My Twenty-Third Job

Well, it comes to this, does it? I'm up to date with my jobs and I don't have a new job, yet. Of course, I can only blame myself. I got discouraged and gave up looking when no offers for even an interview came in.

This journal was started when I was working at the Golden Nugget. It pretty much is about working at the Golden Nugget, which makes it odd, that this story isn't in it:

I had been at the Golden Nugget for about a week when the shift boss got another dealer for the game I was on. He said, "I like the way you deal. I'm going to try you in the high limit room....You don't care if someone swears at you, do you?" I said, "that I didn't mind at all." Actually, being the girly man that I am, I did care, but now I'm as calloused as a whore at a shriner's convention. (Is that already a saying. Damn, it's a good one. It's inappropriate. I've got to remember it.) He took me into the high limit room and put me on a game. There was no one playing at my game. It made me nervous to be in there. Someone was going to come in, bet large amounts of money and I'm going to make a mistake and be instantly fired. Little did I know, the worse thing that was going to happen was that I was going to be punched.

I noticed a "reserved" sign on my table. I asked the floor supervisor, who it was reserved for. He said, he didn't know. I went on break and people were talking about



"The Sopranos are coming in".

"I'm sorry, by Sopranos, you mean some of the people in the show."

"I don't know."

I get back from my break and it is still dead and still reserved. I was getting really nervous. It was my first time I was on a high limit game and it is going to be celebrities that I've seen once, but other people worship.

It turned out they were coming to my table and it was 5 of the male supporting cast. ("Tony" played the next day, but not on my game.) They were allowed to play anywhere from $5 to $15,000. Luckily, they were $25 players. As they were playing, a crowd formed around me. There were people crammed at the high limit half-gate, gawking at the actors. I think security was given the orders to let one snapshot be taken before the tourists were told they weren't allowed to take pictures. There must be hundreds of pictures of me, pale and nervous, in strangers photo albums.

Inside the pit, a crowd was forming as well. Besides some onlookers, there was two floor supervisors, a casino host, the shift manager, a pit manager, and one of the casino owners, Tim Poster (pictured on the right).



I felt like someone in a traumatic experience, like I was outside of my body, just observing. I did manage to make a wisecrack, which I don't remember. One of the cast said that I sounded like "fat" someone from Jersey. Seems like everyone has the surname "fat" when they are from Jersey. I was destroying them. This was the time when everyone would have liked to see someone win, but no, I was killing them. They couldn't win a single hand. The fat actor to my right dropped his bet down to $5 and made some comment. The actor that plays a heroine addict, said it wasn't my fault, it's just the cards. He turned out to be a really nice guy.

Tim Poster decided that I needed some help. Thank God! He came and took my spot for a couple of hands. He was a horrible dealer, but dealt the cards in a special way. He told all of them to bet big, stacks of green. They did. Tim then took one green chip off of each bet and put them in the dealer's tip position. He then dealt out the cards. He, as the dealer was showing a ten. He took that card and put it in the discard rack and now was showing five. He told them to hit. One of them had a thirteen and took a hit as instructed. It was a ten, so Tim moved it to the next player that could use a ten. I think, you get the picture. He did this for a couple of hands and had me take over the game.

I came back the same way that I left. I was destroying them. After a particularly nasty hand, my hand was flat on the table and one of the fat actors took is fist and rammed it down on my hand. OK, so it really wasn't being punched and it only hurt a little. I also felt it was a little bit in jest. I learned later from one of the security guards that maybe it wasn't in jest. They were talking about me for a day after dealing to them.

A month later, an officer from Nevada Gaming, came in to interview me regarding that night. It turned out that manipulating the cards into wins is a gaming violation. The interview basically consisted of how I felt about it. I said that I felt alright. Apparently, the right thing to say was that it was wrong and I felt something was going on. I figured that it was Tim Poster's money and he should be able to basically give it to the Sopranos if he wanted to. The result of this interview and other interview's with other dealers was a $150,000 fine and a letter of apology to the dealers admitting that it was wrong.

I've since dealt to sports celebrities without knowing it. Other people spotted, but not dealt to are: Alyssa Milano, Cheech Marin, Patrick Swayze, Justin Timberlake, and others I can't remember right now.