The Horseshoe and Poker

So yeah, I decided to make a blog. I'll spare everyone the whole "this is me" intro first entry, because either a) you already know a little bit about me, b) you probably don't really care, or c) I don't really care. I'll go with c.

Anyways, sometime in the middle of May, the 17th or so, I started working at the Horseshoe Casino as a Table Games Dealer. My job is awesome. I play cards all day long with other people's money, and when I lose, I get tips, unless I have stingy bastards at my table. The only problem I have with my job is that it has seriously taken away from my poker life.

When I was 8 or 9, I taught myself how to play by looking up "poker" in an encyclopedia. I read up on the rank of hands, as well as how to play standard 5 card draw. We had an old set of those plastic poker chips in a Dutch Masters cigar box (pretty good smokes for as cheap as they are), and an endless supply of playing cards in our junk drawer. I never had anyone else to play against, so naturally I carried on a four player game of 5 card draw with myself quite often. Yep, I started playing with myself at 8 yrs old (pun totally intended).

A while later I remember seeing the final table of the WSOP on ESPN way before the game got poular. It was on in the middle of the day during summer vacation in a slot generally reserved for basket weaving, llama riding, and other big name sports. After learning the terminology and procedures of the game, I switched from 5 card draw to Texas Hold 'Em. Again, all by myself. Luckily, in about 4 or 5 years the poker boom would hit, and suddenly I had other people to play against.

The first night I played hold 'em for money was on a fluke. One of my former roommates had bought Rounders, and after watching it, wanted to play some poker. We all bought in for $5 around 1:00am and played with a 5 cent ante (no one understood blinds yet). The game lasted until 4:00 in the afternoon, we took a nap, and started playing again around 8:00pm. It wasn't long before we were playing almost every night with a revolving group of people.

Eventually it evolved into a $20 buy-in .25/.50 blinds bi-weekly event with the same group of 8-10 people. I used to keep track of my wins and losses, and found that poker had become a productive second job for me (I was averaging $60 a week profit, save a few bad nights where I'd drop $60 or so). In fact, both times I lost my job, playing poker helped make ends meet until I found a job.

So what does all this have to do with my job? Well since I started dealing I have played poker all of one time. A 6-person $20 tournament where I finshed 3rd as my AA lost to JJ when he flopped a set (I was all-in preflop). I miss playing poker, but it just doesn't fit my schedule anymore. Luckily, I recently found out that employees of the Horseshoe Casino can now play poker in our poker room. Apparently it had something to do with some study they did in Vegas where dealers were turning down jobs because they couldn't play poker where they worked, so they changed the rules.

Wow, how's this for irony. As i sit here writing this, I got a call from a friend of mine, and we're putting a game together for tonight. How's that for timing?

That's all for now. Later.