I went over to the big casino today dressed in my black and whites – standard attire for out of work dealers hoping for an audition. Dennis was at the desk. I reminded him that I had dealt in one of the tournaments he supervised there. He remembered me.
I told him that I was looking for a job. He told me that there weren't any openings. Then I said, "Well, as long as I'm here, I might as well try my luck at the table." I pushed eighty dollars across the desk and he counted out the chips.
"Where would you like to sit?" he asked. Before I could reply, he said, "I'd recommend seat number ten."
That puzzled me, but what the hell. "Sure, ten will be fine."
He introduced me to the table saying that I was a dealer and had dealt at the firefighter's tournament there last month. After a minute or two, the guy to my right struck up a conversation and seemed to take an interest in me. I replied politely to the questions and eventually took my eyes off the board long enough to notice his badge identifying him as Mitch, the Poker Room Manager.
Mitch and I sat and played for a couple of hours, and then something happened that I thought I would never see if I lived three lifetimes. Right in the middle of a hand, the dealer's cell phone rang. She told the players to wait a minute and answered it.
"Jesus, Martha, put it down and deal," Mitch said. Martha complied. Then Mitch turned to me and said, "Tap her out, Chris."
"You want me to deal, Mitch?"
"Sure, let her take her call."
Of course, I made a lot of rookie mistakes, but nothing of a "code three emergency" screw up. Mitch spoke quietly, walking me through the process as I pushed the pot, moved the button and dropped the rake.
He let me stay in the dealer's chair for twenty minutes or so – enough time to get about five bucks in tokes, and he let me keep them. When I returned to my seat, Mitch got a phone call. As he left the table he said, "Come see me before you leave."
I played another three hands and quit while I was behind. I didn't play well today.
Mitch told me that it's not easy to remember all the little procedures when you're fresh out of school, but he felt that they would become second nature to me after a couple of weeks in the seat. He said that he was impressed with my presence at the table when the players tried to take control of the game, and that's what he's looking for in a dealer.
The call he received was from the State Gaming Commission. If they approve his proposal for a daily tournament, he said that he would get me a few hours of work every week. It will be good experience and look good on a resume. Mitch said he'd call me in a week, one way or the other.
I slipped Dennis a couple of bucks when I cashed out saying, "I've been toking the dealers all day, and you're the only one who did me a favor."
