First poker session in Vegas was a good one for me. Only played about 2 hours and ended up $90 thanks to some very bad play by some of the other players. Of course, I won't be writing much about the actual poker, but will be writing about the people I played with at the table.First guy I started talking with was a younger guy. Per my usual, I started the conversation by complimenting one of his hands. They always appreciate it and you can usually get information both about their game and about them in general by using this method. Really nice guy from Michigan. He was around 25. He had moved to Vegas about 2 months ago and was in poker dealer school.
I started asking him questions about the whole process to become a poker dealer. He said there's one school in the Vegas area that is the one that almost everyone learns the trade. He said a lot of it is just running games and practicing the art of being a good dealer. Several people sit down around a table and they take turns dealing to the other dealers. Eventually, after several sessions, you get your certification (you have to take a written test to be certified). Once you're certified, you then begin to work your way throughout the ranks, getting better shifts and better casino placings as you go along. The money is actually quite good and most only have to work 4 shifts a week. Interesting to hear how all that works.
Another guy I saw was a guy sitting right next to me. He was drinking and was a pretty loose player (i.e. he would play a lot of hands). Being a relatively conservative player, I obviously didn't mind a bad player who was drinking playing at my table. I took a decent size pot off him initially as part of my $90 in winnings.
After awhile, another guy and I began to talk with the guy. Really nice guy from California. Said he was out to have a good time for the weekend. As we continued to talk, it became pretty obvious why he was out in Vegas to have a good time. He informed us that he would be getting on a plane in 4 days to head over to western Iraq. Tough situation. He is in the Marines and was going to be providing support for the Army. One of the guys mentioned that there was at least better armor and somewhat better security over there now. The guy said 'yep', but I could tell from the way he responded that he wasn't too convinced of that.
He had a few more drinks and lost a little more money while I was there. I had to head off to dinner. I did the usual 'good luck everyone' to the table and wished the marine well overseas and told him to keep his head down. He thanked me for the well wishes and I headed off to dinner. As I type this, that Marine has just arrived into Western Iraq. Hopefully he's doing well and remembering to keep his head down.
