I have put in somewhere around 50 hours now (on campus, another 20 or so at home) into my BlackJack Dealers school and believe that I now have the confidence needed to take the written test and live game audition on Tuesday. I was asked on Thursday if I would be interested in working some weekend parties dealing BJ as well so if anything I have shown enough talent to get noticed by the party director. This will be great practice which will come in handy for my real audition for a paying job at one of the Casino’s should that be the direction I decide to pursue.
I plan on starting the poker dealing course on Wednesday which from what I understand will take twice as long as the BJ course did. In the area of California that I live in, the Casino’s (all Indian owned Casino’s) are just now beginning to expand into their poker rooms to include Texas Holdem. I have been told that getting a BJ dealing gig now will be the best way to position myself to move into the poker dealing jobs as they become available. I still plan on looking into a few of the card rooms located in my area as well, as this was my original strategy to begin with. The dealing gigs in these card rooms are so good that there is little turn over so one has to really score to get in on this action. The only draw back in working at these card rooms is the benefits are no where close to as good at the Casino’s offer.
Another draw back in working the Casino’s is the distance that they are from my home. Gas has just now reached $4.10 a gallon with a speculated peak of somewhere around $4.75 by summers end. Sixty miles one way will result in somewhere around $200 a week just in gas. That is totally wack.
Edited out some information that I have been warned could cause regular AP players to experience problems with getting their withdraws processed quickly. I in no way would ever want to be looked upon as being responsible for something like this so I have taken this commenter's recommendation and removed the content in question.
jd
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
My Lack of Blog Posts..
Hello to the few folks that do stop by to read my blog… And thanks again for stopping by. Just wanted to let everyone know why I haven’t been updating as much here lately. I started Dealers College last week and have been going every day to learn both Black Jack Dealing as well as Poker, including all three genres, Texas Holdem, Omaha, and 7-Stud. I initially started to go through the Poker course first as this is my primary goal to deal poker, specifically Texas Holdem, however ¾’s of the way through the first day I found out that taking the black jack school first was a much better idea. Not only will that get me hired faster then the poker school, it teaches you the basics of chip cutting, shuffling, and game protection much faster. So as a result I jumped stream the very first day. I found that the BJ Instructor is much more on the ball with instructing as compared to the Poker Instructor as well. She actually has a structured process that she takes you through, teaching small portions at a time moving up in difficulty.
This Monday we actually get to put the Ace’s into the deck and start learning how to pay out the insurance and bj hands, wooot wooot. Thus far all we have learnt and practiced is single color bets, barber poll bets (multi colored chips in one bet), shuffling, chip cutting, and payouts for those types of bets. Oh yea, and what hand to use in what position on the table. Left hand used in the first two positions, right or left optional in the third position, and right hand only in positions 4 through 7. It sounds so frickin easy until you try to train your brain to remember this crap. That is why practice is so important. I plan on being the best at what I do and this has required much more practice then the normal donk wants to put forth. Ultimately I would love to fall into a floor mans position which through a lot of extra effort on my part I figure I should be able to achieve this goal pretty easily.
As it stands right now a dealer at any of the casinos in this area typically make a little over 50K a years including tips. That’s to start so I figure a card room gig or a floor man’s position should easily take down 75K a year to start which will be fine when considering the benefits that goes with it. I have heard that the Texas Holdem and Omaha dealers at the card room where I would like to work are taking down close to 100K a year and get to keep their own tips. The larger casinos collect all tips and share them with all the dealers equally. Not sure if I like that policy or not. It just seems like the individual collecting and counting all the tips has one hell of an opportunity to skim off the top without anyone ever being able to prove a thing.
The Dealers College I am going to does weekend events every weekend as well and I have already gotten an in on that gig as the guy that runs the place use to work with my wife years ago. Two of the Poker instructors are also heading to Vegas this next week as they have gotten jobs dealing for the WSOP this year. Bob has been a dealer for the WSOP two years running now and told me that you make about 13K for the six weeks of work. There is also the possibility of getting on permanent with their traveling group if you’re good enough. They pay airfare and hotel and have events about every other six weeks.
All in all I think this is going to be a great way to spend my last ten years of working. I haven’t had a lot of luck finding a job doing what I have done for the last 20 years feeling that my age has had something to do with that. At age 52 with no college degree I am not as hirable as these young whipper snappers fresh out of college.
On another note I have taken all my cash off of AP this week. I am totally tired of their lack luster performance which continues to grow worse and worse. I am the type of person that feels that if you receive bad service from a company the best way to express your dissatisfaction with that company is to not buy their products or use their services any longer. This is where the form of advertising called Word of Mouth became such an important factor years ago because companies actually worked very hard to ensure that they received as little negative word of mouth advertising as possible. AP shows no signs of improvement imo, nor do they appear to be doing much about all of their fuck ups. They can’t even setup a tournament correctly these days. I stopped going to McDonalds years ago because it seemed like every single order I placed there was given to me incorrectly. You can only Say God Damn McDonalds so many times before you discover that in order to reduce the number of times one uses God’s name in vane is to stop eating at McDonalds. I can’t wait to see how long it takes to get my check from AP in the mail. I am sure that I have not uttered the phrase God Damn AP for the last time.
Well enough on that subject. I figure I will be pretty much done with the Black Jack portion by the end of this next week. I just missed a group audition date last week at one of the bigger casinos in our area. Our instructor showed us a prime example of what most people do after completing their course. Many of the graduates showed up the day before their audition to practice, expecting the instructor to be at their beckoned call to help them get ready for their interview. She clearly illustrated the reason to return to the school and practice continuously until you find your job as she had no time for these idiots who completed their training months ago and never once returned to practice until the day before their audition.
Individuals who have played the game for years still have problems when it comes to protecting the game and mentally calculating 2 to 1 odds to pay a bj, never mind even thinking about how to figure insurance amounts when the dealer has an ace. BJ dealers are responsible to nine separate individuals when dealing to a full table, the seven players, the floor boss, and the eye in the sky and as such must perform all requirements in such a way that each and everyone one of those individuals has no problem at all observing every single movement made at the table. In a sense you have a total of 18 plus eyes on every move you make at all times. Thus far this has been one hell of a lot of pressure to deal with let alone remembering the exact method of which to do 100% of every action you will be confronted with while dealing at a table. There are no less then 1000 moves required of which all must be memorized and practiced until you can do them all without thinking. Much tougher then I would have ever thought this was going to be.
At any rate, enough rambling. I will try to get back to post an update when ever possible. Thanks again for stopping by. I have about $4 left on AP which I will try to roll into a forum tourney buyin but if not good luck to all you forum brothers and sisters. I will continue to stop by the forum from time to time to see what kind of trouble I can cause.
Until then…. jd
This Monday we actually get to put the Ace’s into the deck and start learning how to pay out the insurance and bj hands, wooot wooot. Thus far all we have learnt and practiced is single color bets, barber poll bets (multi colored chips in one bet), shuffling, chip cutting, and payouts for those types of bets. Oh yea, and what hand to use in what position on the table. Left hand used in the first two positions, right or left optional in the third position, and right hand only in positions 4 through 7. It sounds so frickin easy until you try to train your brain to remember this crap. That is why practice is so important. I plan on being the best at what I do and this has required much more practice then the normal donk wants to put forth. Ultimately I would love to fall into a floor mans position which through a lot of extra effort on my part I figure I should be able to achieve this goal pretty easily.
As it stands right now a dealer at any of the casinos in this area typically make a little over 50K a years including tips. That’s to start so I figure a card room gig or a floor man’s position should easily take down 75K a year to start which will be fine when considering the benefits that goes with it. I have heard that the Texas Holdem and Omaha dealers at the card room where I would like to work are taking down close to 100K a year and get to keep their own tips. The larger casinos collect all tips and share them with all the dealers equally. Not sure if I like that policy or not. It just seems like the individual collecting and counting all the tips has one hell of an opportunity to skim off the top without anyone ever being able to prove a thing.
The Dealers College I am going to does weekend events every weekend as well and I have already gotten an in on that gig as the guy that runs the place use to work with my wife years ago. Two of the Poker instructors are also heading to Vegas this next week as they have gotten jobs dealing for the WSOP this year. Bob has been a dealer for the WSOP two years running now and told me that you make about 13K for the six weeks of work. There is also the possibility of getting on permanent with their traveling group if you’re good enough. They pay airfare and hotel and have events about every other six weeks.
All in all I think this is going to be a great way to spend my last ten years of working. I haven’t had a lot of luck finding a job doing what I have done for the last 20 years feeling that my age has had something to do with that. At age 52 with no college degree I am not as hirable as these young whipper snappers fresh out of college.
On another note I have taken all my cash off of AP this week. I am totally tired of their lack luster performance which continues to grow worse and worse. I am the type of person that feels that if you receive bad service from a company the best way to express your dissatisfaction with that company is to not buy their products or use their services any longer. This is where the form of advertising called Word of Mouth became such an important factor years ago because companies actually worked very hard to ensure that they received as little negative word of mouth advertising as possible. AP shows no signs of improvement imo, nor do they appear to be doing much about all of their fuck ups. They can’t even setup a tournament correctly these days. I stopped going to McDonalds years ago because it seemed like every single order I placed there was given to me incorrectly. You can only Say God Damn McDonalds so many times before you discover that in order to reduce the number of times one uses God’s name in vane is to stop eating at McDonalds. I can’t wait to see how long it takes to get my check from AP in the mail. I am sure that I have not uttered the phrase God Damn AP for the last time.
Well enough on that subject. I figure I will be pretty much done with the Black Jack portion by the end of this next week. I just missed a group audition date last week at one of the bigger casinos in our area. Our instructor showed us a prime example of what most people do after completing their course. Many of the graduates showed up the day before their audition to practice, expecting the instructor to be at their beckoned call to help them get ready for their interview. She clearly illustrated the reason to return to the school and practice continuously until you find your job as she had no time for these idiots who completed their training months ago and never once returned to practice until the day before their audition.
Individuals who have played the game for years still have problems when it comes to protecting the game and mentally calculating 2 to 1 odds to pay a bj, never mind even thinking about how to figure insurance amounts when the dealer has an ace. BJ dealers are responsible to nine separate individuals when dealing to a full table, the seven players, the floor boss, and the eye in the sky and as such must perform all requirements in such a way that each and everyone one of those individuals has no problem at all observing every single movement made at the table. In a sense you have a total of 18 plus eyes on every move you make at all times. Thus far this has been one hell of a lot of pressure to deal with let alone remembering the exact method of which to do 100% of every action you will be confronted with while dealing at a table. There are no less then 1000 moves required of which all must be memorized and practiced until you can do them all without thinking. Much tougher then I would have ever thought this was going to be.
At any rate, enough rambling. I will try to get back to post an update when ever possible. Thanks again for stopping by. I have about $4 left on AP which I will try to roll into a forum tourney buyin but if not good luck to all you forum brothers and sisters. I will continue to stop by the forum from time to time to see what kind of trouble I can cause.
Until then…. jd
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Hopefully three’s a Charm
I truly impressed myself last Thursday by winning the AP Forum tournament yet again. This was my second win in three weeks which in my opinion screams that I am getting much better at this game. The forum tourney is filled with many great players from the forum as well as some unknowns new to both the forum and tourney itself. The match is played using the Turbo Blind Structure, second only to the Ultra Turbo, with blinds increasing every five minutes. The $10+$1 buyin forum tourney field remains quite small with only the top three positions getting paid, however, when you consider the top prize of this weeks tourney was $95 added to the $150+$12 seat to the weekly AP 75K guaranteed tourney awarded to the winner, the risk reward factor is huge.
I was very fortunate to have not been seated at the same table as my mentor and best buddy dealace1 as he has taught me just about everything I know and can easily exploit my weaknesses without hardly any effort at all. It was only fitting that I give myself a better chance at the match by placing a bounty on his head early on in the match only to have him place a bigger bounty on my head. Although all in fun, the prospect of having everyone gunning for you does indeed reduce your chances tremendously. I finished the match heads up with Vikesfan whom I have never played heads up before but was able to get the cards needed to slowly shred his stack down to nothing.
After my first forum win I was able to cash in the 75k tourney taking 37th for a payday of $265. This week’s tourney I felt that I played much better and shoved my AJ with a small M for the purpose of stealing the blinds but ran into two additional shove playing an AK and JJ. There were three hearts flopped and I had the nut heart but never found the fourth heart on the turn or river. Had I hit that hand I would have easily placed not only in the money but probably been able to score my biggest cash ever. This is the element of the game that I believe luck plays such a big roll because I got my money in correctly and luck could have gone either way for me there. I went out in 87th place just thirty three places out of the cash but felt like I could not have played any better then I did. With my cash in my first attempt at this tourney I went into this last weeks tourney with not only a well selected strategy, but for the first time ever the confidence that I have the skills to play at this level with a very good percentage of not only cashing but going very deep as well. The 75K tourney draws a very large number of online pro’s so to cash in this match is not just a fluke or luck by any means.
I am now looking to my next opportunity to play in this tourney which hopefully three’s a charm….
I was very fortunate to have not been seated at the same table as my mentor and best buddy dealace1 as he has taught me just about everything I know and can easily exploit my weaknesses without hardly any effort at all. It was only fitting that I give myself a better chance at the match by placing a bounty on his head early on in the match only to have him place a bigger bounty on my head. Although all in fun, the prospect of having everyone gunning for you does indeed reduce your chances tremendously. I finished the match heads up with Vikesfan whom I have never played heads up before but was able to get the cards needed to slowly shred his stack down to nothing.
After my first forum win I was able to cash in the 75k tourney taking 37th for a payday of $265. This week’s tourney I felt that I played much better and shoved my AJ with a small M for the purpose of stealing the blinds but ran into two additional shove playing an AK and JJ. There were three hearts flopped and I had the nut heart but never found the fourth heart on the turn or river. Had I hit that hand I would have easily placed not only in the money but probably been able to score my biggest cash ever. This is the element of the game that I believe luck plays such a big roll because I got my money in correctly and luck could have gone either way for me there. I went out in 87th place just thirty three places out of the cash but felt like I could not have played any better then I did. With my cash in my first attempt at this tourney I went into this last weeks tourney with not only a well selected strategy, but for the first time ever the confidence that I have the skills to play at this level with a very good percentage of not only cashing but going very deep as well. The 75K tourney draws a very large number of online pro’s so to cash in this match is not just a fluke or luck by any means.
I am now looking to my next opportunity to play in this tourney which hopefully three’s a charm….
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