LtotheO,

I hope you were hired to be a beverage server on the casino floor; we need all the help we can get!

I've seen three types of uniforms on the casino floor:

The standard uniform has a black and maroon color scheme. It has a bustier top with shoulder straps, and bloomer-style shorts. There is also a matching flared miniskirt that you can wear over the bloomers, as well as an optional short maroon jacket (cut like what a bull-fighter might wear). It seems like half the servers are wearing the skirts, and the other half go just with the bloomers. Depending on your body type, you may or may not end up showing scandalous amounts of cleavage with the bustier top. The only servers I've seen wearing the jackets are over 40. Most of the servers are in their 20s; the oldest I've seen I'd probably put at about 50. I've seen all body types, from size 0 to plus size, from 4'11" to 6'1".

In the VIP sections the servers wear knee-length black halter dresses. I think they look very beautiful and elegant; much classier than the Old West Bordello scheme of the standard outfits.

In the Push Bar, which is the circular bar in the center of the casino, the servers are wearing black slacks and what looks like a black corset top that laces up the back. I'm not accusing Horseshoe of anything here, but it seems like most of the Push Bar servers are of the tall, leggy, and slender build. I think I have yet to see one under 5'7". Maybe it's just coincidence.

All servers are required to wear nylons and black dress shoes. Most wear flats or low heels so they can walk around as quickly and as comfortably as can be expected.

The customers have treated the servers fairly well in front of me; I haven't seen anyone be abusive, grabby, or overly lecherous. You may have to put up with a bit of flirting from the customers. Usually, they'll wait until you're out of earshot before making the lewd comments:
"Holy ****, Tim, did you see the [insert body part here] on that waitress?? Hey, is she single?"

I've told you all I know about the beverage servers in the casino. I work in the Table Games department, and I don't have much contact with people outside my department. If you're wondering about whether you keep your own tips or pool them, I couldn't say. Sometime during your orientation--probably Wednesday--you'll have a department-specific orientation which hopefully will answer those questions. I've heard the servers make $10/hour.

I hope this helps! Be sure to say hi if you see me in the EDR some day.

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Tim,

Obviously Lee and I haven't played at your table if you haven't seen anyone "overly leacherous" with the cocktail servers!

senatorjm:

ROTFL!

Anything you'd like to share or confess to, Senator? Or should I just keep an eye on the National Enquirer?

"Dateline - Hammond, IN: In the latest sex scandal to rock the world of politics, Senator JM and an as-yet-unidentified Pennsylvania man were removed from the Horseshoe casino last night after several female beverage servers complained about the behavior of the senator and his associate. A Horseshoe blackjack dealer, who gave only his first name Tim, claimed to have been dealing blackjack to the two men and described their behavior as 'lecherous, lascivious, and downright lewd.'"



Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Tim, Harrah's and I have an agreement. We aren't best of friends and we tread lightly as we cross paths. However, they did send me an email and the first thing in it was

The All-New Horseshoe Hammond Casino
Just 20 minutes from downtown Chicago, Horseshoe Hammond has some major surprises in store. On August 8, the all-new Horseshoe Hammond casino will be unveiled, including 108,000-sq.-feet of gaming action, 3,200 slots, hot new lounges and delectable restaurants. The Venue will boast the biggest names in show-stopping entertainment.


It also had links to the website. It sounds like a very nice place.

Thank you Tim,

I know i wish i was in the high roller i am a floor server though...

One more question I am so eager to find out...are we paid weekly or biweekly?

JMT:

My aunt who lives in New York (Ellen's sister) got the same mailing. I must confess I'm pretty surprised that they are sending them out given that we don't have a hotel! Then again, we have shuttlebus service to a number of Chicago hotels.

LtotheO:

We're paid biweekly at the Horseshoe. The pay period runs from Friday to Thursday, and you're paid on the following Thursday. So, if the pay period starts on Friday the 1st, it ends on Thursday the 14th, and you'll be paid on Thursday the 21st. Our most recent payday was this past Thursday, the 14th. So this Thursday the 21st is the end of the pay period.

This means that your first paycheck that you'll get on the 28th will have only 4 days on it! You'll have to wait until September 11th before you get your first full check. I hope you have a little socked away.

Tim

Today we got our badges. hopefully i will see you on the MOAB soon! thanks!!

HI TIM,
I think i saw you in the EDR, but was not sure if it was you to say HI i think we were sitting at the same table watching TV.

Some of you may be wondering what happened to the regular "Tim the Dealer" updates. Truth be told, now that I'm settling into a routine, I'm trying to figure out how best to proceed with this thread.

At my request I had my schedule changed from swing shift to the graveyard shift. I have one class remaining to pass before I get my degree, and the move to graveyard lets me hit that class on the way home from work instead of having to make a special trip. It also lets me get more sleep!

My new schedule these days is:
Saturday - 11:30 pm to 7:30 am
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday - 9:30 pm to 7:30 am

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Tim, I find your updates invaluable. It is very much appreciated. OTOH, Please don't let it interfere with your education. There are a lot of people that think it's cool to be irresponsible. I'm sure you see them all the time.

Post when you can. I work 9:30 to 7:30 too and I know how hard it is to do extra stuff after work.

I'm curious about the changes on your new shift. The table assignments, the ups and downs, the quality of players, the tips, etc.

Thanks again!

Wow, has it really been a month since I've posted here?

At this point I've been a full-time dealer on the casino floor for two-and-a-half months. I have definitely settled in. A number of the other dealers and supervisors recognize me and know me, as well as a couple of the more regular customers. I've worked all different shifts, and have seen the differences between them. These days I work Wednesday through Sunday, from 1:30 pm to 9:30 pm. I deal quickly and more smoothly, and I have long since stopped sweating buckets. While I doubt I'd want to do this for the rest of my working life, I'm definitely relaxed, comfortably, and generally happy with my new career.

By far the slowest part of the casino day is the morning, from about 6 a.m. to noon. A number of the tables have closed for the gambling business day, and most of the dealers are doing things like cleaning layouts, counting cards (making sure that the table actually has 6 or 8 complete and proper decks), and prepping new decks for play. Frequently I work in Pit 5, which is a collection of 8 blackjack tables near the cage cashiers and the entrances to the high-limit rooms. During this dead time, usually only 2 of those tables are open, one at a $15 minimum and the other at a $25 minimum. We jokingly refer to it as "the suburbs" because it's right outside the high-limit area and tends to have a more upscale clientele than the other 2 blackjack pits, which we sometimes call "the ghetto" or "the 'hood". One pit in particular is a substantial walk across the casino; I've seen it referred to as "the boonies" and "Mars". Good and bad people play at all tables, though; I've dealt to terrifically fun and cheery people in the ghetto, the suburbs, and high-limits, and I've also dealt to insufferable jerks in all three locations as well.

These days when I start work at 1:30 pm, I first go to the locker room to put on my vest and bow tie. I read the "Daily Deal", the in-house company newsletter, to catch up on the latest promotions, events, and mandates. I then join the other dealers for the "buzz" session, and then get my table assignment from the pencil. Lately, the pencil has been one of the instructors I had in dealer school. "Tim, go up and take 507. That'll be your table for the shift."

Table 507 is in pit 5, the suburbs, and is usually either a $15 or a $25 table. On Friday or Saturday nights, when we have a big-ticket event at the Venue that brings in a well-moneyed crowd, I've even seen the limit bumped to $50. Only seen it twice, though, and each time mine was the only table in the pit that high. On a weeknight, when all tables are open, usually half the tables will be $15 and the other half $25. At our peak times, between 9 pm and 3 am on Friday and Saturday nights, it's not unusual for all 8 tables in the pit to be $25. All tables in pit 5 hit soft 17, and all offer the optional "Lucky Ladies" side bet. This is a side bet that pays if I deal you a 20 on your first 2 cards. About 1 person in 5 plays the side bet all the time, 2 in 5 play it as the mood strikes them, and the other 2 refuse to give it the time of day. It's a low level bet from $1 to $5 that starts paying at 4 to 1.

I walk up to pit 5. The pit manager may or may not be there. If so, I introduce myself to him or her and say which table I'm covering. If no pit boss is present, the floor supervisor will do. In pit 5 we usually have 2 floorpeople at a time, each one covering a square of 4 tables. Floor supervisors work in staggered shifts, like we do, and have relief supervisors tap them out as well. It's not at all unusual for a dealer to have 4 different floorpeople over the course of an 8 hour shift. I may be working 1:30 to 9:30, but Mike is working the floor from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, and every two hours Jeremy comes by to relieve him for half an hour. At 5:30, I'm still dealing, but Mike and Jeremy have gone home to be replaced by Beth, who will be working until 1:30 am, and her relief Dennis.

The pit boss comes by and unlocks the tray cover and the drawer where the cards are kept. We put the cards out on the layout, but we keep the tray of cheques covered. For now, I'll start counting down two shoes of 8 decks each; later on the floor supervisor will come by and we'll count down the cheques in the tray together. Counting down decks can get to be pretty tedious. The entire process of opening a table usually takes 30-45 minutes. Once I have 8 proper decks, I wash the cards, do a complete hand shuffle, and then stick them in the automatic shuffling machine to be machine shuffled. While the machine is shuffling the 8 decks I just put in, I start counting down the other 8 decks. I wash and hand shuffle those as well, and then stick them in the discard rack. This second shoe won't go into the shuffling machine until I take out the first shoe that is now sitting ready in the machine for the table's first player. Oh, yeah, by "washing the cards", I mean we basically dump all 8 decks face down on the layout and swirl them back and forth, up and down, left and right for 2 full minutes.

With the cards all done, the floor supervisor comes by and we start to count what we have in the tray. In the tray is a little yellow slip from when the table was closed several hours earlier. That slip tells us how much of each color we have. The tray has 12 tubes, which are rounded rows for cheques to go in. Every table on the main floor will have 1 tube for purple ($500), 2 tubes for black ($100), 1 tube for white ($1), and 1 tube for pink ($2.50). How the other 7 tubes are divided 4-3 between $25 green and $5 red depending on what the table limit will be. A $25 table will have 4 tubes of green and 3 of red; a $10 or $15 table will have 4 of red and 3 of green. Lower denomination cheques in the outside tubes, with the bigger ones inside. The purple tube is dead center and surrounded on each side by a black tube. Usually the white tube is on my left and the pink tube is on my right. A $15 table tray usually goes, from left to right $1-$5-$5-$25-$100-$500-$100-$25-$25-$5-$5-$2.50. On a $25 table, the 2nd $5 tube on the left becomes a $25 tube.

The cheques in each tube are lammered off into full stacks of 20. We have these little nickel-sized clear plastic discs called "lammers", and we use them to separate the cheques into groups for fast and easy counting. If we don't have enough to make a full stack, we lammer off the partial stack into groups of 4 or 5, depending on the denomination. Each tube is long enough to accommodate 3 full stacks.

The floor tells me to take out a stack of purple and break it down to verify that it is indeed a full stack of 20 cheques, and not 19 or 21. It's all good. From there we count the tray and make sure it matches last night's shift. Let's see...we've got $24,000 in purple, and $8700 in black. We go through more black than you might think, particularly when we color people up. The floor notes we have enough room for another full stack of black and prepares to order it for a table fill. We've got $1250 in green, and $640 in red. Ouch. We definitely need more red and green. Whoever dealt at this table last night was a friggin' dump truck; the dealer was practically giving money away. We have $127.50 in pink, which is fine, and $77 in white, which is pretty heavy. I have so many white cheques that we had to move one stack of them into a tube meant for red. Normally the floor frowns on dropping white cheques into the toke box. We have a little tube on the side of the table that we stick the $1 tokes in, and then we color the tokes up to red and drop the $5 cheques instead. This time, though, he instructs me to color my tokes down to white until I have about $50-$60 in white left in the tray.

Satisfied that the tray is in order, we both sign off of the tray count and declare the table officially open for business. As I neatly take the 8 decks out of the discard rack and spread them into 2 arcs on the layout, the floor places an order for a table fill. About half and hour or so later, a security guard will come by bearing several stacks of green and red, as well as one stack of black with which to refill the table. The floor makes sure that the table limit sign to my left reads correctly: "Minimum Bet $15, Maximum Bet $10,000". The floor wanders off to do his thing as I stand patiently and smile at passing customers.

Within a few moments, my first customer arrives. I greet him as I take the cards from the discard rack and put them in the shuffler. As those cards go in, the other shoe that I put in be shuffled 5 paragraphs ago comes out. I turn the cards on their side as I offer them to him to be cut. He cuts, I move the back part to the front, and then put the shuffle card about 75% of the way in. I stick the 8 decks in the shoe, and burn the top card. The customer wants to see the burn card. No problem! I turn over the 6 of spades. That's a good one to get rid of.

He plops cash down on the layout along with his Total Rewards card. As I count down the cash, the floor supervisor comes over and greets him. The gambler gave me $350. I count out 10 green cheques, and then a full stack of 20 red ones. "Changing 350!" I call out. "350. Go." responds back the floor, as he enters the buy-in into the computer using the players Total Rewards card. I push the stacks of cheques over to the player, and both the floor and I wish him good luck.

This last paragraph will be repeated about 50 times over the course of my shift. On a $15 game, most everyone buys in for between $100 and $300, and then later reaches for more.

And that, my friends, is how a blackjack table opens every day.


Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

I used to hate the rare mornings when I had to count in a till, and they only held $75<g>.

This was a fascinating tour of so much that we take for granted from the other side of the table. I've often wondered how accurate the count was when a pit critter would appear with clipboard in hand at a table where I was playing. It would look so casual as the supervisor and dealer would count the tray, but you make me think they knew that total down to the last 25 cent coin in the tray.

The $15 to $10,000 limits are amazing to this little guppy - what's the largest bet you've taken so far?

DaisyDeuces:

I'm required to keep all black and purple thoroughly lammered off at all times. Every 45 minutes or so the floor comes around and does a quick glance to see if any black or purple have gone in or out. He might also have my lammer off the red and green so he can get a more accurate count, but that's only once or twice a shift, normally. They watch black and purple like a hawk, though.

The largest single bet I've had was in high limits where a guy bet $2500 on one hand. The most anyone has ever had riding was this same guy, where his initial bet was $1875, he split a pair, and then doubled down on one of the split hands. He had a total of $5625 riding on the outcome. I drew to, I think, 18. He lost one hand, but he won his double down, so in the end he came out ahead on the hand.

Every once in a while on the main floor you'll get a fairly heavy bettor who just doesn't like the crowd in high-limits at the time. One morning I had this guy come out of high limits and sit at my table as I was just opening it. He bet using mostly black with some green, going from $100 to $750 a hand, and the table minimum was only $25. He had been in the casino all night, but some guy in high limits, he said, was drunk and loud and he was having a hard time concentrating, so he came out to the main floor.

That's another interesting dichotomy regarding the casino at 10:30 am. Half of the people are senior citizens arriving on a daytime bus trip, and the other half are the rowdy, hard-core gambling drunks who still haven't gone home from the previous night.


Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

Tim -

Thank you again for yet another fascinating look into the world of being a dealer. I love all the detail you include in your posts!

Your current hours are much more in line with mine and you just might see me down there one of these days. I hope, however, you're working a $15 table so I won't get wiped out too quickly!

Regards,

Mike

Tim,
Thank You!
I do enjoy your day to day stuff posted here.
My favorite time to play BJ was always real late at night 3 to 7am as the drunks slowly left and the sun came up. Although I must admit, I would usually be in the drunk catagory as well by that time of day...er night, whatever!
I'm sure by now you've noticed the different types of drunk players, the talkers, the spillers, the loud, the happy, the angery, and the bossy.
I don't know if The Horseshoe allows this, but I've been known on occasion to ask for the min to be raised as to keep some of the above people away from my table. The bossy drunks are the worst, and the spiller is no fun either, I'm guessing, your ok with the spiller, so long as it doesn't get in your tray!
The worst spill I've even seen was done to me....The cocktail waitress was delivering my drink, she takes my used glass out of the cup holder thingy, and gets distracted by a pit critter as she is setting my fresh drink into the holder, hits the side of the holder (not in it) and leaves the glass go a little early, figuring it was in it's holster. WRONG, a whole drink spills, ice and everything into the dealers tray. Talk about stoping the game.
Does anyone remember Max Rubin's book, where he suggested spilling a drink to get rated for more time on a BJ table? I think there is a line somewhere and that advice crosses it! LOL

MikeD:

When you're finally able to come to the Horseshoe, make sure you say "Hi!", even if they have me dealing at a $25 table.


Lee-PA:

I think Horseshoe allows it in certain cases. I remember one night in high-limits we raised the minimum on a table from $100 to $300 so one customer could effectively have the table to himself.

Another feature unique to the BJ tables in high limits are the "No Mid-Shoe Entry" signs. One morning we had a guy come out of high limits and start playing at my $25 table on the main floor. He was my only customer that morning. He asked the pit boss that if he bet a minimum of $50--just as he was doing earlier in high-limits, could he please have the "No Mid-Shoe Entry" sign--just as he had earlier in high-limits. The pit boss granted his request.

I had a guy one night spill his beer onto the layout. He was at first base and the only other player was at third. When he knocked over his bottle, it essentially made the middle 2 spots unplayable, and it soaked 3 cards. We dried the layout as best we could, but in the end we simply had to close off those 2 spots for about 90 minutes while the table air-dried. We also went to our spare decks, and pulled out the same 3 cards. "Okay, Mike, we're gonna need a 9 of hearts, a 6 of clubs, and a King of diamonds."

Cheers,


Tim the Dealer

Tim -

Two questions:

- When you raise the table limit, do you still "grandfather" the persons sitting at the table who have been playing at a lower limit? In my experience, most casinos in Vegas do this although a friend of mine complained they didn't do this when he was playing at Caesar's.

- If all the players at a table are non-smokers, can they make a request to make the table a non-smoking table? I've had success in doing this at a few casinos (Bellagio comes to mind) but not others (Luxor).

MikeD:

I've never seen anyone grandfathered in. If the table limit is going up, the floor announces it, but everyone gets advance notice of at least one full shoe. (i.e. I'm a little less than halfway into the shoe at a $15 table. The floor comes up to me and says that not after this shoe, but after the next one, we're going to $25.)

Also, there are seven levels of minimum bets at our blackjack tables: $10, $15, $25, $50, $100, $300, and $500. When the table minimums are raised, I've never seen it raised more than one level. I've also noticed that most people are willing to play at the next higher level; it's very rare to see someone leave a $10 table because the limit went up to $15. It's a little more common, maybe 1 in 10, for someone to get up when the limit jumps from $15 to $25.

As for smoking vs. non-smoking tables, they accommodate those requests in high limits, but not on the main floor. At least, I've never seen them do it on the main floor.

Cheers,


Tim the Dealer

Tim,
Looks like I have a Chicago trip in my future.
Sharon has training on a new computer system in a place called crystal lake??? I'm told it's near Chicago??? Or atleast close enough!
It looks like the weekend of Jan 16 to 19.
If all goes according to plan, I will look for you at the Shoe!

Lee - I hate to burst your bubble but Crystal Lake is in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago. It's at least 50 miles to downtown Chicago. And the Horseshoe is something like another 20-25 miles southeast from downtown.

And Sharon's training is in January? Have you ever been to Chicago in January? Make sure you bring thermal underwear, parkas, dog sleds, and shovels. You can probably rent the dogs when you get here.

Truthfully, if you want casino action while you're in Crystal Lake, I think the casinos in Wisconsin would be closer and much easier to get to (no awful Chicago traffic).