Kestral said:

"Now I know why every cocktail waitress at Harrahs Las Vegas said 'thank you for choosing Harrahs' or something like that.."

Yep. When they grade your interaction with a customer, Harrah's is looking for five very specific things, each of which they consider to be equally important. If you do not thank the customer for their business, you fail one-fifth of the evaluation utterly with a big fat zero. Not thanking the customer for their business is as bad as not saying "Hello!" when a customer walks up to you.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Tim, I really enjoy hearing about your training. Thank you for taking us along your journey.

I hope they trained you on HOW to use the greeting rather than burning a line into your brain. I've ran into several places out here where someone will say "Welcome to XXX, may I help you?" (or "take your order") But while they are saying it, they are on the phone with someone else, standing on a ladder changing the menu sign, or standing at the register counting money. They are obviously in no position to reply to whatever I came in for.

I'm only guessing that the management has some kind of logic that the customer must be greeted immediately. Said management did not go to the trouble to explain various ways to greet people.

Also, a lot of memorized greetings sound really fake. I think I'd rather get a nod as acknowledgement for my presence than to hear a 15 second marketing jingle.

Fortunately, of the 7 "allowed" greetings, one of them is in fact a simple "Hi!". A lot of us are trying to break ourselves of the habit of using the more casual--and not allowed--"Hey". So, a warm and enthusiastic "Hey, Joe! It's good to see you again, man!" is becoming a more professional "Hi, Joe! It's good to see you again!"

Of course, there are limitations as to how helpful you can be to a customer depending on your position. As a blackjack dealer stationed at a table, when someone comes up and asks me where the "Wheel of Fortune" slots are, I can't exactly leave the table and walk them there.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Excellent Tim.

Another question. Did they mention anything about emeralds when talking about jade?

Can't say that they did, JMT. What do you know about emeralds as good luck charms?

Tim

This week felt looooong, mostly because they taught us everything in one week. The next five weeks will be mostly practicing what we learned this first week. The total course is supposed to be six weeks, so that we will be ready in time for the soft opening of the new boat on July 21.

On Monday the 9th, the first day of class, we learned the basics of cheque cutting and shuffling. What's a cheque? You know those round plastic thingies that come in red, green, and black, and are marked $5, $25, and $100, and you make bets with? I always thought they were called "chips". Silly me. They are actually called "checks", which the casinos like to spell "cheques". The theory is that since you can cash a check (the paper kind that you write out), and since you can cash the round plastic thingies as well, it only makes sense to call the round plastic thingies "cheques". "Chips" are what they give you at a roulette wheel, which cannot be redeemed for cash at the casino cage.

Ever seen a dealer take a stack of 20 cheques in one hand, and quickly turn it into a neat little row of 5 stacks, each exactly 4 cheques high? That's cheque cutting. There is a very specific way to do this, and a very specific way to verify the number of cheques in a stack. These verifications are done for the benefit of the dealer, the player, and the eye in the sky. As we found out as the week went on, a lot of the little things dealers do that seem idiosyncratic are done specifically to help the eye in the sky better follow the game in the event the tape ever needs to be reviewed.

There are seven spots for players at a blackjack table. You must use your left hand to pay winnings and collect losings from the players sitting at the two leftmost spots. You use your right hand everywhere else. This is so that the dealer does not leave the tray of chips in front of him exposed to theft by the person at third base. The practical result of this is that a dealer must be ambidexterous when handling cheques. The instructor made me raise my right hand and swear to her that I would practice my cheque cutting every day outside of class. I've been a good boy in this regard, and I am becoming fairly confident in my ability to manipulate cheques with my right hand (I'm right-handed anyway). My left hand is lagging noticably behind, but it's getting better every day. Fortunately, I have another 5 weeks of practice ahead of me. Curiously, most of my classmates say they cut better with the hand opposite the one they write with.

They also showed us the "house shuffle", which is the way all blackjack dealers are required to shuffle the 8 decks of cards that go into the shoe. I've read on the Internet that Horseshoe Hammond also offers a 6-deck game at the $25 level, but I have not been able either to confirm or deny this. This may be true, because the blackjack manual wants us to shoot for a time of 1:30 to shuffle a 6-deck, and 1:50 to shuffle an 8-deck. We need to be able to do it in 3:00 to pass our auditions. After seeing the complete shuffle procedure, most of us in the room thought that they were joking, that no mere mortal could perform a shuffle that complicated that quickly. The instructor then proceded to do the complete shuffle--while talking to us and frequently taking her eyes off what she was doing--in about 2:10. She says that next week she and the other instructor will start timing our shuffles. The two instructors will then race each other. Whichever instructor has the fastest time "wins". If any of us students can beat that time before the end of the course, she will personally give us $50 out of her own pocket. She usually wins with a time somewhere between 1:35 and 1:45. In five years of doing that contest, she said, she's never had to pay the bet. Looks like I have something to shoot for. ;-)

As Eric&Ellen can tell you, I'm not exactly blessed with grace and dexterity. I am having to completely reteach myself how to shuffle cards, because the way I have been doing it at home all my life in little family poker games is not the way that Horseshoe wants me to use. On Wednesday afternoon I had a fellow classmate time me and it took me about 6:20 to do the full shuffle. Most of the others I spoke with had times between 5:30 and 6:00. One woman who played basketball for my college, and who says she's always had "good moves" with her hands, has the best time in class that I know of at about 4:40. As with the cheque cutting, the instructor made me again raise my right hand and swear to her that I would practice my shuffling every day outside of class. I have been a good boy here as well, although things are a little more difficult since I don't have a dealing shoe or a discard rack to work with. I can still practice about 80% of the shuffle, though, and so I have been doing what I can.

Tuesday and Wednesday were the days when they actually taught us the game of blackjack itself. We learned about hitting, standing, doubling down, splitting, hard totals, soft totals, insurance, and blackjacks. Since I've read a few backjack books and played one or two thousand hands of casino blackjack in my day, this was mostly all just review for me. Still, a lot of people in class are new to blackjack and struggled with some of the concepts. We also practiced adding up the cards as fast as we deal them: "7! 10! 15! Too many!" "1 or 11! 3 or 13! 5 or 15! 14! 21!" That's "7-3-5-Jack" and "Ace-2-2-9-7". What can get really tricky is calculating blackjack payouts in your head. They gave us a test where they gave us 20 different bets, and we had to write out both the blackjack payout and the maximum insurance bet allowed. The test is all well and good when the bets are $15, $30, and $50; toward the bottom they gave us $262.50 and $777.50 (which, incidentally, pays $1166 on a blackjack). Only I and one other person were able to finish the test in under 10 minutes, and that other person just finished a 6 year stint as a high school algebra teacher. Still, I need to get faster. The instructor understands that it takes a lot less time to pay a blackjack when the bet is a nice, friendly stack of 3 green cheques, rather than when it is a tall and ugly barber pole of black, green, red, pink, and white cheques. She wants us to be able to calculate a single-color stack bet within 3 seconds, and a barber pole bet within 3 seconds of breaking it down into its component colors (i.e. while your hands are breaking down the bet, your brain is doing rapid addition). As with cheque cutting and shuffling, I had to swear an oath to practice after class.

Thursday is where things got really complicated. This is where they started to teach us about game security. We learned how to manage the rack of chips in front of us, how to place cards on the layout, and pay and collect bets so that the eye in the sky can follow along, how to make change and color up properly, and how to "walk and talk" the game. "Changing 350! Changing 750 and counting! Color coming in! Roll 'em! Shuffle! Burn! Floor! 3 cheques out! 2 purples out!" Thursday was a microcosm for what most of the rest of the course will be.

On Friday they showed us the "21 plus 3" side game. This is where you place a side bet that your first 2 cards and the dealers upcard will form some type of 3 card poker hand. If you can make a 3 of a kind, a straight, a flush, or a straight flush, the bet pays 9 to 1. Otherwise, it loses. Easy enough in concept, but a lot of us were forgetting to pay out or collect as necessary, simply because it was getting lost in the mess of 42,817 other things we had to remember simultaneously. They also taught us basic strategy for the Horseshoe blackjack game, which is 8-decks, stand on all 17s, double on any 2 cards, double after split, no surrender, split up to 3 times, aces only once, and only one card to a split ace. Like with the blackjack payouts, we will be getting drilled on basic strategy often. The instructor says few things are as unprofessional as a dealer dealing a game that he does not know how to play himself. She also pointed out that a fair number of Chicago's pro-athletes like to play at the Horseshoe, and I had better darn well be able to tell Michael Jordan, Brian Urlacher, or Alfonso Soriano whether to hit, stand, or double down on a soft 18 when a $50,000 bet is on the table.

This was a long and exciting first week of dealer training. As we left class on Friday afternoon, none of us could believe that our first day of orientation was only 11 days earlier. When we go back on Monday, we have to start sorting through all we learned in this first week and build ourselves into professional blackjack dealers. Tomorrow is when the real work begins.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

All I can say is WOW!

I'm guessing lunch was pretty bad this week, no mention of the tastyness! LOL

After reading of your experiences, Tim, which is fascinating reading, one wonders how on earth dealers can stand around looking bored when their table is empty........one would think they'd look relieved!!
A question.....................why aren't dealers ever allowed to sit on a stool at the higher tables? I only see low table dealers on a chair.......for low table blackjack and baccarat.

Whoa! My head is spinning!

I'm not a blackjack player, but if I ever take up the game I will be sure to tip the dealer - they sure earn it!

This is incredibly fun to read, Tim. Don't know if you can keep up the pace of writing for 6 weeks - but for me writing things down helps me remember them.

So maybe think of us as your study partners!

Tim - I've often daydreamed about giving up my job in Corporate America and becoming a blackjack dealer. After reading all of this, I might never think about that again!

This is fascinating stuff - thanks so much for sharing it with us!

I'm looking forward to visiting the boat when it opens in July.

I was thinking the same as Lee. WOW And what about the food?


Also, have you considered purchasing a shoe or rack?

Great read.

You talked about cutting cheques with both hands. It seems to me that most dealers do this with their dominant hand, right in front of them then switch hands if moving them across their body?

In answer the previous questions:

Lee-PA and JMT:
Unfortunately, we're on our own for food during training. Our red student dealer badges do not clear us for access to the back of the house where the Employee Dining Room is located. Also, the trailers where we are learning blackjack are some distance from the main facility. Even if we could use the EDR, travel time to and fro would eat up half the lunch hour.

On the bright side, there are about 2 dozen opportunities for food within about a 10 minute drive of the training trailers. Admittedly, half of those are fast food chains, but there are also a few good Greek diners, burger and hot dog stands, and Mexican restaurants where you can get in and out in under a half hour.

Best of all, the trailers are located just off a county park beach on Lake Michigan. About a 10 minute walk from the trailer, and right next to the beach, is a long pier with a sitting area at the end that has a spectacular view of the Chicago skyline on a clear day. You can just sit back, take in the breeze coming off the lake, and enjoy the view for about 40 minutes.

GamblinTater:
I honestly don't know why dealers have to stand all the time, but it probably has something to do with game security. Game security is the main reason for a *lot* of the procedures at a blackjack table. I suspect that the only time dealers sit is at the low tables which are low to accomodate guests in wheelchairs.

Kestral:
Writing about this certainly does help focus my thoughts about what I have learned. I might start "journaling" daily instead of weekly, or at least whenever something new or interesting happens in training.

As for tipping, tokes frequently account for more than 75% of a dealer's income. Any and all tokes are much appreciated!

MikeD:
Given how big of a company Harrah's is, you actually could become a blackjack dealer and technically never leave Corporate America. ;-) Don't worry, I'll give you guys a big heads up when the new boat is ready to open.

JMT:
Some of us may end up buying a dealing shoe before the end of the course, but it doesn't seem to be too high of a priority right now. The instructors recommended that we all go in on a larger order together to save on shipping costs.

Senatorjm:
Yep. Crossing your body is a big no-no because it leaves your sides exposed. You use one hand to move to the center, and then switch off to the other hand. At a blackjack table, all but two of the spots are serviced with the right hand, so the right hand does most of the work anyway. I almost feel sorry for left-handed dealers, particularly if they're as clumsy with their right hand as I am with my left hand (I'm a rightie). You may also notice that the cheque tray is laid out more or less symmetrically. Lower denomination cheques on the outside, higher ones inside. When someone at first base wins, I need to be able to take cheques from the left hand of the tray, cut them, and pay the bet using my left hand exclusively. The player's position dictates which hand you use. You have to become ambidextrous as a dealer because, essentially, you can only use one hand at a time, and you have no choice in the matter as to whether to use your left or right hand.

Thank you all for your questions and comments; I'm glad you guys find this interesting! And don't worry, none of the stuff I've shared violates any kind of confidentiality agreement. I actually have *plenty* of *that* kind of information in my manuals, and you will be seeing none of it, thank you very much! ;-) A lot of what I have written about you probably would have picked up on yourselves if you sat and watched a game for a few hours anyway. Certainly the existence of floorpeople, pit managers, the eye-in-the-sky, and the need for the utmost in security comes as absolutely no surprise to a gang of Vegas vets like yourselves. :-)

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Day 6 (Monday, 2nd week) of Dealer Training

Went back Monday morning to start the 2nd week of dealer training. In the morning we discussed the procedures for adding and removing cheques from the tray, as well as issuing markers to players. The instructor joked that there are two types of dealers: house dealers, and dump trucks. House dealers usually beat the players; they have to work a bit harder for their tokes because the players are always losing to them! Dump trucks are dealers who usually lose to the players. The name "dump truck" comes from the opinion that if the dealer is always going to lose to the players, then he might as well just take the tray of cheques, dump it on the layout, and let the players dig for whatever they want. ("Oooooh! Look at the pretty purple ones that say $500! I like purple!") One of our instructors has a reputation as a pretty severe house dealer, but she has an energetic and up-tempo personality and still hauls in her share of tokes, whereas the other instructor is a guest-favorite dump truck, who has a loyal following among some of the casino's regulars.

In our simulated blackjack games, I'm developing the dump truck reputation. On a recent game, I had one round that had 4 splits, 4 double-downs, 2 blackjacks, and no player busted. I got a big round of applause from my table when I turned over a 16 and drew a king to it.

The afternoon was nothing but cheque cutting and shuffling drills. As promised, our instructor started to time us. On my first attempt I clocked 5:07; I need to complete the shuffle in 3:00 to pass the audition. In later drills throughout the afternoon, I brought the time down to 4:09. Most of the other students are in the 3:15 to 3:45 range, but there are a few who are still over 4:00 like me. One or two have already broken the 3:00 mark. One woman has the best time in the class at 2:48. With steady practice, I think I can get it down to 3:15 by the end of the week.

Our instructor also made good on her promise to set a time for the "$50 challenge". Any student who can beat her time before the end of the course will get a $50 bonus. Her time was 1:46, so I'll need to be able to shuffle in 1:45 to win the bonus. I think she said her absolute all-time best was about 1:20, and even she doubts that she could do it again without a lot of concentration, a little bit of luck, and a new set of cards. (Generally, older cards get worn and get harder to shuffle up to the casino's standards).

More tomorrow evening.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Tim - what happens if someone can't pass the "audition?" Are they out of a job or do they have to continue training until they pass?

It's interesting what you say about the left-handed dealers. I'm left handed and am somewhat ambidextrous. It's really more of a survival thing. Most things are geared toward right-handed people and lefties have to learn to adapt.

Good luck with the rest of your training!

Do you know if your training would have to be repeated if you took a job in Vegas or Atlantic City?

You read my mind Joe!

I was wondering the same thing.....could we see another talkveges person move to Las vegas???? Hmmmm....

One idea that may seem a bit weird to you as you're trying to speed up your shuffling .... have you tried doing it in slow motion? Since you're facing the 3-minute deadline, you probably just wrote that idea off as lunatic ... but ... good technique begets speed. Dealing in slow motion every 5-10 sessions might help you nail down any bugs in technique.

As much as I'm enjoying your report for purely selfish reasons, writing it down really does help cement things into memory ... so keep it coming!

I think that I agree with Daisy on that one. A friend of mine was talking about playing some fast licks on a saxophone. He told me the best way to learn that part is to play it at whatever speed it takes to be 100% accurate. Then try to speed it up just a little and maintain accuracy, gradually increasing speed until I reach the goal.

He said that people that start out very fast with a lot of mistakes take much longer to correct those mistakes, and sometimes never fix the smaller mistakes. They also pick up bad habits and miss the opportunity to learn good technique.

I don't know if that translates into shuffle technique. I think it does work in many of lifes challenges.

In answer to the recent questions:

MikeD:
From what I understand, they only audition you toward the end of the class. By that time, you will already have had well over 100 hours of dealing simulated blackjack games in the school. I get the impression that most people pass their audition the first time. If you don't, it's usually because you haven't quite nailed down some technical or procedural aspect of the game. In that case, the instructors will work with you to help you straighten out this one aspect of your game. You can then reaudition the following week.

At least, I *think* that's how this works. Hopefully, I'll never find out first-hand what happens when someone fails an audition!

"I'm left handed and am somewhat ambidextrous. It's really more of a survival thing. Most things are geared toward right-handed people and lefties have to learn to adapt."

This is *exactly* what the left-handed dealers in class have been telling me.

JMT:
I doubt you'd have to go to dealer school all over again, but you would certainly have to audition in the casino where you wanted to work. By "audition", we mean you step in and deal a live game in front of the supervisors. They judge your overall technique and interaction with the customers, and then decide whether or not to offer you a position. They call it an audition because they say you are essentially a performer, an entertainer, and the casino floor is your stage. It's the same line of reasoning that leads to Disney giving the people who walk their parks in the Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Capt. Jack Sparrow costumes the names "cast members" instead of employees.

In the Horseshoe dealing school, I get the impression that you'll do your first audition in the trailer with a few pit managers and other supervisors posing as players. I think they then later have you deal a live game on the boat with real customers before you formally get the offer. I should find out more about this in the next couple of weeks.

Lee-PA:
My long-term goal is in fact to live and work in Las Vegas. Shoot for the stars, baby!

DaisyDeuces and JMT:
You've hit on my strategy exactly. I still have one of the slower times in the class, but my shuffle is a lot more consistent than some of the other shuffles I've seen. There are now a number of people who now have shuffle times under 3 minutes, but the instructor admits that some of the fast shuffles are so clumpy that she would order a reshuffle if she ever saw those shuffles on the boat. I seem to be hitting a plateau of about 3:30-3:40 in my shuffling time, and that's assuming I don't fumble with the cards too much, which still happens a little too often for my tastes. However, with more practice I'm sure I'll get better. I just have to be patient.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer