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At TwoRags.com, we're committed to providing accurate information to the
poker community. If you see entries or information that you believe to be in
error, please email us.
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A Work in Progress: The Diary of a Micro-Limit NL Player/Poker Dealer
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| From the Dealer's Box: My First Job and Holidays |
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Catch-Up!
First off, I want to apologize for not keeping you guys up to date during basically the most important time of my poker dealing career. During the tournament I was so tired I just went to sleep when I got home. During the Holidays I went home to my parent’s house and forgot my wireless adapter and I didn't have the internet for over a week I almost died lol. I finally can browse the interwebs so here it goes...
I left everyone off with me being 100% sure I was failing my Borgata drug test and I got the "on-call" dealing position at the Showboat. Things ended up turning out very differently than I had expected. About a day or two after I finished dealing the WSOP at Harrah's (I will get to that in a bit) I got a call from the Borgata asking when I wanted to go in for orientation and what hours I can work. Really?! Shhhhhweeeeetttt! Then I went in to get processed for the Showboat which essentially is filling out a bunch of bullshit paper work, taking a pick for your I.D. and a drug test, it takes like 10 minutes. I go in and the lady sits me down and tells me she doesn't have my paperwork so I can't get processed. WTF! I call the Showboat and after a few minutes we realize that I was just taken out of dealer's school and went to this audition I never applied for it. I applied online right away and that takes a few days (which goes into the holiday) and I expect a call from them to go in and get processed within a day or so.
WSOP Circuit at Harrah's
All I knew going into this job was to be there at 11:30 and where I was suppose to go, that is it. When I got there it was madness. The first event was a $300+40 with over 900 players including alternates. There were people everywhere, dealers didn't know what to do and we didn't get pushed for over an hour (normally dealers should move tables every 30 minutes). That was essentially the theme of the day: madness.
I didn't make any mistakes besides flipping over a few cards during the pitch, but I saw and heard the floor being called all over the place. It seemed often times it was because dealers were burning and turning before the action was complete. This is probably one of the bigger mistakes that a dealer can make because you change the cards up a bit. This could really piss the players off.
Oops!
A few days in everything was going really smoothly and I was loving my job then I did the worst thing a dealer can do. A player moved in UTG. His cards were in front of his chips and he pushed his chips in which pushed his cards in really far. Everyone folded super fast so I had like 8 cards to scoop up behind him and I accidentally mucked his cards as well. He goes, "Where the fuck are my cards?" I didn’t even realize I grabbed his cards. Essentially, since nobody called his bet yet all he had to do was call the BB and his hand is dead...he got the rest back. I know he has to protect his hand, but I have to pay attention.
Good Tables vs. Bad Tables
I know I don't have much experience dealing yet but I have a good idea of how this job is going to be. There are some tables that all the people are fun and you can converse and just have a good time and your 30 minutes fly by and I can't think of a better thing I could be doing. Then there are the bad tables. Nobody talks, they criticize everything I did and made me feel like a piece of crap. This is when I can't think of any job that is worse that I could be doing. That comes with working with the public though, oh well. I just don't know the exact procedures I need to do for every situation and people didn't like it, fuck them..lol!
The best table I had was with these two kids who clearly played a lot on Stars. One of you guys finished 3rd in the 2nd 1k event so holla at me if you read this. They were just joking around and they were cool with me talking at the table and stuff it was a good time. I had a number of tables like this, but a lot of the fun people were much older than me I felt like I related to these kids a bit more.
All in all this was an awesome experience and hopefully a lucrative one. I go for my first paycheck today. First thing I am buying is a TV that is actually bigger than my computer monitor lol!
Holidays
I hope everyone had a great holiday. I have to say this was probably the best Christmas I have had in years. Minus the fact that my Grandmother passed away and was not there my entire family was. It was the first time we all got together in a long time and it was just fun. The coolest thing I got for Christmas was an Xbox 360, but just a few days before my little brothers 360 fried out and I left it at home so he can use it until Microsoft replaces his. Basically he is one of the best Guitar Hero players in the world so he has to keep up with his scores and stuff and he just sent out his PS2 to get modded so he can play custom Guitar Hero songs on that (if you guys understand all that).
Professionalism
In my last blog I talked about how much better the Borgata is than all the other casinos in Atlantic City. This will be more of the same. We are about 3 weeks outside the Winter Poker Open and they had all the dealers come for orientation. I learned everything I need to know today...not when I got to the tourney, not three days in, I learned everything in advance. This tournament will be better run than the WSOP at Harrah's I guarantee! There will still be brand new "break in" dealers but the tournaments will be ran better overall. So be patient with new dealers and help them out be making them feel comfortable because most of the mistakes they will be making is because of nerves.
New Year's Resolutions
Here are mine:
Shorter showers
Less procrastination (thus finding more time to play poker)
Make lots of monies
Get benefits at work
As for poker:
Be playing 200NL by this time next year
Be playing somewhere around 6-8 tables as a norm
Supplement my income playing poker
Continue sticking with good BR management
And just as a joke because these pics are my ID pics from Harrahs and the Borgata I will post them. They are so bad I look like I was on “To Catch a Predator” and EdmondDantes insisted I post them for the LOL factor. I will probably post a normal picture of myself in the future or just make it my avatar I don’t know.
I guess you could tell who I am by those pics, so if you are playing the Borgata events holla at me. Happy Holidays and have a great New Year!
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| From the Dealer's Box: Borgata Audition |
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Recap
I left you guys off in the last blog with a lot of uncertainty. This blog will probably be no different. I don’t know where I stand with the Showboat and I am working the WSOP Circuit at Harrah's come December 8th. All I know about that is that I have to show up at 11:30…that’s it. I ended up getting a call from The Borgata about dealing their WPT Winter Poker Open and I had an audition in a few days.
Above the Rest
As most people know that live and play poker in the area, Borgata is a top tier casino. They have easily the best poker room in A.C. possibly the east coast (I have never been to Foxwoods, but I heard it trumps [url=http://www.
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| From the Dealer's Box: Showboat Audition |
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Ambassador of the Quan
So just to recap the last blog, I went to a World Series of Poker Circuit audition at Harrah’s about a month ago and the hired me on the spot along with everyone else auditioning. They were basically giving jobs away. My next audition, this was not the case. The Showboat is probably one of the better known poker rooms in A.C. I don’t have any input on it as I have not played there yet. This audition actually came before the WSOP one, but I was approached for the circuit job first so I thought I would start with it instead of this one.
Pressure
In the last blog I talked about being nervous. This audition was the reason. I was working on my apartment (I do handy work around the house for my landlord for a little pocket change) when I got a call from my buddy that works in the office at the dealer’s school.
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| From the Dealer's Box Pt. 4a of 7: WSOP Audition |
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On to graduation
When I last updated, I left you guys off at week 3 of dealer's school. Week 4 was basically review of everything we learned so at this point, dealer school was just about over. I graduated the night The Sands was imploded, and it was a pretty eventful evening in Atlantic City.
Link to video of the Sands implosion
Now it was on me. I had to find myself open positions and get an audition after I fill out my application.
”You, there! Can you deal?
I originally moved down to A.C. right away because I wanted to finish dealer's school in time to apply for the WSOP Circuit event at Harrah's. Fortunately for me, a woman from the WSOP decided to stop by the dealer's school and see if they had any dealers to recommend.
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| From the Dealer's Box Pt. 3 of 7: Growing |
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Making some changes
If you haven’t read the first blog entry of this series you know that I came down to Atlantic City to build maturity as well as bankroll. I knew I would encounter some hard times, but I knew that staying tough and dedicated to getting better would get me through them. At this point, I have only been living on my own for a little more than 2 weeks, but it feels like months. I have no income, I am eating less, I am not working out, I have no friends here, my grandmother passed away suddenly, and like I explained in my last blog, dealing isn’t as easy as I thought. This is close to the lowest I have ever felt in my whole life.
I knew I could be a good dealer if I worked hard. Also, I didn’t see a logical solution to fix all my other problems unless I got myself a dealing job. I would have an income, I could afford to eat more, I could afford gym fees, and I would meet more people my age.
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| From the Dealer's Box Pt. 2 of 7: Getting Humbled |
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"Ah you hup me in crass?"
I am glad everyone enjoyed the first installment of this series. I guess I will start where I left off with the last post. I had just paid for school two days before the class started, and I was really excited to get started. I got to class on Monday about 15 to 20 minutes early. I think this is something people should really start getting used to, especially lazy poker players. With my experience in college athletics in two different sports, I learned and important lesson: if you are on time, you are late! For anything important, especially if you are going to a place that you don’t know how to get to, give yourself plenty of time to get there and don’t be late.
The first person who walked in was a short but really stocky (like muscular, really muscular) Asian woman. She didn’t speak the greatest English and she asked me if I was going to help her in the class. She didn’t even know what beats what.
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| From the Dealer's Box Part 1 of 7: Background |
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Over the last few months several people have asked me to get into more detail about dealer’s school, so EdmondDantes and I discussed creating a series of blog posts on the topic. With this entry, I will be starting Part 1 of what will be a 7-part series detailing my road to becoming a poker dealer. Naturally, I’ll start off with the events that lead up to my enrollment in dealer’s school.
It is the summer of 2004 and I am 19 years old. A group of my friends and I decided that it would be a great time to take a trip up to Casino Niagara to gamble since the legal gambling age is 19 in Canada. We settle in and I obviously made a bee-line for the poker tables. At the time, they ran a 1/2 no limit game with a 100 max buy in and a $5 per half hour time collection. Anyway, I see the dealers being tipped left and right and making really good money, and not only that, making it look so easy.
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| Running Bad/Playing Bad |
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My last two sessions have been short and painful. Two days ago I played only 91 hands and got crushed for a little less than a buy-in. Every hand I raised was re-raised pf, my c-bet was called/raised, or they bet the turn on me. None of these players were getting out of line and I really had jack to do anything with so I really just had to lay these hands down. I ended up losing a big pot at the end of the session and I felt the tilt monster so I just said I will come back tomorrow.
My session last night was even worse. I didn't play my first maybe 25 hands dealt to me because I had garbage and most of the pots were either raised PF or the players in the blinds had huge VPIP's and very low Fold to Blinds Steal. So I said I will just play this session nice and tight and just get some value bets in there. I didn't really listen to myself. I slowplayed a flopped bottom's full house that I don't think I should have, to me it was a clear raise on the flop.
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| Starting Fresh |
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Adjusting to moving and all that other crap that has been going on has been hard. I finally got back on my horse and played my first session last night and this morning I finally started my duties as AC Rep for TwoRags. I have been browsing and posting on the 2p2 forums and getting back into the game a little bit lately. I didn't want to jump right into my normal limit cold so I started slow with just railing a little bit here and there. A few days ago I played a couple $1 tourneys and the 10c Rebuy on FTP. No luck, but I was feeling more comfortable with my reads and such.
Last night I finally decided to jump into my usual 25NL game. I searched for a little while and found the juciest table I have ever seen in my life. There were a few TAGish players, but they were playing so bad cause there were 2 60/8/3ish players at the table playing like complete donks and everyone at the table were adjusting.
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| Tough Month |
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There is no other way to describe it. This has been the most emotionally and mentally tough month of my life. I am not big into posting about my personal life, but basically I had a very sudden death in my family. This member was some one that was very close to me and some of the things I had to go through these past days were the hardest I have ever had to go through in my life. I am doing ok, although these tough times really did test my emotional strength.
On a lighter note, because of my family issues I was not able to play a single hand of poker in the past month or so. I was just about to sit down and put in my first session and I got the call that flipped my world upside down for the last week. I do not think I will reach any of my goals and I think a lot of them have changed. I just have a few goals now, enjoy life and make some money!
I am still in dealers school, we start Omaha tonight.
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