Ahhhhhh, Ketel One, how I love thee.  Ok, I’m going to answer the questions raised by FoolsGold and X Roulette Queen in a minute but first I have to tell you a story about tonight.

In the lobby bar at work we have these eternal flame candles that decorate two walls.  I don’t have a picture of them but they’re frosted glass bowls, about the size of cereal bowls, which are hooked up to natural gas.  Now, from time to time the flames go out and anyone that’s had gas in their house knows that after a few minutes you can smell it.  So anyway, the smell of gas is starting to get pretty bad.  Have no fear, here comes a bar back with a matchbook.

Every heard the expression, don’t check for a gas leak with a match?  Yep, you guessed it, my boy lights a match and BOOM!  Now, here’s where it gets funny.  Evidently he learned his lesson because now he’s striking matches and throwing them at the bowls to get them to light.  I stood there, on a live game, mesmerized, just waiting for this kid to set the lobby bar on fire.

In the comments for yesterday’s post, FoolsGold and someone else accused me of being unprofessional for calling one of my bacc players a cocksucker.  I would love to argue with them but I can’t.  They’re absolutely right.  There is no excuse for that.  Instead, I’m going to try and let you in on my thinking at the time, not as an excuse, but in an attempt to let you into my mind.

First, I want to give you an example that will be relevant for the rest of the story.  A woman I didn’t know and had never seen before sits down at my table and I start chatting her up.  Turns out she’s George.  She only played for about 30 minutes but I made 150 dollars from her.   Just to give you an example, for the other seven and half hours of my shift I made 10 dollars.

Now, here is the problem with the Rock in particular and local joints in general.  You see the same people every night.  This is great for the players that are nice and tip because everyone is glad to see them and you can actually develop a good relationship with them.  However, for the fleas, it ruins you’re night because you know you’re working for free.

But it isn’t just the fact that their stiff.  They go out of their way to make your job difficult.  If you have a full table on Blackjack there’s a good chance that one of the people is an asshole.  That isn’t that bad because the odds are, the other six people aren’t.  You can go about your business having fun with the other six people and just ignore the asshole.  On bacc, this isn’t possible.

I understand that everybody’s job has something about it that sucks; that’s why it’s work.  But we all put up with those things because we enjoy getting paid.  Some people have jobs that provide them with personal fulfillment but mine isn’t one of them.

I would like for everyone that isn’t a dealer to take a second and mentally put your self in my place.  You have to stand for long periods of time doing repetitive work for eight hours.  You’re employee doesn’t care enough about you to even make sure the air you breath is clean and they only pay you minimum wage and tell you to fend for yourself.  I’m not complaining, I’m telling you what it’s like in my world.  I know full well that I pick this business and could leave if I wanted too.

Now, add to this seven people that are openly rude and going out of their way to make doing your job as difficult as possible.  To top all of that off, you have been putting up with this behavior for the last 14 months from the same people.  From experience you know you’re not getting a fucking dime.  Why would I bother trying to make their experience fun?

Imagine myself and six of my friends following you around at work, being rude to you and doing everything we can to make your job as difficult as possible.  Now imagine my friends and me  showing up every day.  For fourteen months.  Then imagine your boss telling you he’s going to pay you minimum wage and if you want to make more money then you should get my friends and I to tip you. 

You ask why I would say that to players that might tip me.  My answer is simple.  I know I wasn’t going to get tipped.  All of the people at the table were a known quantity.  I would never say something like to someone I didn’t know.  But seriously, if you’ve stiffed me for fourteen months, I know how the story ends.

Peace, love and good happiness stuff.

Matt

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