This is great stuff Tim. Thank You so much. I'll have to watch how dealers "walk the game" here.

It might have been good that you arrived at the picnic late. Especially as a new hire, you don't know who is who. It would be bad if you had a few beers and started saying things that were heard by people who weren't supposed to hear it.

MP3 players can range from $10-200, or more. You could always check eBay to see what your model is going for. It would make a nice holiday gift for a youngster if you don't want to use it.

I have confidence that you'll get signed off when the time is right. You're probably learning much more than you realize. Keep up the good work.

Good job Tim. Like the rest I am thoroughly enjoying your adventures in dealerland. Your sweating reminded me of a time I was playing blackjack and the dealer was newer. She was very nervous and seemed to be a real sweetheart doing her best to keep calm and not make mistakes when all of a sudden and out of the blue her nose started to bleed. Blood droplets were falling onto the table, checks and cards and she grabbed her nose and pinched it. We all started to grap for napkins and the pit guy came running over wondering what all the comotion was. This poor girl was sobbing and just wanted to crawl into a hole. I will give her credit for staying in place and not just running away and they finally got her a relief guy and off she went. I visited the casino about 6 months later and it was night and day. She was a real whiz with the cards and table and when I told her I was at the table the day that the blood flowed she said she would have quit right there and then but she was a single mom and was trying to make a better life for her and her daughter and was glad she just sucked it up and stayed the course.

Anyway Tim keep up the good work and before you know it you will be the one standing behind the newbie in your nice suit yelling "send it" and encouraging them on.

born and raised in chicago tim, if i get back for a visit,i will head over to indiana and we will play a few rounds.love your reports and good luck!! please continue your reports as i am sure there will always be stories to tell.

Tim,

Am I correct that "walking your game" is pretty much just a visual thing?

I'm a big guy also and I know there's people who question my ability to do certain things because of my size. Do you think the floor person might have a hang up on that?

JMT:
Thanks for the encouragement!

Rudiking:
Thank you as well. My shadow for the third and final day told me that while I sweated a lot at first, I didn't sweat anywhere near as much as this one guy he saw. That guy earned himself the nickname "Puddles".

dagwash:
Looking forward to it! I'll try to make a habit of posting my schedule so that anyone who wants to come on down, can. And I have every intention of continuing the reports.

senatorjm:
I didn't figure out exactly what I was doing wrong with walking my game until the 3rd day. I was moving well enough from left to right, but when I moved, I didn't turn my torso well enough to see the opposite end of the table. I was worried about size prejudice as well when I first hired in, but so far I've seen none of it. I've seen plenty of dealers who could afford to shed 50, even 100 pounds or so, and a few of them are noticably bigger than me.


Day 3 of OJT (Wednesday, July 16)

Going into my third day of OJT, I didn't bother to stop at the trailer. I just went straight to the property. I arrived about 2:15, and like a seasoned pro I walked from the garage to the pavilion and to the staircase that led to the EDR. I got myself a lunch of salsa chicken with spanish rice, which was the "regular" choice, not the "healthy" choice, which was stuffed green peppers. I sat down, and a few minutes later a woman from my dealer class came in. She was on the 11am to 3pm OJT, and had just learned that she would have to be back for a 4th day. We tried to be positive, compared notes, and again wished each other good luck as she left. One of the other guys who had 3pm to 7pm OJT came in later on as well, and we chatted for a bit, too.

When the time came I headed down into the bowel of the boat, punched in, and headed back up to good ol' pit 5. This time, I actually knew the pit managers. It was the newly minted one from yesterday who wanted to sign me off, and the veteran crazy purple cheque bettor that sat at my table that one time in class two and a half weeks ago (see post #58835 - 3rd Week of Dealer Training, in this thread). This time I would be back at the same table I was at on the first day. My shadow was a dealer who had been dealing only 3 weeks. When I first began class, there was another blackjack class already in progress, and they graduated at the end of our second week. He was in that class.

The newly minted pit boss and the floor supervisor came up to me and said she was ready to sign me off in about 20 minutes if I showed I could walk my game properly. That was the only concern still on the form, she said, and she thought in her opinion that I was doing it well enough to get signed off. Boy, I wanted to be signed off, but I had 2 reservations. I said that I still felt a little nervous, but I really enjoyed dealing, and if it was okay with them I would love to get the extra practice and do the full 4 hour shift. What I did not add was that with gas costing me $4.30 a gallon, it was costing me $14 to drive to and from work. I needed to deal at least an hour if I wanted to show a net profit for coming to work!

As on the previous days the time flew by. I wasn't as cold as yesterday, but I had my moments. Again the table limit was $15 to $5000. The big bettor at our table was a woman who was betting $50 to $100 a hand, and I couldn't deal her a good card to save my life. She asks to hit her 12, I give her a 10. She doubles down on 11 against my 6, I give her a 2 and then draw to 20. She was not happy. Three spots down from her was this other woman who I dealt about 5 blackjacks to, plus several winning poker side bets. She was playing the table minimum, but she was happy with me. At one point the big bettor threatened that she was going to urinate on my head if I kept giving her cards like I had been doing, and the other woman was inviting me to come sit on her lap after I tapped out for break. Hoo, boy. Where do they find some of these people?

One of the things you learn in the break room is to figure out where people work by what they are wearing. All of us dealers wear one uniform. The cage staff wear a uniform with the same color scheme but still a little different. People in business casual are probably working in Total Rewards or some other back of the house capacity. People in suits are probably floor supervisors and pit managers. And of course the cocktail waitresses--I mean "beverage servers". Ah, heck. Even the beverage servers call themselves "cocktail waitresses"--have their own uniform. Anyway, in walks this absolutely stunning blonde in this elegant black dress. The room quieted down noticably as every guy stopped talking to look. My shadow mentioned that she was a cocktail waitress in the high-limit pit; that they had special uniforms for them.

"That's cool," I said. "I guess I can understand that. Do we have special uniforms, too? Do they make us wear a tuxedo or something to deal in high-limit?"
"Nope. We wear the same old same old."
"Bummer."
"Tell me about it."

Eventually 7 o'clock rolled around and I found myself talking with the floor supervisor and the pit manager. They both congratulated me on getting signed off, and shook my hand. Woo hoo! I've done it! All I now had to do was to go down into steerage and talk to the guy who makes the dealers' schedules. When I met him, he put me in the computer and made my dealerhood official. From this time forward, I am no longer just someone studying to be a dealer. When somebody asks me what I do for a living, I can now actually, honestly, and officially say, "I'm a blackjack dealer for the Horseshoe!"

The scheduling guy laid out my plans for the next week. Sometime either very late Sunday night or very early Monday morning (July 20-21), the old boat will officially close down. I'm working all day Monday back at the dealer trailer, probably learning some new poker games. I'm off Tuesday, but Wednesday I go in for a 60-day Orientation Follow-up, and I get fitted for my new uniform for the MOAB. By Thursday the MOAB will be in place, and on that day I will probably go through an orientation on the new boat. Beyond that...we'll have to see.

OJT is now over.

I've officially arrived.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

WTG Tim.

And we can officially say we've got a real casino dealer on TalkVegas!

Report for Monday, July 21st

The main entrance to Horseshoe Hammond is from US 41. You turn onto an on-ramp which curves around and passes high over US 41, and then descends toward the parking garages. For the last several weeks, I saw the MOAB looking back at me as I came down the on ramp. Today, just beyond the MOAB, and blocking the entrance to the marina from Lake Michigan, was the old Horseshoe Boat. They had finally done it; the casino was now shut down, and the next time we walked into a blackjack pit it would be on board the new boat.

Security was at the bottom of the on-ramp, turning away disappointed customers, and waving through employees. I drove on through to the training trailers, and was pleasantly surprised to find that my usual parking lot was gated shut. This meant I could park up near the trailers and not out in Timbuktu. I got to the trailers to find out the place was mobbed, largely with people I had never met. The crowd was a mix of dealers who would be learning new games, and newly promoted floor supervisors and pit managers who were going through some kind of orientation. The Director of Table Games (he's two levels above a pit manager) gave us a brief rundown of the days and weeks ahead. The old boat officially ceased gaming operations around 2 a.m. this morning (about 7 hours prior to when the Director was speaking), and they were hoping to have a ceremony opening the MOAB sometime on Friday afternoon. Even though when I was signed off last week the Schedule Guy only gave me instructions through Thursday, the Director wants all of us dealers at the property by 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

All of us dealers went into our old blackjack training room. Most of the experienced dealers would be learning the same blackjack side games that we had learned in class about 3 weeks ago (Lucky Ladies and Blackjack Switch). The rest of us who already had those games would be taught how to deal Let It Ride, with a Bonus Poker Side Bet.

I had barely begun learning it when I and a few others were whisked away to officially get fitted for the new uniforms for the MOAB. As you might guess, we'll still have black shoes and pants. We'll be wearing what looks like a standard white dress shirt, rather than the tuxedo-style shirt with the pleated front that we currently wear. We will also all have vests and a matching bow tie that is color coordinated to where we will be dealing. For the main floor, where I will be, my vest and tie are gold with a paisley pattern. The high limit uniforms have the same paisley pattern but are in a dark bronze color. For the Asian area, which is where you'll find Pai Gow Poker, Tiles, and Mini-Baccarat, the vests and ties are royal blue with dragons and other Chinese symbols embroidered on them. Why blue? Remember our Asian cultural training? A dealer in a blue vest should be unlucky; all the luck at the tables will be with the players instead of the dealer.

After being fitted for wardrobe, we went for lunch at the Village Square Buffet. The entire property is closed right now, including all the restaurants. The Employee Dining Room staff have temporarily taken over the buffet. They weren't expecting such a crowd, and the lines were long. I ended up having to settle for a bowl of the Roasted Red Pepper and Crab Bisque, which was quite spicy and quite delicious. I was also able to grab some fried shrimp and some fettucini alfredo. The long lines didn't leave us with much time to eat, but we managed.

When we got back to the trailer we watched and practiced Let It Ride for the rest of the day. They made us take a quiz on it at the end. I got a 100%. Given all I have passed is a quiz I don't know if I am officially cleared to deal Let It Ride yet. No one officially auditioned me on it yet, which was the threshold for blackjack and Mississippi stud.

I'm off tomorrow. For now, anyway. The Director told us not to be surprised if our schedule is rather "fluid" this week what with the new boat opening. Wednesday I go back for a 60-day follow-up evaluation (has it already been that long?), and Thursday I suspect I will be going through an orientation on the MOAB.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

That's really cool Tim. It seems odd from my viewpoint that they would close one boat a few days before the other opened.

So when do you put in your Las Vegas transfer?

I got the impression that there was simply no way around it. The MOAB is going in exactly the same spot that the old boat was in. Clearly, they are in a mad dash to get the boat open for this weekend. The only days they want to lose are weekdays where they would have been slow anyway.

As for my Las Vegas transfer...seriously, give me maybe 2 years. A few of the supervisors who have worked in Vegas said that the town is full of hack dealers, and someone who actually has experience and knows what they are doing wouldn't find it hard to get a job out there.

Of course, right now I'm a hack dealer, but give me time.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

P.S. I think I've already made a difference! When I looked at the website for the MOAB, I found a misspelling of the name of one of the bands that will be performing at the Venue. They showed "Stone Temple Piolets", which of course should be "Stone Temple Pilots". I called the Horseshoe, and left a message for someone in Events. Wouldn't you know it, it's been fixed!

Of course, maybe they found it on their own. Either way, it's a good sign.

I'm enjoying reading your online journal. It will be fun for you to read when you are an old hand at all this. How are your shoes doing?
I saw that there was a bridge collapse at a Harrah's in your neck of the woods.........is everyone okay? Is that YOUR boat? Hope all is well.

Shoes are holding up nicely, thank you.

Yep, that was us. I don't know any more than what I read in the online article supplied by our local newspaper:

Walkway collapse sends Horseshoe workers into lake

Looks like the key passages are here:

"The enclosed walkway collapsed when the iron bracing on the barge underneath it gave way, according to Mike Summers, business manager for Iron Workers Local 395.

'Everyone is accounted for and besides the bump on the arm, everyone is OK,' Summers said.

The walkway was supported by bracing which was sitting on the new gaming barge, he said. That barge was being pushed toward the existing land-based pavilion when the bracing gave way."

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Glad everyone's okay............thanks for the update.

Tim - Congrats on officially becoming a dealer! I'm looking forward to coming down there and meeting you when you get your schedule. And please - take it easy on me!!

Tim, the dealer...has a nice ring to it, don't cha think?

Sharon and I have been talking about a possible feild trip to Indiana this winter.....Then I said...where exactly is Indiana, not sure if I have ever been in your state. Seems it's one of those I tend to fly over alot! LOL

BTW, Sharon is checking your posts more often then I am! Keep up the reporting, we are enjoying this a great deal!

GamblinTater:

I'll keep you guys updated on anything I can share that I find in the news. Since no one was seriously injured, the news media seems to have more or less given up on the story.

MikeD:

In fact, I did get my schedule! Some of it may still be in flux, though, because the opening of the MOAB has been pushed back a couple of days because of the walkway incident.

Lee-PA:

By all means, come and visit Chicago for a few days on vacation. I'm sure that I, Eric&Ellen, and MikeD can give you recommendations on where to stay, where to eat, and what to see and do. Horseshoe provides shuttlebus service to a few hotels downtown; the casino is barely a half-hour drive from the Loop. If I find out which hotels they service, I'll let you know.

Report for Wednesday, July 23rd.

One of the mindsets necessary to work at the Horseshoe, or maybe any rapidly changing industry for that matter, is an attitude of "I will accept change in a positive manner." In the wake of the walkway story from yesterday, I figured I would have to accept some change very soon.

This was a day that HR compared to a "class reunion". They rounded up about 30 of us who were all in orientation together back during the first week of June. They wanted feedback from us on our experiences, and any places that needed improvements. The general consensus was that we had all had a positive experience. We could tell things were fairly hectic, resulting in a few minor nuisances here and there, but most of us gave the company a pass on it since opening something like the MOAB is a big, big deal. We probably could not have joined the company at a more potentially chaotic time. Everybody is trying their best, but there still will be bumps in the road and we are more than willing to learn to handle them, because a job with this place seems to have a lot of upside.

After the "reunion" I went to the trailer to see if the new schedules had been posted. They were! And I was on it! As I was reading, the training director posted a memo announcing that the opening of the MOAB had been officially pushed back from 5 p.m. Friday to Noon on Monday.

Looks like I drew... Swing Shift! I was to report to the gaming trailer one last time on Friday from 4pm to 11pm. I then had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I would be dealing on the boat starting at 8 p.m. and going through until 4 a.m., 5:30 a.m., and 3 a.m., respectively.

After this, I went over to the Pavilion to grab something to eat. The EDR's takeover of the Village Square Buffet was still in effect. I grabbed a grilled pork chop with gravy and onions, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. I found a nice table with a great view of Gotham Cit--I mean, Chicago. Anyone who lives in Chicago and who has seen The Dark Knight (great flick, btw!) can tell you that Gotham City looks very familiar.

The pork chop was good, but pounded a little thin and just a bit tough. The plastic knives and forks we were given were clearly overmatched; I ended up having to eat it with my hands. The mashed potatoes and stuffing were quite good.

After the late lunch, I was done for the day and went home.


Report for Thursday, July 24th.

Boy, and I thought I was going to have to accept change in a positive manner yesterday!

I was running a little behind in the morning so I had to skip breakfast. I made it in plenty of time, however, only to find the dealer trailers mobbed. There were literally 300 of us there. This was madness! (or as Leonidas might say,"THIS...IS...HORSESHOE!!!!!")

Since we couldn't fit everyone into the building and still be within the fire code, we all adjourned outside to the nearby helipad where we held our buzz sessions. We were told that the opening of the MOAB had been pushed back now to Noon on Tuesday; they would get back to us before the end of the day on exactly what would happen to the people originally scheduled to deal on the MOAB this weekend. I wasn't scheduled to begin work until Tuesday, anyway.

They were also looking for volunteers to help move slot machines, gaming tables, and other equipment from the old boat to the MOAB. The only catch: we had to be there at 4 a.m. on Friday morning, and work until Noon. Since I liked the thought of getting a look at the MOAB as soon as possible, since I also liked the thought of being able to say that I helped set up the casino with my own sweat and muscle, and since I also want to build a reputation as being a good sport and a team player, I volunteered.

Since they couldn't fit everyone in the trailers for the moment, they allowed some people to go home if they wanted, and 1/4 of the people they sent on break immediately. Go get something to eat and come back in an hour, they said. Looks like I'd get to eat breakfast after all.

One of my classmates and I carpooled over to the property and went back to the EDR/Village Square Buffet. They had a small but fairly typical breakfast buffet. Danishes, muffins, oatmeal, grits, scrambled eggs, you get the picture. It was most notably lacking waffles or pancakes, and gravy for the biscuits. I'm not big on sweets for breakfast; I prefer a "balanced" breakfast of proteins, fats, and salts, so I grabbed eggs, bacon, a sausage patty and some hash browns. They also had corned beef hash which was good as well.

When we got back to the trailer, another group was sent on break and we began to learn another new poker game: Flop Poker. Here's how you play Flop Poker:

There are three betting circles for each player: Pot, Ante, and Flop. Everyone puts a bet of the table minimum on Pot, and another bet somewhere between table min and $25 on Ante. Everyone gets 3 cards dealt face down, and 3 cards are dealt face down to the dealer. All of the Pot bets are collected and put in the center of the layout in front of the dealer's cards. The object is to make the best five card poker hand you can out of your three cards and the dealer's three cards.

If you look at your hand and decide you want to continue and get a look at the dealer's cards, you put a bet in Flop that is equal to your bet in Ante. The dealer turns over his cards, the players put their cards down, and the dealer then goes around the table turning over cards and paying out winnings. The player needs at least Jacks or better to win anything on the Ante and Flop bets. The Ante bets always pay at even money, while the Flop bets pay out according to a predetermined pay scale.

Remember those Pot bets in the middle of the layout? They go to whichever player has the best hand at the table. Often no one has Jacks or better, so everyone loses their Antes and Flops, but the Pot bet ends up going to someone with a low pair. The nice thing about this set up is that as long as there are at least 2 players at the table, someone will win something every hand.

The pay scale for the Flop bets is: Royal Flush 1000-1, Straight Flush 500-1, 4 of a Kind 100-1, Full House 30-1, Flush 20-1, Straight 10-1, 3 of a kind 4-1, 2 pair 2-1, Pair of Jacks or better 1-1.

After a few hours of Flop Poker, we broke for a late lunch back at the EDR/VSB. They had more of that terrific Crab Bisque that they served on Monday, so I grabbed some of that. I also grabbed some steamed vegetables; after the big breakfast I wasn't particularly hungry. They were also serving baked catfish, which my lunch buddies said was flaky and delicious.

We finished back at the trailer with more Flop Poker and took a quiz on it. I'm pretty sure I answered everything correctly, but we didn't find out our scores.

At the end of the day we were taken outside. As our group was preparing to leave at 4 p.m., another group was coming in. They addressed the whole lot of us as one.

The opening of the MOAB is now officially scheduled for Noon on Tuesday. Every dealer has Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. If we still wanted to help move slot machines on Friday, that start time has been moved from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tomorrow night I'll be moving stuff onto the MOAB during the same shift on which I will be dealing. I am to report Monday evening to the Venue for a pre-opening rally and to pick up my new dealer's uniform.

I'm trying to figure out how to best shift my internal clocks from day to night. Anyone here have experience working nights?

I'll probably spend much of tomorrow sleeping during the day like I'm some sort of vampire. With any luck, Saturday night I'll have a report for you about my inside look at the new boat!

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

tim-curiosity overrides good manners,i have to ask what you think you will be earning one year down the road,or tell me it is a nunyo!

As a matter of fact, I have extensive experience with the night shift. About 30 years off and on. I change back and forth alot. It is a big change to the body clock and you need to adapt. You have the advantage of a lot of excitement with a new job, so you can get into a system now, your body will have adjusted before that new excitement wears off. You say 8pm to 4ish am? That's not too bad. At my job, that's the graveyard shift. My swing shift starts early afternoon and get off before midnight.

Girlfriends, pets, telephones, friends, family, etc. will be affected too. You don't call your parents at 3:00am, so they shouldn't be calling you at 3:00pm. Just let your loved ones know what you are going through and they will understand. Turn your phone ringers off when you go to bed.

Some of the biggest mistakes you can make is eating too much, going to sleep too early, and confusing caffine with metabolism.

Eating is almost a hobby to me. Eating big heavy meals make you tired at work. If you eat a big meal after work thinking it will help put you to sleep, it probably will except you will also wake back up in a couple of hours. When you get a break at work, do something to build metabolism instead of eating something that will drain your energy. Eat a piece of fruit outside while you take a walk as opposed to sitting down in a breakroom with a roast beef sandwich. I know you are on your feet a lot, but I'm sure you get the point.

Sometimes when you get off work, you are tired and want to sleep. If you go to bed then, you wake up 6 hours before the next shift and by the time you go to work, you are tired again. Get into a system to stay up 4 hours or so after work...as you would do on a day shift. Early on a weekday morning is an excellent time for grocery shopping, banking, library, and just about anything outside of fine dining and entertainment. Traffic is better and lines move faster and people are friendlier and less stressed. You can meet a lot of people in professions that work around the clock, such as law enforcement and medical. It's a little different in Las Vegas, but that's another story. I like waking up about 2 hours before my shift starts. That gives me leisure time to become fully awake and alert before I start to work. My first meal is usually something light like a salad or fish.

Some people pound 10 cups of coffee in a 2 hour period to get ready for work. Some people go for Monster or Rock Star energy drinks. I've found that the bigger boost you get from those things, the harder you crash when they start wearing off.

Bottom line is that if you go to work fresh, you won't need much to have a good night. If you get up too early, drink a few Monsters, or eat heavy, you aren't going to work fresh.

One trick that I adjust to on a case by case basis is how to adjust to weekends and get back on track. Depending on the weekend plans, going to bed early, or having some caffine to stay awake longer than normal could be a good thing. I sometimes break my first day off into two short days in that I get something done after work, take few hours nap, get up and finish the day like other people. In the 24 hours before you go back after your weekend, you might want to break that down into 2 short days with activities and naps. Just try to get a solid sleep period in before your shift so you can go in fresh.

One of my friends went through dealer school, and he was making about $22/hour with tips in our local tribal casino. That was about 5 years ago, so let's hope Tim benefits from inflation.

dagwash and DaisyDeuces:

My entire time at Horseshoe I've been making a flat $15 an hour. Now that I'm officially signed off as a dealer, I'll be making $5.25/hour plus tokes. The base pay goes up a bit every time you learn a major game.

From what I understand, all tokes earned during a week are pooled and then divided out according to how many hours someone worked during the week. According to the dealers, the toke rate averages between $15 and $16/hour, so I figure to be making about $20/hour. Not surprisingly, the management is hoping that with the excitement surrounding the new boat, we'll be able to push that toke rate higher. One of the pit managers told me that in the 10 years or so he had been here, the highest toke rate he had seen was about $23/hour. A lot of people are hoping we can reach that level during our grand opening.

One of my classmates lives near and knows people who work for the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, IN. She said that when the Four Winds Casino opened up in nearby New Buffalo, MI, the toke rate at Blue Chip fell from about $13/hour to $9/hour. I wonder if Horseshoe will have a similar effect on the toke rates at nearby Ameristar and Majestic.

JMT:

Thank you very much for the advice. I'll keep you guys up to date on what works and what doesn't for me.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Report for Friday, July 25th

I had volunteered to come in at 8 p.m. on Friday night to help move slot machines off the old Horseshoe boat and onto the new Horseshoe boat, the MOAB. As I approached the casino, I saw that the old boat had been moved from the back of the marina and was now sitting flush against the back of the MOAB.

Getting on board the MOAB was a little tricky. To all appearances, they have fully repaired the walkway that collapsed early Tuesday. Still, I had to use the construction entrance, which was a gravel road that led under the marina parking garage. No matter whether I came through the pavilion or the construction, though, I was about to get my first look at the new boat.

I walked through the doors, and...

WHOA! SERIOUSLY?? THIS IS AWESOME!!!

As one would hope, the MOAB is a huge upgrade from the old boat. Literally, it's about as a big of a jump from the Las Vegas Club downtown to the Monte Carlo on the Strip. The pavilion areas of Horseshoe were always nice, but the boat itself often seemed a little underlit, cramped, and smoky. The old casino would fit right in amidst the seedier, decaying places downtown, while the new casino easily would qualify as a mid-to-upper level Strip casino.

The casino has ceilings that are probably 15-20 feet high. The whole place is very brightly lit, with very large and sparkling chandeliers all over. The color scheme is various shades of brown, ranging from a very light beige on the ceiling to a dark, muted brown on the Romanesque columns (with bronze horseshoes on top!) throughout the casino, and with the expected assortment of tans, taupes, golds, and bronzes as well.

A few of us working were trying to figure out which strip casino it would compare to. Monte Carlo came up a lot; it's every bit as nice, but like with MC the theme of the casino is done in a tasteful and understated way. It's as nice as Treasure Island. If you de-themed Mandalay Bay from a tropical Southeast Asian motif, you could remodel it to look like the MOAB with little trouble. It's almost a forgotten Las Vegas property, but I think the Las Vegas Hilton also bears a resemblance to the new Horseshoe.

It looked like about 75% of the slot machines were in place. Slot technicians all over were working to hook up the machines. The table games still had plastic coverings on them. I counted about 65 on the main floor, and another 30 between the high-limit room and the Asian room (more on those later). The moving staff said they still had about 600 slots to move, and about 20 more gaming tables.

In the lone disappointment of the night for me, it looks like every blackjack table on the main floor now hits soft 17. If you want the dealer to stand on all 17s, you'll have to play in the high limit room. If I see something that contradicts this, I'll correct it.

Near the center of the casino is a bar. I've seen bars like this in Las Vegas. The bar is round, and sits on an elevated platform in the middle of the casino.

There is also a new game called Rapid Roulette, where people place their bets on individual video terminals instead of on a roulette layout. I'm not yet qualified to deal roulette, so I can't really speak with authority on this game.

Just off the main casino floor is the Asian gaming room. In it you'll find blackjack, mini-baccarat, and pai gow poker and tiles. The room is done in bright reds and golds, and quite frankly it looks they used the same interior designer as some of the trendier Chinese restaurants in downtown Chicago. High black ceilings, track lighting, lots of asymmetrical design. Even the table layouts have a different color scheme from the rest of the casino.

Also off the main floor is the high limit area. There was still some construction going on in there; it didn't look as finished as the main floor or the Asian room. $5 slots and up are in one room, and the table games are in an adjoining room.

There is also a separate poker room, a sports book, and what looks like a sports bar called Vintage 51. I didn't get a good look at any of them, because by this time I had to begin doing what I actually came to do: move slot machines.

Ugh.

It turned out that they had pushed back the start time for the dealers who had signed up from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. They didn't have my phone number, so I never got called, and showed up at 8 anyway.

No big deal, so I just joined the other staff who were moving slot machines already. We would go on to the old boat where a slot machine would be strapped to a large dolly, and would be tagged with a letter and number telling you were in the casino it was supposed to go. Simple, right?

Well, it's simple in theory, but when you're pushing a 200-lb slot machine the length of 2 football fields across carpet that adds a healthy amount of resistance...theory and practice become two very different things, my friends. I knew this was going to be hard work, but this was brutal. In about 3-1/2 hours I moved 20 slot machines, but I was beat. There was no way I could keep going like this until 4 a.m. This was a challenge worthy of "The Biggest Loser" TV series.

The staff understood how difficult the work was, and said they appreciated even 1 moved slot machine. There were no hard feelings at all when I threw in the towel shortly before midnight. At least I got paid for the time, and my guess is that I will get "pin points" for this as well. "Pin Points" are an in-house recognition and reward program with Harrah's. Accumulate so many points, and you get to wear a pin on your name tag to show off what a great employee you are. Oh, and the pin points are also redeemable for cash at the end of the year.

Even after I stopped hauling slot machines, my muscles continued to scream at me for putting them through that ordeal this late at night. A good night's sleep didn't shut them up, and they continued to whine and moan at me during all of Saturday as well. By Sunday morning the soreness was gone and I was no longer walking like an 80-year-old man.

Soreness aside, I felt good. I actually made a tangible contribution to opening the new casino. How many people get to say that? Now that I've seen the MOAB, I'm really excited about working in it. Tomorrow afternoon I go in for a pre-opening rally and to pick up my new uniform. Tuesday night, it's showtime.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer