I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.

I have worked Sun-Thurs for about 4 months now. Being on the extra board doesn't guarantee a fixed schedule, but that is how is works out usually. Last night at work I was mentally doing the "It's my Friday" routine. I woke up this morning knowing that it was the first of three days off. I leisurely did the online routine checking out several bulletin boards and blogs. I then decided that I would head out and possibly hit the DMV. I moved a little over two months ago so I suppose I should update my address with them. On the way to the DMV I saw a Salvation Army store that I had not been to before. I collect all types of casino related items such as chips, ashtray and postcards and have occasionally hit the mother lode at thrift stores. Anyway, as I entered the store around 2:15 my phone rang. It was Robert at the Palms asking if I was working today. I asked him if today was Thursday and he said it was. I told him that I had not planned to work today since it was indeed Thursday and I didn't work on Thursdays. Guess what? He makes the schedule and I truly WAS on the schedule for today. Well shit! I told him I would be there as soon as possible and headed home to dress for work. Turns out that I was only an hour late but I still hate being late. I can't even imagine how many hours of my life have been wasted by my need to be early to everything. The whole "fashionably late" thing is totally lost on me.
Things at work have certainly picked up lately as the entire poker world has converged on Las Vegas. Being across the street from the Rio has resulted in us picking up the overflow. The tournamants are going well with the $200 events realizing a first place award of $25,000+ in many cases. The no limit action in our room has been off the charts. Tuesday night (at least I THINK it was Tuesday night) there was a player in the $2-5 blind NLH ($500 max buy in) game who cashed out $7200. You don't amass that many chips with tables full of rocks. As a side note, in that game chips over $5 and cash doesn't play. He had chips stacked so high that he had a hard time seeing over the stacks. Turns out that he runs an underground poker room somewhere in Texas. I told him that I collect chips and asked him if his room had custom chips. They do and he had one of the chip graphics in his phone. I asked him to bring me a chip for my collection on his next trip. He promised that he would.
On the chip collecting front, I belong to the Casino Chips and Gaming Tokens Collectors Club. I just received my Lifetime membership in the mail today. Now all I have to do is live for 15 more years to make it a worthwhile investment.

The no smoking experiment in the Palms Poker Room seems to be going well. Of course it is too early to tell how it will pan out since there are so many poker players in town for the WSOP. Once the series is over it remains to be seen how it will impact out room. I have heard mostly praise with a few grumbles thrown in. My guess is that the no smoking thing is here to stay and I have to say that even though I smoke, it is nice to not have to fade that cloud at work every night.

Last Sunday night after work I got into a $3-6 dealers choice game. This is not something that is usually spread, but in the tournament room there are plenty of tables set up for live action and they will spread whatever is demanded. There was even a must move $3-6 dealers choice feeder game (this is the one I played in). How often to you get to play 2-7 triple draw and hold 'em high/low at $3-6 limits? Not often. All of the players in my game were poker dealers. We were drinking and betting up a storm. It was the most fun I have had in a casino poker game in a long time even if I did dump $49 dollars. I don't think any of us made a substantial amount of money........except for the actual dealers. This is a poker dealer's dream........to deal to a table full of dealers. Paradise found.

My online experiment is not going well. It started out alright and in the first seven S-N-Gs that I played in I finished 9,3,9,3,2,4 and 1. The next 5 or so were all duds and I am debating the wisdom of playing them. There is something about the experience of playing in a casino that I like that can't be duplicated by playing online. Maybe I am not really a hermit-at-heart after all.

Perhaps I'll hit the DMV in the early AM. Assuming that it is a typical trip to the DMV I should be ready to play some poker afterwards..sometime around 5PM.