Working at the Beau Rivage was interesting, taxing, and for the most part, fun. The Beau, as it is affectionately called in Biloxi, is a well-oiled, gambling enterprise. Employing over 4000 Biloxi residents, it offers the glitz of Las Vegas with a little Deep South charm thrown in for taste.
While I personally do not have a problem with gambling, I didn't do much of it myself. Many of the dealers did, and a few ended the two weeks without netting much money for their efforts!
I think that the general public who cannot afford to wager money in a casino, stay away from them anyway. The people I saw in the casino, as well as in the tournament itself, all had money to spend on entertainment, and spend they surely did.
I started my adventure with the thought that I wouldn't want to leave my job in Atlanta to be a full-time professional dealer, and after two weeks that thought hasn't changed.
Dealing in a casino is a pretty tough life. The hours are long, the customers can be surly, and the pressure of dealing an error-free game, with cameras watching your every move, can be stifling. While the money is good, a person would definitely have to weigh the pros and cons of this lifestyle.
Would I do it again? Yes, I would. My dealer coordinator told me I was a good dealer and that he'd gladly hire me to work any tournament for him in the future. The conditions for me would have to be right, though, as my current employer isn't going to let me take two to three weeks off just any old time.
Anyway, I made some great friends that I intend to keep up with.
I am a poker dealer. I had fun. And I'm glad it's over!
Side Pots:
- Bill Edler, of Las Vegas, won the Main Event. He's a poker professional from Las Vegas and this is his second bracelet. He took home almost $750,000. His win was particularly miraculous because on the second day (of four) he was down to his last two chips.
Bill Edler...Tightwad? Cheapskate? Mr. Pink?
A nasty rumor has spread that he stiffed the dealers. It is a common practice for the winner of a tournament to make a reasonable donation to the dealer pool for their services. Remember, tournament dealers do not receive tips during play because the chips have no monetary value.
The rumor is that Edler did not give any money to the dealers while the second and third-place players donated a combined $17,500 to be divided amongst the 120 dealers.
$17,500 seems like a lot but it actually amounts to only about $4 per hour dealt, per dealer. Since dealers work for the minimum wage, plus tips, only receiving $17,500 for an event that paid out $2.5 million is a slap in the face.
Anyway, I do not have confirmation that Edler was doing an imitation of Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs, but I have heard from the other dealers that the tokes from the tournament were much lower than expected.
For what it's worth, I used to think that maybe tipping a dealer was excessive. Especially since the good pros make it look very easy. But having now dealt myself, I promise that a dealer should be tipped on EVERY HAND for doing a job that is very much harder than it looks.
- Tournament Director Johnny Grooms (my boss) was interviewed during the tournament and the interview appears on YouTube. You can see it here.
- My stats from the event: I ended up dealing 62 tournament downs and 84 live table downs. This is 73 solid hours of dealing. Considering that I averaged 60 hands an hour, that is almost 4400 hands. And, with four shuffles per hand, I shuffled a deck of cards approximately 17,500 times. At 10 players per table, I dealt almost 45,000 individual hands of poker.
No wonder my hands hurt!
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I got a lot of very nice comments about my blog. I sincerely thank everyone who enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Take care.
