I’ll be in town all day Wednesday. Who’s working Wednesday night?
Author ArchiveAs I type this, it’s Day 70 of the “Disaster in the Gulf”. This thing has been botched by BP, congress and our President. It’s something that never should have happened, but for so many reasons other than the obvious. We sit and wait for the oil to make landfall on our beaches. It’s not something we are looking forward to, but something that is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. It will only take a tropical storm or a hurricane to splatter oil all over everything within 2 miles of the beach (my apartment sits just under a 1/2 mile from the beach and I work on the beach). Tropical storm Alex will most likely push oil onto our beaches, but won’t come close enough to send it airborne. There is talk that 3 casinos that are on the water (Beau Rivage, Hard Rock and the Isle) may be shut down once the oil gets here, for safety reasons. Is this good news for those of us that work at a different casino or will this spell doom for all the casinos? When I left Kansas City in May 2008, I knew I would be facing hurricanes. I knew I would never need to shovel my driveway or scrape 1/2 inch of ice off my windshield ever again. But I didn’t know that I would be driving on roads covered with oil. I didn’t know that I would be smelling oil every waking minute of the day. I didn’t know that such a beautiful place still struggling to rebuild after Katrina would have oil wash up on it’s beaches. I don’t regret leaving Kansas City and I don’t regret moving here. But I fear that I may have to move if Biloxi is hit again with one more disaster. Well, it’s official – I work for the worst casino on the coast. Our toke rate has averaged a whopping $10.35/hour since I started. And no, it isn’t me that caused it for those of you who are smart asses out there. The folks running the casino don’t have a clue how to run a casino, make the dealers happy or manage the table games department. You truly have a great employer where you work and I didn’t realize how good it was until I went somewhere else. I actually miss the place, as well as a lot of you. Be grateful that you work at a place that cares about it’s employees. Some people say they don’t, but trust me – they do. The weather is great down here and I’ll never get tired of looking at the Gulf of Mexico or the beach, but the pay isn’t what I was expecting. Of course there is a bright side as well. I work at the only casino that hasn’t laid off dealers in the past. Hard Rock, Beau Rivage and Harrah’s Grand have all laid off dealers in the past 4 months. So at least I have a job, and I’m already full-time with benefits. But it’s just not run well and it’s killing our toke rate. Most dealers stand on a dead game all night long. For example, for the 14 1/2 hours that 4-card poker was open Tuesday, we had 2 players the entire time and they played less than an hour. Even Rapid Roulette didn’t have that kind of a “turnout”. But I’ve learned every game in the casino – including roulette. Not sure how many of you are “metalheads” or even into Metallica, but I thought I’d share my impression of the new Metallica CD with you. It absolutely f’ing rocks, period. It’s the best thing they’ve done since …And Justice For All. I’ve listend to it all the way through three times now and don’t plan on listening to anything else for the next two weeks (when Tesla’s new CD comes out). I’ve read several reviews and the one that stuck out the most referred to the new CD as fitting in somewhere between the Justice album and the black album. It’s a perfect description of where this one belongs. After the huge disappointment that was “St. Anger”, this new effort erases that and more. Lars discovered that he can still play the drums, and the riffs that Metallica was so famous for have returned. Produced by Rick Rubin, who also produced my favorite Slayer CD, Seasons in the Abyss, he brings Metallica back to where they belong and what got them the fanbase that is still with them today. Rick definitely has a way of defining a band’s sound and bringing out the best in them. If any of you are fans of Metallica from the pre-black album days, this is a must have! Tags: MetallicaJust to update anyone that cares, I’ve been offered a job here in Biloxi and I expect at least one more offer this week, if not two. The toke rates are great down here. Hard Rock tops the list at an average of about $28/hour, but it’s also the hardest to get on at. Most of the dealers have at least two years of being a full floor (and why would you want to be a full floor if you are pulling down almost $30/hour just in tips). Beau Rivage argues that they have the higher toke rate than the Hard Rock, but I’ve heard from talking to the dealers there that their average toke rate is a measly $26/hour (boo hoo). The rest of the casinos have a toke rate of at least $16/hour and more. There are a couple of huge casinos here, but there are some very small ones as well. The Grand (owned by Harrah’s) has a whopping 14 total table games, this includes the one craps table they have. There is a lot more competition down here, which is good. Being on the Gulf Coast, they get people from FL, AL, MS, LA and even TX on a regular basis. Biloxi is less than 2 hours away from the FL state line, 45 minutes from the AL state line and about 30 minutes from the LA state line. It truly is a destination city, which makes the competition so good. All-in-all, I’m glad I moved down here. The game rules are a bit different down here though. The dealer does NOT hit on a soft 17 and every bet on the craps table is working on the come out roll unless the player calls it off (I learned this one the hard way). No more Shuffle Masters either, everything is hand shuffle. They also “pitch” the cards in double and single deck BJ (single deck is pretty big down here). I did not see a single Texas Shoot Me game either! And oh yeah, the weather has been awesome. Every day in the low 80′s so far (well, it got up to near 90 today, but the humidity wasn’t bad). No more shivering on a smoke break at 2:30 in the morning. I know that it’s about to get hot down here and very, very humid, but no more ice storms and no more snow. It snows about once every 8 years down here, and while everything shuts down if they get a trace of snow, I don’t think the casino is going to let me call off due to bad weather seeing where I came from. Anywho, I just thought I’d let everyone know how it’s going down here and say that I miss all of you (Did Grant grow his hair out yet?). I’ll keep stabbing in the dark at the WIT’s and hopefully get lucky once every 6 months or so. Well, I’m about to take off on my journey to the Gulf Coast. I’ll miss a lot of people at work, and I’ll miss some of the players (but not too many). I want to say that working where most of us do/did was a lot of fun. There are a lot of great people there and that’s what makes it so entertaining. Some of the conversations we had on breaks and the stories about the players on our games were hilarious. I’ll stay in touch and let you all know where I land so you can come down and harass me during the winter months (because there’s no snow, no ice, no frost to scrape off your windshield, etc…). Yeah, the summers are going to be hot and the bugs will be plentiful, but I’ll make more money and I don’t have to shovel any more snow! I want to personally thank Thatguy. Not only is he a great box person, he’s a great teacher as well. While I still struggle quite a bit (and I realize that I still have a long way to go), I’ve learned a lot from him and I appreciate his patience (as I do everyone’s patience). I’m really glad I learned craps and I hope to land in a casino that has box people half as good as Thatguy. All butt kissing aside, I’ll miss you guys. There are a lot of great people at work and a lot of very different personalities. I wish you all a great future and all the best. `Til I’m employed once again, Chris The Dog’s Diary 8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
The Cat’s Diary Day 983 of my captivity
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.
The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a “good little hunter” I am. Bastards!
There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of “allergies.” I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.
Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now … Well, I finally decided to bite the bullet and upgrade myself. The problem was that I bought a new case for my “future” PC and when I received it, it was so damn beautiful that I couldn’t contain myself any further. I did go with an AMD processor even though I am a staunch Intel guy, but since I’m on a budget and I got a great deal, I went for it. All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with my choices since I spent just over $700 (just under $600 after all the rebates). Without further ado, here it is: Thermaltake Tough Power 650W Power Supply And that totally sweet-ass case I was telling you about… All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with my purchase. I’m also giving in and bought Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit), but did not include this in the overall price because this was not a necessity for the PC itself (I already have XP). While my system is not “top of the line”, it’s a system that I can easily upgrade in the future (the mobo accepts the new AMD Phenom chips, a max total of 16 GB of memory and is SLI ready when I want to add that 2nd video card to the mix). I also bought a 2nd case fan, but didn’t list it (why would I?). With the ability to easily upgrade, this baby should keep me up and running for quite a long time. I can’t wait to actually see what BF2 and CS:S look like on max graphics!!! I’m a break in myself, and am looking for some feedback as to how we are doing so far (please be brutally honest, please). I honestly wish they would put us on a game with more experienced dealers. I myself am being regularly scheduled with two and sometimes three other break-ins. I find it hard to learn new things when there aren’t experienced dealers there to show us new moves. |
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Welcome to my little spot on the web were my friends and I discuss various, usually droll goings on, a lot of World of Warcraft happenings and some of the funnier things we get to see at work in the casino. We also play a silly game we call "WIT" or "What Is That?" trying to guess what that picture up above is. You guess right, you get to submit the next part of a picture. Info can be found if you look/search for it here.
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