Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[relaedgc]

It's those really small things that make a difference. Courtesy goes a long way. When you get up and say "Thanks, guys. Good luck" and you get silence back without any thank you's it really isn't very nice. But what can you do.

You do it again next time and the time afte that, because ur the better person..

Always with a smile!

[Ironside]

persoanlly i ilke to wind the dealers up as i would any player
and so far very few have taken offence and most give as good as they get back

[M3boy]

It was Anthony I believe that managed to upset her and yes, I don't doubt she wasn't serious. She said something along those lines to Anthony himself.  Sad to say but we're not perfect and mistakes are always going to happen, most of them being genuine mistakes not down to us being careless or lazy. We can only ask that you embrace and accept them as part of the game, just as that miracle river we dealt you last week is all part of the game. We try our best, I assure you.

I don't think anyone really realises just how much abuse the dealers do get in any given shift and those players that are always polite and friendly are great to have on your table. It means a lot to us just to have someone say "Hello, how are you doing?" rather than "Oh bloody hell, not this ***** again" - a comment that you hear fifty times a night and it does grate. A lot of us are asked to stay behind or even give up our holiday to come in, especially festivals, to help cover it. I gave up my first weekend off in two months to come help out for the APAT weekend event that was running and I definitely wasn't the only one.  That said, we don't want or expect everyone to say "that's really kind of you and it's appreciated" because at the end of the day we do get paid to do it. We just want to enjoy ourselves and get on with our jobs and get home like the rest of you. Abusiveness just means we end up stressed, make mistakes and are less likely to stay next time. Next time a DC game is running, and the two people mentioned are playing, it's not likely that Anthony would stay on extra to deal it for people like that, and those instances do stick in your mind. It's very intimidating and very difficult for us to be face to face with people that can say whatever they like and we have to sit and take it all. So much as a comment back and you're in the office taking a verbal ear bashing. You all like your poker and that's great, we enjoy our jobs and are happy to deal it. It's one of those cases whereby if everyone made it easy for us, we can make it easy for them. The second someone makes you feel small and tiny, your confidence goes out the window and you become nervous which in turn just makes you even worse. Try to remember that the dealers are just doing their jobs, and mistakes  do happen. If you're unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end, then try to understand we didn't do it as a personal slight against you. Call us every name under the sun outside while you have a cool down cigarette, even, but if you do it on the tables and make a dealer feel like dirt then you're just going to shatter their confidence and more mistakes are bound to happen.

I wouldn't dream of going into someone elses place of work and talking to people the way I am talked to. Perhaps I just have a very outdated sense of morals and sense of etiquette.

Sorry, everyone, that became so much longer than I had intended.

Having said that, the Luton crowd, besides the odd one or two is great and I actually do enjoy going to work, funny as it sounds.

Well said.

I will always try and "calm" down a nervous dealer or a dealer that makes a mistake - this way they are far less likely to make another mistake in a short space of time.

If I feel a dealer is being given a hard time by a player, or they are just not coping at a particular table (for whatever reason) I will have a quiet word with the TD to see if the dealer can be changed - for their benefit as well as ours.

A happy dealer is less likely to make mistakes - as long as they take their job seriously

[celtic]

I think if a player is giving a dealer a hard time then someone at the table should say something. I would. The dealers at Luton are great IMO and they are happy to take part in banter. If they make a mistake, so what? They don't do it on purpose. I've had mis-deals work for and against me. Its not the end of the world. Get rid of the people who give the dealers a hard time, so what if they are good valooooo, the dealers aren't paid to take abuse.

[hans47]

Should always be courteous to the dealers!  It is all about the Karma thing if you give bad Karma you recieve bad Karma! People that moan all the time lose all the time! But it is still funny to watch someone have a go at a dealer when it is there own fault! Bad play is usually the spark of it all!  Oh and Tikay find the luckiest man in any poker room and I will show you the best player!

[tikay]

I'm not sure why this amuses me so, but the UK's Chief of Defence Staff - Britain's top Serviceman presumably - revels in the glorious moniker of.........

Sir Jock Stirrup.

Gott love that handle.

[tikay]

....and while on the subject of whimsical names, I saw another over the weekend. We were in Bristol for the GBPT Finale, held at the Gala Bristol, which resides in an architecturally dreadful modern Entertainment complex. All of the passenger lifts throughout the complex were made by the same Company. As you know, if you get in a lift, you don't know what to say, or where to look, & I generally take a look to see what the lift capacity is (8 persons or x00kg etc) & the manufacturer, usually Otis, or Express Lift Company, or whoever.

I can reveal that all the lifts were made by a Lift Company called Schindler........

[bobby1]

....and while on the subject of whimsical names, I saw another over the weekend. We were in Bristol for the GBPT Finale, held at the Gala Bristol, which resides in an architecturally dreadful modern Entertainment complex. All of the passenger lifts throughout the complex were made by the same Company. As you know, if you get in a lift, you don't know what to say, or where to look, & I generally take a look to see what the lift capacity is (8 persons or x00kg etc) & the manufacturer, usually Otis, or Express Lift Company, or whoever.

I can reveal that all the lifts were made by a Lift Company called Schindler........

Love it, the lift in the office I used to work in had the same maker and I have used that joke so many times.

[snoopy1239]

....and while on the subject of whimsical names, I saw another over the weekend. We were in Bristol for the GBPT Finale, held at the Gala Bristol, which resides in an architecturally dreadful modern Entertainment complex. All of the passenger lifts throughout the complex were made by the same Company. As you know, if you get in a lift, you don't know what to say, or where to look, & I generally take a look to see what the lift capacity is (8 persons or x00kg etc) & the manufacturer, usually Otis, or Express Lift Company, or whoever.

I can reveal that all the lifts were made by a Lift Company called Schindler........

Groan. 

[RioRodent]

....and while on the subject of whimsical names, I saw another over the weekend. We were in Bristol for the GBPT Finale, held at the Gala Bristol, which resides in an architecturally dreadful modern Entertainment complex. All of the passenger lifts throughout the complex were made by the same Company. As you know, if you get in a lift, you don't know what to say, or where to look, & I generally take a look to see what the lift capacity is (8 persons or x00kg etc) & the manufacturer, usually Otis, or Express Lift Company, or whoever.

I can reveal that all the lifts were made by a Lift Company called Schindler........

Yep, we have Schindler's Lifts in our office building... always makes me smile too. 

[tikay]

While we are on the fascinating subject of lifts, & shocking but true puns, here's the Express Lift Company's Lift Testing Tower, in Northampton. It was opened about 30 years ago, but when the Otis Lift Company did a takeover of the Express Lift Company, this building, the only one of it's type in the UK, was no longer required. The land upon which it sits was sold for housing redevelopment, but when they tried to demolish the Tower, there was an outcry, & it was eventually awarded "Grade 2 Listed Building" Status, & survives to this day, as the tallest & youngest Listed Building in the UK. That's "Listed", not "Lifted", by the way.

[snoopy1239]

It fits in well to the new surroundings.

[Dingdell]

While we are on the fascinating subject of lifts, & shocking but true puns, here's the Express Lift Company's Lift Testing Tower, in Northampton. It was opened about 30 years ago, but when the Otis Lift Company did a takeover of the Express Lift Company, this building, the only one of it's type in the UK, was no longer required. The land upon which it sits was sold for housing redevelopment, but when they tried to demolish the Tower, there was an outcry, & it was eventually awarded "Grade 2 Listed Building" Status, & survives to this day, as the tallest & youngest Listed Building in the UK. That's "Listed", not "Lifted", by the way.

Yes - it has a light on top to warn the planes - when I see the light from the M1 I know I'm almost home. It now forms part of a hastily built roundabout within the housing estate and at Christmas the local authority puts a tree at the top. It's part of Northampton and to have pulled it down would have been a travesty in my mind.

[kinboshi]

Boldie could live in that.

[tikay]

Boldie could live in that.

It's a very interesting structure. It was built by the "slipform" method, in which a continously moving shutter is used, which moves at about 12" per hour, non-stop.

"slipforming" is used a great deal these days for the stair & lift towers in high-rise buildings. The towers are built BEFORE the main structure, so the crane sits inside the tower, & the entire building is then tied to these towers. I did the Notts Teaching Hospital (now called the Queens Medical Centre) that way - 39 towers! - also Arndale Centre, Manchester, & many others.