Call 'em Like You See 'em

This weekend had a girl playing dice at the table who didn't play any more than the pass line but was full of energy and excited over every roll.

At the other end of the table was a guy ( white guy) in a bright lime green sweat suit feeling lucky wearing green, and playing in a Irish pub theme casino. The girl cheering for this shooter yelloing things like "Go Green Shooter" "C'mon Greeny" etc... Then when his roll was over the dice moved back to the other side of the table and there was a pretty black lady in a plain grey sweatshirt.

Our funny cheerleader lady started with "c'mon new shooter" then by the 2nd roll it was "Let's go grey sweatshirt shooter." Then I saw the shooter glance over at this cheering woman like she was nuts. And I think we all felt the same way. I said "Ok, we're just going to pick random characteristics and tag people with them as they become rollers" as I thought about announcing the shooters name, as I had picked up on it from her players card, but I went along with the silliness of our cheerleader to see what else she would come up with.

Dealing with Asain Dealers

I work with people of all walks of life. But I have been more confused and tickled by those from Asain countries.

Two of these are also fellow Dice Dealers...
Fisrt there is Tony, who is Vietnamese is one who tickles me with his accent. He calls for bets on "sickenate" aka Six & Eight, and he says it so fast, you're like "chicken head? Did he say something about a chicken hed?" LOL...

And Rain, a sweet soft spoken Chinese girl. I only just recently figured out what she was really saying, but everytime she calls 9 on the stick, I hear "Winner Winner Nine" but the point was 8, or something else. And I just went with the nine as a call, not a winner call. With the loud hussle n bussle of our place of employment, esp on weekends... You can hardly hear hear anyway. So finally I figured out what sounded like "Winner Winenr Nine" was actually "Na Na Nah Nine." Go figure!

What is Your Star Trek Personality?

OK, I admit I was bored when I found this...
What is Your Star Trek Personality?
http://scifi.about.com/library/weekly/aa080201.htm

My Star Trek Personality Test Results: ESFJ

This test says you are an ESFJ (Extrovert, Sensor, Feeler, Judger).* In Star Trek, you share a basic personality configuration with the characters of Leonard McCoy and Malcolm Reed.

"I'm just an old country doctor." - McCoy

Qualities
People like you are generally concerned about others and work hard to be of service. You're friendly, affectionate, outgoing, and talkative. You're polite when it's appropriate, willing to take risks to help others, and cooperative, especially when you perceive that you're part of a team. You enjoy action, but you're a realist and quite literal. You're also organized and responsible. You love things that are time-honored.

You're conscientious, almost to a fault at times. You're very sensitive to others and get your feelings hurt easily. You don't actually enjoy conflict with others -- in fact, you may hate it -- but you will do whatever you have to to be of service to others. You're active and energetic, but you look before you leap.

You're an excellent host.

Goals
Your primary goal in life is creating exceptional relationships and helping people in tangible, practical ways. Your reward is to be appreciated and relied upon, as well as to respected, particularly in regards to your ethics.

Work
You can thrive where others whither in supervisoral and administrative positions because, while you dislike dischord, you handle strong emotions from others and from yourself...unless guilt is involved. Then, watch out! Under extreme stress, you can tend towards conspiracy theories and paranoia. You will also guilt others into doing things for you. You do your best work when you are a valued member of the group.

Relationships
In both friends and lovers, you need to feel needed. To be misjudged by those you love is disasterous for you. You must have a mate who will praise and reward you, especially for kindnesses and considerations you do for them.

Jobs
Good careers for your type include personal fitness trainer, ship's doctor, exercise physiologist, travel agent, tactical officer, innkeeper, veterinarian, nurse, and employee assistance counselor.

Ohio... as a bet.

Swing shift has showed me some real funnies, thanks to late night drunks.

S has strongly suggested my posting this story as much as I have Procrastinated doing it.

Some guy with a system on the craps table bets the Horn High Yo every Come Out Roll, we will call him Syd. It pays off a few times for him. Then some drunk guy trying to learn from this guys system, starts the copycat game, we will call him Bud.

Image this:
Syd makes a pass line bet, so Bud does too.
Syd Tosses me a red and hollars "Horn High Yo."
Bud too tosse sme a red and yells "Ohio!"
I pause, grab the chip and question the bed "Ohio?"
Bud "Yea, same thing as this guy," as he points to Syd.
I state "Ohio, Horn High Yo, ok..." and place his bet on the Horn High Yo.
Every Come out roll for about an hour Syd bets the Horn High Yo and Bud follows with betting an Ohio.
When the 1st 20-minutes passed and I moved to 3rd base, opposite of the side they were on, It happens again and poor girl on stick had no clue.

Side note was I think I heard the Neil Young song OHIO on the muzak at some point durring the night.

Five Dice

Ok, in case you have never watched or played craps...

The game starts with 5 dice for a shooter to choose 2 from. The remaining 3 are returned to the dealer with the stick and the shooters throws his 2 dice to the other side of the table. That is how the game begins.

Last night, a 50-something man buys in big (big for us) with 400.00, on 2nd base side, I am on 3rd base watching my own side. He puts 100 on the line. The 5 dice are presented to him. Suddenly in front of me I see a splash of 5 dice, I'm in shock look up at Matt on stick and Matt states "That's a 1st!" then he corrals the dice and asks the shooter to pick only 2 next time. I'm thinking to say, but don't "Oh it's ok you just pick the 2 you like after they land..."

I had a good laugh at the shooters expense.

This one Trumps a previous story, that probably happened before I started to blog. Flashing back, I sent the dice to the shooter who properly picked 2 dice and sent them flying to the other side of the table and before I could even call the roll the player at the other end of the table grabs em up and throws them back. All I could say saw "Uhh, no roll..."

Mostly I hate dumb@$$es who don't know the etiquette of the game... those who shake and roll the dice with 2 hands, those who pick up the 2 dice then proceed to walk around with them, and then there is that one guy who threw then the wrong direction, which was only about a 2 foot length of a roll for him... and the naive little ladies to roll them into whats nearly a Yatzee DROP right infront of them, not a roll at all. The metaphoric wrong-answer buzzer goes off "try again!"

God help me get out of the Kiddie Pool soon! I think I might drown in the shallow waters...

Detroit Boyfriend

Friday Night, had a group of mid to late 20-somethings from Detroit. One was next to stick, and they were all on my side of the table. I had a good time with this crowd, esp the guy next to stick. We were flirting back and forth a lot and it was comical, more than anything. When it was his turn to shoot I talked him into it, and when he hit his 1st point I teased him and told him he should be hollaring and excited. So he hollared on cue from that comment in the most squeelish puberty sounding hollar. I laughed and said "Ok, who's got a hold of your B@LLs" and the laughter gained volume from both of us. Then he said "Guess it did sound a little pubescent." Further cause for hollaring and he said he wouldn't anymore because I made fun of him.

Later he was down to about $25 in red and on a $10 table he said "I'm going to go broke just to stay here and flirt with you."

I mentioned this was the best part of being a Dice Dealer, I had new boyfriends to flirt with every day.

Rip Me a New One, Then Put on Band-aid on It!

Last night I felt like my boxman was giving me hell. He had a few comments that peeved me off. They felt derogatory. I went on with dealing and when I had a break I found the manager on break too. I sat with him and let the boil simmer down then I brought up the situation. He said he was sure the boxman was just joking around. I replied that it sure didn't feel that way... and it was unfair because I'm adjusting to a new sleep schedule, I'm somewhat out of practice, and spent 6 months picking up bad habits (which need broke, this I know).

An hour or so later on on base next to the boxman. He stands up next to me, leans close enough to speak softly so that no one else can hear. He says to me "Everyone is going to give you a hard time for a while, you need some time to get up to speed with us. Don't let it upset you. We say stuff, that sounds hard on you, but it is because we see potential in you, there are some we just don't say anything to, because we've given up on them. Just do you best. Work on your prop box, speed will come with time."

I just get so frustrated that being on Graveyard put a damper on my game. I picked up bad habits and its almost embarrassing. It was for me last night anyway. But I will get over it.

One dealer said to me on the table late last night "you should know, you've been dealing as long as I have." I said "No I took a 6 month job dealing 21! With maybe 2 days a week on dice if I was lucky" Maybe these guys understand now.

Hot & Unrested

I tried as hard as I could to stay up last night, to adjust to my new schedule. It was rough and so I took a nap. Shortly after 2am S called me when he got off work and we went for a bite to eat. After that we came right home and watched tv in bed a while and I conked out. I slept as long as I could, it was sweltery hot and the dogs were waking up and waking me up. So I got up, that was around 11am. When S got up he told me I didn't get enough sleep.

I have to start my shift at 9pm tonight. I think I can make it. Here's hoping.

I called the property mgt group again and complained about the A/C still being out and still not hearing from the repairman. Soon after this phone call I got a call from the repairman who said he would be over today within a couple hours. It has been about 2 hours now...and waiting...

I hate that I am going to start a new shift, a new routine, feeling hot and unrested.

One-Hour Tour of Duty & Sudden Notice for Change

Started the day with Notice I was on Toke Collection, I started getting this done and Jason who is sitting box stated he needs a dice dealer, as the dice crew is still on and the tables full. I am not sure the deal, but I was told to tap out Matt on the dice table and he would do tokes. So I got on and did my thing. 40 minutes goes by and they players start coloring up and leaving. By 4:45am they are all gone and the swing shift dice crew goes home, I close the table with Jason and go on break. Thats my wednesday dice time, and it sure was interesting...

In the meantime, while on that table Jason posed a conversation with me that went like this:
J: You comin' to swing?
Me: Well, I requested it liek 2 months ago so maybe... we'll see.
J: I saw your name on our schedule...
Me: Really?!? Next week's?
J: I guess so...

Later I found my name on the swing schedule as well as on the grave schedule. I flipped out, didn't know what shift I should show up to on friday. I found the origial shedule for grave that comes from the scheduling dept and it does not even have my name on it. So I say Swing. I bring this up with the floorman who will email the manager for grave shift.

Not to mention my new swing schedule, DICE ALL 5 DAYS! woohoo!
But I have Varying start times, I'm gonna feel like S does I have 7, 8 and 9 o'clock start times.

You Can Take Your Shirt Off...

Well Sunday was interesting. First of all I was shoked to have a 3rd day on dice in one week! I choose 3rd base because my left arm/shoulder is feeling pretty loose. I've got 3 fellas who stick around for quite a while, who were there for a short stint saturday on the other side of the table. I remember because the blonde headed one's name was Wally and I made some "Leave it to Beaver" jokes, which he liked, actually. But his 2 friends' names I kept missing. One I think was Jessy or Jason and sometimes it sounded like they were calling him JC. Well in the 1st hour the dice made it around to Wally (he's next to base/me) who shot for a short while before the big 7 came back. The no-name guy was just watching, And JC is up next. He starts to remove his coat to reveal one weird shirt. I tried telling him he could hang his coat next to me on the rope-post. And instead of walking over or handing it to Wally to hang up, He tossed it to me?!?! LOL So I hung it up for him.

Now we're watching a shooter with an unforgettable and hard to miss shirt on. Mike-in-the-Box was 1st to comment... sarcasticaly. Then I couldn't help myself I had a few mild comments. He had a couple rolls of the dice and more shirt comments flew around the table.

Let me explain this shirt. It was Dark Brown, had a pattern of salmon pink, chartruese, and maybe some yellow... in an odd late 60s floral design, long sleeve, button down, and in a trendy snug fit. And I can't even come close to finding a similar pic online. Per my search efforts I would say it is concidered a disco shirt.

Well I asked him if he had permission from my grandmother to make a shirt out of her old curtains, and everyone burst into laughter. So he stopped and slowly took his shirt off and continued to roll shirtless! Brian's over on 2nd base and Hollars over the laughter and music to me "You doin' ok over there J?" So I had to make the whole incident worth it, and I even made JC blush a little bit, as I answered while fanning my face with my hands "Oh no, I'm all worked up, hot n bothered now!"

Jethro Bodine and then some...

Well I started on the front dice table, closed it probably within the 1st hour. The whole dice crew took a 20 minute break and went to the back table to take out swing shift. Probably didn't keep that open too long. This older- maybe 50ish man was shooting from the 3rd base side and Aaron on the 2nd base side, then other playeres came and went until everyone went.

As I went on my break Aaron left the table, on my way he stopped me to tell me about his weekend plans. I pretended to care... the most interesting thing (to me) was that he was going to see Crystal Method at Ice (a night club, not 'on ice' like Disney. He brought up some other plans, some of which were way too personal, and he went as far to say he wished those plans were with me! Unbelievable!

Well, Then we closed the table as I was returning from my break, and opened the front table back up. It is rediculous how we juggle tables. Well the 50ish guy made his way back up... And he started being almost as come-ony as Aaron. He even said something about where his room was and where he would be when I got off at noon... and something about "bring the stick" ROFL! Well he played a long time and every time his 6 or 8 $5 come bet with $25 odds payed off, He'd give me $5. I made almost $100 off this guy! While he played we talked (obviously) and we asked him his name at one point, with his reply "Bo...dine, Bodine" I thought he said "Bodey" when I was on stick, but he corrected me when I got to base. Mark said he would just call him Bo, I went on to call him Bodine. Then these 2 younger guys were playing next to him and introduced themselves. Bodine introduced himself "Bodine, Jethro Bodine" and I burst out laughing so hard. "He's a Beverly Hill Billy!" I Blurted out. So he explained His real name is Jeff but his buddies called him Bodine one time and it stuck, so he went with it. He sure was a character!

Fun at the Flamingo

I had my usual thursday dealing at the Flamingo. But didn't get a lot of sleep last night due to the heat and lack of air conditioning. We have an AC but its not working and I am waiting on a service call from the property management group. So I tossed n turned most of the night. Lack of sleep is aborderline lame reason for a call in. So I got going and went to work this morning and 1st thing put my name on the EO (early out) list to get it asap. Well I was not that fast, I was #2 on the list. Then my friend was #3 and around 7am I was told there wasn't much hope for it, until maybe around 10 when the day shift crew comes in. So 9:20 comes and I go on break... When my break is over I hope for the best to come soon. I do get tapped out at 10 but the day shift person didn't say anything to me, like "go home." And As I cross the pits my friend yells "J, C'mon" removed her badge and headed to the time clock. I stop at where the boss is and there was the "go home" I waited to hear!

By this time I really needed it for more than lack of sleep. I had goofed up a few times today and probably because I didn't sleep. And not to mention I was in pain, my shoulder had been bothering me for abut 2-3 hours now.

Back to those goof-ups. First I'm on single deck and there was a few natural 21's which I paid as if I were still on a shoe or double-deck, which are 3 to 2 for the natural 21. But it slipped my mind that single deck BJ is 6 to 5. And the floorman was near when a natural 21 was on hand and I was trying to do the math for 3 to 2, when it was an odd amount of money bet. As I so proudly cut out the correct payout amount for a 3 to 2, I was corrected and put the money away, then onto pay for a 6 to 5. Gawd, who knows how many slipped by with overpayment. Then the floorman took the sign off hte table that said it was a $10.00 table and got another similar sign out that said "$10 to $3000 / 6 to 5 Blackjack Payout." Maybe he thought if I would have seen a sign like that I would have realized and not made the error, and non the less it was too late.

Then later I go to a double deck with no players. Then there's 1 player and I change his $100 bill for 20 red chips and notice I only have about $200 worth in red left. YIKES! Well it's not too bad while theres just one player. But then a few more people come n go. 2 of which did that very fast, as I could NOT bust a 6 showing, and would draw into 20 or 21 and kill the table. So two women both stormed off with about 50 each in red. So I'm way down in red now. Maybe 100 worth in the rack. 2 more ladies come up, sit down and buy in. The 1st for 60, all in red. The other for 100, and I ask if i can give her half in green for now, that I didn't have a lot of red left. Then I have about 2 or 3 red chips in my rack and a man sits down to play. I can't give him change in red. The players suggested he go to the next table and buy the chips and come back (LOL), so he did. Then when the floorman hears that dealer call out "changing 100" he glances over and notices he walked away with the 100 in red, but walked right to my table. So he looked at my rack and subtly freaked out. Put in for an emergency fill and before I knew it I had 500 in red, that wouldn't fit in my rack barely! It was a messy looking rack, I think I had too much purple, imagine that! The the floorman tells me, "Let' em walk away with the red, we're taking the table to $25 in 20 minutes." Crazy!

When I got home I called the chiropractor to see if I could get in earlier than 3pm. I come to find out they don't even take appointments on thursdays until 3pm. So, I just have to wait it out. Ouch!

Way behind...

I think it was last Friday...
We had a newbie still learning to deal dice on stick, and we came to a point where the thrower accidentally threw one of the dice off the table. I told the stick dealer to dump the bowl of remaining dice and move on (this is proper procedure) and the boxman blurted a sudden "shut up!" at me and I looked at him surprised and laughed at him saying "what did you say?!" even tho I knew... And he said, rather than repeating the two obvious words, "We have to find the dice before we move on" and I honestly do not remember anyone ever telling me that, so I questioned his procedures, and he said "I know what procedures are, but this is the bosses rule ( his boss is over this shift only) and won't apply once you go back to swing shift."

Anyway We both got a kick out of the fact he said "shut up" to me in fromt of God and Everyone, I said tho "normally you'd get writen up that, but I am not going to take it personal" And hte rest of the day, everytime he would say something I jokingly told him to "shut up"

Now on to Saturday...
Blatent Drunks all around the dice table, yound and old and I was already not feeling well due to my arm pain. About half of the way thru the day another one of our dice dealers was not on the game that day and was on same break as me and hte box man. The boxman told him I suggesting switching to carnival games for the rest of the day- not even blackjack- just the silly poker derived games. So when break was over we told the floorperson I had a bad headache from the drunks etc on hte dice table and wanted off for a while, the this other dealer agreed to swap with me. And it worked out fine, for me. Next break, one of the other dealers on the dice table told me I beat him to it, he was going to do the same thing! Then one more break later it was right after someone was being an @$$Hole to him, he found the last available dice dealer to swapoff with. Apparently no-one was dealing well with the fleas that day. Thing is the floorpersons/boxman weren't doing anything to make it any better, like asking the drunks to chill out, etc.

Sunday was obviously my Friday...
1st this is funny, I went to Let it Ride and there was only 2 guys who knew each other, and had been there a while... They were clearly enjoying the soundtrack of the night, and as I began to shuffle they asked me if I sang. I told them that I did but only when no one could her me :) and as every 70s era song blarred the airwaves they sang along. They tried and tried to get me to sing along too. Finally when ELO came on with Evil Woman I sang along, this granted me 2 red chips! The other guy said he'd double it if I could tell him who sang it, well I blurted out ELO, of course and gave the hand signle for 'bring it on' but I never got the 2nd $10... But I did have a good time at that table. They told me no other dealer would sing along.

Then Later I was on hte 21 shoe. This is a story to prove what a bore and monotony the game is. All 5 seats are full, after so many rounds/hands on this table the guy in the 5th seat must have gone to the rest room and I did not realize... sad I know. Well I dealt everyone their 1st card including the empty seat. the cards on the shoe are face up, so his card, a 10 was suposed to be my card. but no one wants a dealer to have a 10 to start with. and as I realized what I did I called over the floor person who handled my goof-up well. He took the 10 out of play I dealt the other seats their 2nd cards and myself. The 3rd seat ended up splitting her Aces and ended up with low hands liek 13 and 15 and everyone else had 18, 19, and 20. I ended up with 17 and paid everyone with 18 and up, and instead of taking the loosing 13 and 15's bets, the floorperson told me to just push with her. It was quite a sight to be seen I was flittertwaded the rest of the day.

Nothing is to be said about Monday, but Tuesday I had 2 tickets to THE PRICE IS RIGHT LIVE at Bally's.
I took my Granny! We had a good time, neither of us won a thing, But my friend/co-worker (B) was 1st on stage and a winner.
We didn't run into or see each other before the show at all, when he got called I cheered him on. When he was talking to the host ( not Bob Barker) I stood up at my seat with was fairly close to the stage and yelled "O'sheas Rocks!" And they both stopped and turned to me and B said my name outloud and pointed right at me. The host made some jokes about me being B's other date in case the one he was on didn't work out... it was a funny moment because B is married and he was there with a female freind his wife sent with him on her behalf.
We had a good time anyway!