality out of my phone was next to impossible. However, some of the videos show the very nice lasers and light effects, and I think I have a couple vids of Neil in the middle of his solo.

Edited to add: It seems the first four vids of Neil in his solo aren't too bad, as well as the last vid which is simply the crown reaction right before the encore, but the vids in the middle should only be watched for the visuals as the sound is just terrible. Sorry.

Yet another edit: I forgot to mention that Danielle and I, in search of good food at 11:45pm, stopped by the Bootlegger Bistro on S. Las Vegas Blvd. Five minutes after we walked in, Carrot Top came in and walked right past our table. The veal Saltimbocca was AWESOME!!! Try it if you're ever out that way.

Who is Motzart?

Yes, that's a very good question! Who, or what, exactly is Motzart?? Is it something you get when you cross applesauce with a painting? Please tell us Mr. Jeopardy dude from the University of Michigan.

Full Circle

I took a big chance in my life, resigning a good college gig to move out west.

I toiled for months taking classes at dealer's school while commuting from Ohio to Detroit.

I suffered a few months of unemployment in preparation for my big move.

Chris and I were almost frozen solid on our trip out to Nevada.

We spent even more time in dealer's school while still not working.

I suffered through two months of breaking in at a complete s**thole of a place dealing $1 blackjack and $1 craps!

I spent 10 months at a good place, making very little money while working about 15-20 hours per week, hoping to someday become full time.

I was laid off from the good place and spent another 2 months at an equally s**tty place as my break-in joint.

I endured 3 interviews/auditions and an entire week of orientation to get into a Strip property where tips are still much less than the aforementioned good place.

And it's all been worth it............because............last night...........for the very first time.........I was asked to deal...........

THE BIG SIX WHEEL!!!!!

The picture obviously isn't of the big wheel at my casino. Let me tell you, I have never been more depressed about the state of man than now, after dealing two total hours worth on the Big Freakin' Wheel! Actually, I never really had many players, but during those two sessions, I heard the following quotes coming out of people's mouths:

Drunk Lady #1: How do you play this?

-Rob explains-

Drunk Lady #1: Uh, I still don't really get it, but I'll try!


Dude #1: I'm putting my last $5 on the 'one'.

Dude#2: Bro, that's a sucker bet, put it on the 'five' or 'ten' instead!


Drunk Lady #2: Uh, it's a $2 minimum bet on any bet? I thought I could just bet $1 on the 'one' and $1 on the 'two'.

Rob: Nope, you'd have to bet $4 total to do that.

Drunk Lady #2: Oh, then just give me my money back then.
-She expected me to be able to reach back into the drop box somehow and magically bring back her ten dollar bill. When I pointed her toward the cage, she was visibly annoyed.


Random Guy #1: Where can I find a pool table around here?

Rob: Dude, its the Strip. I really don't know!


Random Guy #2: Where's a good techno club around here?

Rob: I don't know.


Random Guy #3: Where's a Subway around here?
-I politely told him where to find one.


Random Guy #4 (at 12:30am): Where are some good shows around here?

Rob: Well there's the 2nd City show at the Flamingo, which I've always liked. You can also check out George Wallace there and I've always had a good time at the Improv at Harrah's.

Random Guy #4: Cool, where can I go get tickets?

Rob: Well, the ticket offices are obviously closed, but if you want to see one tomorrow night, I'd get to the ticket office as early as you can in the morning.

Random Guy #4: Oh, you mean they don't play tonight. We wanna see one tonight!!

Rob (to himself): It's almost 1 o'clock in the f**cking morning jackass!! Are you kidding me!!

Rob (out loud): You're out of luck man. They don't play at 1am.


Honestly, most Let It Ride players just kind of sit there and don't talk (unless they're bitching about their lousy cards). Apparently, the Big Freakin' Six Wheel players are exactly like Let It Ride players, but who also say what is on their "mind". They should also replace the Big Wheel with a simple information desk, because that's what I was for most of those 2 hours. The quotes above didn't include the multiple times I directed people to the bathroom, the casino eateries, the casino bars, and my all-time favorite question, "Uh, what casino am I in again?". I got that one about a half-dozen times!

Oh well, my other two games were 3-card poker and a $10 blackjack shoe game, so the shift went relatively quickly. Now I have two full days off to try to catch up on some laundry, rock out with Rush, and meet up with Danielle's parents for a 2nd time on Sunday for a Mother's Day lunch. I don't know how well that will go though seeing as how we're meeting them at a time which is normally smack dab in the middle of the night for me! We'll see.

Testosterock!

One of the great things about living in Vegas is that, sooner or later, every single band with a North American tour will eventually make its way out here to Sin City! Such is the case with Rush's 2007/2008 Snakes and Arrows tour. This Saturday night....Mandalay Bay Events Center.....Section 207 row K.....Danielle and I will be there!!!

Mikey has mentioned in the past that the downside of seeing concerts in Vegas is that they're always way overpriced compared to other parts of the country. That may be the case, but I have extremely high expectations of this show and thus, have invested the equivalent to an entire night's worth of tips for the ticket. In 2002, I saw The Who live in Columbus, Ohio (with Robert Plant leading in) and was completely blown away! A couple years later I saw Yes live in the Palace of Auburn Hills and was also amazed beyond belief. Last year at the MGM Garden Arena I saw Roger Waters live as he and his band played, among other things, the ENTIRE Dark Side of the Moon album from beginning to end! I was awestruck!!! Before each of these three performances I had a nagging worry in the back of my head that because all of these guys are getting up there in age, they might not put on the best of live performances anymore. That thought simply hasn't entered my mind with this Saturday's Rush show. I think I'm done with underestimating the show these "old-timers" can put on and thus, have very high expectations. I don't think my night of tips will go to waste.

Now I must add a disclaimer and say that I don't even own one Rush album. I definitely wouldn't call myself a big fan of the band, but like that Yes show did for me, I'll probably be a way bigger fan come Sunday morning. Before I laid down the cash and bought the ticket, I scoured the internet for reviews of the current tour and haven't found one damn bad or mediocre review yet! During my research, I came across the new vocabulary word that I made the title of this blog post. Pretty cool, eh?

So if anyone out there reading this has been to live Rush concerts in the past, or has actually been to one of the Snakes and Arrows shows, let me know what I can expect. I really hope its a blast!

Fett's Vette

Nerd Rap! If you have 6 minutes to kill, try out this youtube video. It helps if you're a big Star Wars geek! It's got a real catchy tune though. It's also edited like crazy (which explains the appearance of the Bonanza theme song), so it's almost suitable for the office. I have a feeling Javier will like this video.



And if you happen to like that remix version, here is the original by MC Chris. It's NOT edited so it's definitely NOT suitable for the office.



If you like it, try out some other stuff by MC Chris at his web site.

Let It Die!

"Oh Boy!!! Rob's gonna talk about my favorite game, Let it Ride!!!"

Okay, I am now on a mission to convince as many people as humanly possible to completely avoid the Let It Ride table game at their favorite casino. To summarize my stance on Let It Ride, do NOT PLAY IT! Let It Ride is probably the worst game in the casino to play, with the highest house edge of just about any table game. Play blackjack, play craps, play roulette, video poker or pai gow. Just don't, under any circumstances, play Let It Ride! All dealers HATE dealing it! It's an extremely slow game, which doesn't generate many tips. It has such a high house edge that its almost impossible to win, which means people won't tip. People who play it are the lowest of the morons who enter the casino and, I guess, are the people who can't figure the finer points of "hit" and "stay" in blackjack. So a slow game + high house edge + douchebag players = NO TIPS! If 7 people are playing at my table, 6 are losing their asses and the 7th probably hit something big at some point, but will probably lose it all back sooner or later anyway.

The one thing that I just can't figure out is why this horrible game is so damn popular!!!! During my shift last night, I was on the 3-card poker/let it ride/$10 blackjack string. I stood dead for most of my time on the 3-card table, I dealt to mainly ONE guy at the blackjack table, but the Let It Ride table was completely full of nitwits just slowly, and very annoyingly, grinding their money into oblivion.

"Hmmmmm, is that a Let it Ride table over there?"

Before anyone tries to point out that the dealers aren't making many tips on this game because of their negative attitude, just stop and think how much you are willing to tip when you are losing your ass. Dealers know that losing players don't tip very often, and since nothing but losers play this game, the tips magically do not come in!

Before going any further, please think about the most popular side bet on the table which involves putting a dollar chip on the lighted area above the bets. At my casino, I hit a button that lights up the circles that have bets on them (and ALL of them ALWAYS have bets on them), and then I TAKE THE DOLLAR CHIPS AND LOCK THEM UP! What other game in the entire casino LOCKS UP YOUR MONEY BEFORE ANY DAMN CARDS ARE DEALT! The casino is basically saying, "hey dumbass, you just put a buck on a bet with a 23% house edge! We might as well take it right away, because you can pretty much kiss it goodbye anyway!"

If I had to pick the one main annoyance to this game, its the lack of "good hands" that can be dealt to the player to start the game. To win ANY money at all, you need at least a pair of tens at the end of the hand. But of course, every player expects at least a pair of tens on the initial deal (at least every other hand or so), and will begin to complain CONSTANTLY if a few hands go by without getting a monster dealt to them. "Come on Rob, you need to get me some good cards!" "Rob, you're not being very nice to me." "Geez Rob, you don't want me to be here very long do you!" "Son of a bitch these cards suck!"

Quick math! There are 22,100 possible variations of the three cards dealt to you. 20,492 of those variations do NOT include a high pair or three cards to a royal flush. Now knowing this, would you be surprised to be consistently getting s**t cards over and over again?

"Oh man! I just lost all my money at the Let it Ride table again. But that old, unshaven smelly guy next to me said he won 10 grand last year playing Let it Ride. So it must be true, and it'll happen to me too if I play long enough!"

-The Let It Ride tables are ALWAYS full!
-The dollar side bet that "lights up" has a 23% house edge on it.
-A craps table could be sitting dead for half the night, the Let It Ride table will loaded up with simpletons (yes, I've hit the thesaurus at this point).
-Blackjack has an almost even house edge if played correctly.
-Let It Ride has a 3.5% overall house edge if played perfectly by its basic strategy (guess how many typical Let it Ride players play perfect basic strategy).

If you doubt any of this, please feel free to visit the following web sites and do some research of your own:

Wizard of Odds Let it Ride

Wizard of Odds Let it Ride appendix

Quotables

When I first started this blog, its sole purpose was to just keep my friends up-to-date on the happenings with me out here in Vegas. I figured I'd get about 10 regular readers per day, being all of my friends back home and that's it. So to completely pick out those chosen few back in Ohio, I offer these quotes that only they will understand! Enjoy the flashback friends, and please add the ones that I've forgotten.

Random Party Guy: Hey! What ja drinkin’??

Random Party Girl: Uh, Matt. You better go help your friend!
Matt: Which one!?!?

Corey: I’m like Massachusetts, I refuse to puke!

Random Party Guy: Uh, it would probably be a good idea to NOT eat anything that’s cooked in this apartment!

Mike: The grill tipped over and the deck was like, sssspriccczzzzzeeeeeeaaaa! Holy God!

Sean: Hey Corey, don’t take a full swing!
Corey: What?
WaBamm!!!!
Mike: Holy God!

John: Might as well bring out Gus the Kicking Mule!

Rob: Michele’s chip dip is like crack! The first taste is free.

Matt: Uh Rob, I know she’s hot, but I’ve seen dinner buffets that are smarter than that chick! And I’m not talking about those fancy buffets that have soup!

Rob: Uh John, I don’t seem to be wearing any pants.

Random Redneck at 2am in the middle of West Virginia at a highway rest area: I pissed on Dale Earnhardt’s Car!!

John: Hello, Gumby’s Pizza? May I speak to Pokey please?

RA: Tony, could you please come get your roommate? He’s sleeping on the lobby’s heater!

Brutus: Denied!!!

Gil: Wow, she’s hotter than sliced bread!

Mike while falling down the ice covered stairs: Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! I’m okay, don’t worry about m.., Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

Mike: She just stood there with boobs akimbo!

Random Illinois Fan: Hey Spielman! Come shotgun a beer with us!!

Michelle: O-H!!
Guys on Porch: Show us your tits!!

Matt: Always remember. Whenever you’re at White Castle….don’t….eat 20.…of anything!

An Actual Weekend!

I'm in the middle of my first actual weekend in a LONG time. I was scheduled Monday through Thursday last week with an "on-call" Friday. Since I was never called, I have now had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off before going back to work Monday night!

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I had hoped they'd call me in on Friday night since I could use the extra money these days. The tokes at my current place averaged well over $100/day in March, but by the time I started, they had plummeted back to around $80 during the week, which is all I've worked so far. Always looking for the silver lining though, its WAY better dealing at my current place than the s**thole on Boulder Highway for the exact same pay!

I've spent most of the weekend with Danielle, since she has a somewhat normal schedule during the week and its basically the first time we've spent a weekend together. Friday night was pretty uneventful due to the fact that I couldn't really "go out" with her until later in the evening after the chance of being called into work passed by. We just had dinner at her place and played some board games. Saturday night was a little more fun. I had some major cravings for some chicken wings for some odd reason, so I dragged her to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner (12 boneless, 1/2 garlic parmesian and 1/2 Asian zing) and some beer.

Afterwards, Danielle had the great idea of heading over to Green Valley Ranch and putting some money though the machines. Uh, not the machines you're thinking of........these machines!!!

Sure, you can claim that its a lame way to spend a Saturday night, but that Galaga machine (yes, there was an actual original Galaga game) was WAY more fun than any slot machine, and much cheaper on the wallet as well! Danielle was crowned the Galaga queen while I bested her in a heated skee-ball tournament! In all, we walked out of GVR having spent $6. Not a bad price for an hour of entertainment!

After reliving some childhood memories, it was back to the apartment to watch Lost (which I had DVR'd) and another board game which she had resurrected out of her parents closet. It looked to be pretty old and its a Parker Brothers game that I had never heard of before called Option. Anyone out there familiar with it?? The instructions had long been lost, but it was basically like Scrabble, but the game pieces had two letters on each, both with a different color. It was interesting, but I think I still prefer the old standby, Scrabble. And in case you're wondering, I can lay claim to being the current Option champion, even after allowing Danielle to play the word "soden", which according to dictionary.com, is only a word in Slovenia!!! :-)



Sunday doesn't really hold any big plans. I was so damn tired after the work-week last week and Danielle had to remind me that I had basically gone from the funeral weekend, to flying back Monday and working THAT NIGHT through Thursday with very little sleep overall. So Sunday will probably see just some lounging around once again, hopefully catching some Stanley Cup playoffs if any are on. Go Wings! Go Penguins!

The Dolly Parton Shift

For the past couple of days, I've been back in the old 9-5 swing of things at work. The problem is that it's the wrong 9-5! It seems the majority of the shifts I've been getting at the new Strip place have me punching in at 9pm and driving home after the sun makes an appearance over the mountains. That is going to take a lot of getting used to.

The trouble is that I'm so tired once I get home that I just go right to bed. However, for some damn reason, my body has decided that I shouldn't get more than 6 hours of sleep when I do this (usually more like 5), so that once it comes time to actually get ready for work later in the night, I better have gotten a nap in or I'm in big trouble!

Honestly, I'm not even sure why they schedule 9-5'ers. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like this place ever sends people home against their will. Unfortunately, that usually means that come 3-4am when most of the graveyard dealers arrive, they have way too many dealers for a casino that slowly becomes "dead". Last night was a great example in why they should probably eliminate the 9-5 swing shifters. I went on break at 3:20am and came back at 3:40am. My dice table had long been closed up, so basically I just arrive at the podium and wait for them to assign me a table. Since we had too many dealers at that point, back on break I went!! So I chilled in the break room for another 20 minutes and came back at 4am. Initially, they told me to "muck" on the roulette table, but it was a jammed up table for some reason and since I don't deal roulette and know zero of the payoffs, I wasn't much help as a "mucker". So after about a minute, I get tapped out and told to GO BACK ON BREAK! Yep, that would have essentially made an entire hour-long break. So instead of heading back to the break room, I just found the other (less busy) roulette table and mucked over there for 20 minutes. After that 20 minute stint of barely working while chatting with the other dealer, they sent me to a single-deck blackjack table for all of 20 minutes, gave me the early push at 4:40am, and home I went. So in case you weren't keeping track, I "worked" for exactly 40 minutes of my last 2 hours of my shift, not including the 20 minute vacation I took as a mucker on the semi-dead roulette table.

I don't want to complain about the 9-5 shift too much though. It's actually kind of nice going dead around 2-3am and not having much to do. I guess I could put myself on the Early Out (EO) list and get voluntarily sent home a couple of hours early, but what's the point? If any of you read Mikey's blog, you know that as soon as his casino grows dead at night, he usually gets his EO request and comes home, in some cases, 3 hours or more early. I never understood why he does this when I first started but figured I would just get to be the same way after dealing for a while. Well, its been well over a year since I started dealing, and I still don't feel the need to take EO at night. I guess its just something we're polar opposites on.

Don't get me wrong, the EO list isn't barren on a nightly basis as many fellow swing shifters sign up for it at at my place. However, the huge majority of those on the EO list are people who either have family obligations, people who have a 2nd part-time job, or both. The way I see it, why would I work my ass off at a jammed up dice table for the first 5 hours of my shift (which happened last night) just to get sent home as soon as things become slow and I can relax a little. I get paid the same either way. Even on days when the tips aren't all that great (let's take $80 for example), if you add the tips to the minimum wage base pay, that's still around $17 an hour I'm making during every hour of my shift, busy or not. I think if you offered almost anyone $17 an hour to take breaks every 20 minutes and just stand around people-watching or watching the bar TVs, they'd take it! Besides, what am I going to do after getting home early at 2am? Nothing that would warrant giving up $50 in pay for, I'm sure.

Another thing I've tried to take advantage of at my new place is the kick-ass employee dining room (EDR). Unlike my previous 2 jobs in Henderson and on Boulder Highway, the EDR at my current place actually has some very tasty offerings. If I get in there during lunch/dinner time, it has a meat carving station, which is replaced by a made-to-order omelette station in the morning. The trouble is that it is a country mile from my table games area because it is shared with the casino next door. So I usually get to work early, stuff my face, work my 8 hour shift and then re-commence with the aforementioned face-stuffing after work. In doing this, I almost never touch ANYTHING in my fridge/cupboards during work-days, which obviously cuts my grocery budget down dramatically!

Okay, enough rambling. I work the 9-5 again tonight, starting on dice, and then I'm on-call for Friday night. I do hope they call me in because the weekend shifts are usually much better for tokes than weekdays. I just hope I can hone my nap-taking skills a little.