The Swamp

Still my favorite...

thanks for all of your input guys. My boss and I had a meeting with my immediate supervisor over ways to improve the poker room and keep the dealers happy. He asked if I decided to leave for Prime fulltime to give two weeks notice so they could find someone to promote, and asked that if Prime made me an offer to be a floor manager that I come to him and give him a chance to match or beat the offer. Gave me complete control over my schedule, gave me an extra week of vacation, paid, and told me that I was being given a raise, with my additional responsibilities to now include input on hiring and training additional dealers. Its been a very constructive week for my future paychecks and my level of comfort with my work situation. I have Prime as a safety net and the people at Lions have gone out of their way to make me feel like they cant afford to lose me. I started out there last October making 15$ an hour plus tips, now Im getting 23$ plus tips, and no longer have to tipout which saves me 10%. Prime is paying me 17$, which is 2$ than their other new hires come in with. Tipout is only 5% there, but the tips average out better. I usually workbetween 10-12 hours a day. At Lions I usually average about 140$ a night in tips, at Prime I average about 210$ for an 8 hour shift. so basically at Prime im making 330ish for 8 hours a day and lions im making 340 for a ten hour day. Drive time is identical, so I'm having a hard time deciding which way I would go if I was forced to choose. at this point I feel like Im in a good spot if I can keep both happy. They both know I work for the other and Im listed in the system as being unavailable to be called in to cover because of my other job. All in all I feel like im in a weird spot where im making moremoney in this game than I ever have and there are no wrong decisions, but then again I feel like I could blink and all the work ive done to put myself in this position would be for nothing. I have a standing salary offer to be the floor manager and tournament director for a room in Katy, but that would neccessitate a relocation that I dont want to make, but its a safety net if everything else fails. as far as rooms in Houston go, there are 16 rooms that I am personally aware of, and realistically I could get hired at maybe 4 or five of the other ones, but Im tired of bouncing from place to place. This is the first time in a decade that dealers have ever gotten an hourly wage, and all of the rooms popping up have led to a need for way more dealers then currently exist. most of us have been working the same few underground games for years. Five years ago there were maybe 25 fulltime dealers in south-southwest Houston. Right now Prime alone employs 56. A lot of the guys are coming in with no skills and training assuming that all we do is shuffle and throw cards.Being one of maybe 10 dealers in the city that can deal mixed games like Omaha, Stud, Razz, or shortdeck makes me somewhat of a valuable commodity. I dont know what the point of this essay that im typing is, just that Ive been running all these thoughts through my head and typing it all out helped me kind of organize my thoughts

Screams market opportunity. And lawsuit and three letter jackets but I'll assume your comfortable in the fringes. Good luck. Make as much as you can while you can.

Not to completely go off topic but curious as to whether there is semi legal gambling in your states. Georgia seems to have put it's eggs in coam machines in gas stations. In NC I have been seeing some sort of indoor fishing that just has to be dubious gambling mechanism.

Well...just found out that the one place I was interviewing (the tech/web consulting agency) decided that I wasn't a good fit (don't have enough web development experience). Not that I'm surprised...I knew it was a reach...but still bummed since I was pretty intrigued by it.

It was funny though...the office manager called me to tell me, and felt really bad about it. I had to keep telling him 'No, its ok. I completely understand'.

So what is more awkward...trying to describe how you know a swamper to you spouse or to a coworker when a swamper switches jobs and ends up as your new business development guy? Let's just say I had a fun hand off call with our former point of contact when he introduced said swamper to me.

She's meeting again with HR at 2. Don't have a good feeling.

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:22 am So what is more awkward...trying to describe how you know a swamper to you spouse or to a coworker when a swamper switches jobs and ends up as your new business development guy? Let's just say I had a fun hand off call with our former point of contact when he introduced said swamper to me.

Fuck Kranepool.

And good luck to Mrs. Giff!

On an unrelated note, it feels awesome my 4,000th post on this Swamp iteration is a "Fuck Kranepool" post.

Giff wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:54 am She's meeting again with HR at 2. Don't have a good feeling.

Take it the news couldn't have been that bad?

His only post since then was about wanting Dave Matthews to shit on his head.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:57 pm His only post since then was about wanting Dave Matthews to shit on his head.

not really a tell either way with him

See, the irony there is that there was no actual Dave Matthews shit on that bus. When he has to shit, they pull over and stop at a Pilot or Flying J. That was all nasty (OK, nastier) roadie shit. If you're lucky maybe you got some LeRoi Moore shit on you.

Yeah she was fired. Still hopeful for a rehire by the CNO who had no idea the decision was made when she just wanted Kelli to transfer to her direct report. She’s still pretty fucking devastated.

Sorry dude, that’s sucks. Sounds like the manager was going to find a reason some way.

Fuck, that’s some bullshit. Could be a blessing in disguise as I’m sure she’ll catch on somewhere with less bullshit.

Man, that blows. It's OK to not be OK for a bit.

Sorry man.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Sat Aug 04, 2018 9:12 am Screams market opportunity. And lawsuit and three letter jackets but I'll assume your comfortable in the fringes. Good luck. Make as much as you can while you can.

definitely always a possinility, but i have a lawyer onstandby and historically the punishment for dealers has been little to none. i takes my chances

sorry Mrs. Giff. if she wants quick cash i can get hrr a job as a waitress at a poker room in Katy?

sorry man

That makes me sick to my stomach. Sorry, Giff.

Sorry Giff. Hope things work out.

Echo everything Giff. Hopefully she ends up in an even better position.

That sucks completely. Sorry.

Really appreciate it guys. I think she's going to wake up more hopeful today. During the meeting HR told her she is eligible for re-hire in another department and that if it's within 30 days she doesn't have to go through the normal onboarding.

She does most of her work for the CNO (writes her blogs, e-mails to the company, writing talking points for speeches/meetings, etc.) and works really closely and well with three other people who work for the CNO. They're all upset because a) they love working with her and b) they know that all the work Kelli does will fall on them or finding someone brand new who hasn't done the great work she has for the past 4 years. The CNO literally said to Kelli in a meeting on Tuesday "I don't know what I'd do if you ever left". I may be trying to convince myself the best case scenario will happen by typing all this, but I really think it's going to work out for the best pretty quickly.

Sorry to hear

That sucks. Send her my best.

It's funny how much she wants her job back under the CNO that she's not very excited about this, but her best friend and former co-worker is about to post a job that's she's completely qualified for and would get if she wanted at probably the same pay. Obviously nothing's set in stone, but at least there seem to be real options for a quick bounceback.

Well, it's official. I've got something in common with these guys. It's like we're quadruplets!




Got the official job offer, passed the drug test. I told them I accept. New employee orientation next week. (But, I've got a couple trips coming up, and if they won't let me have the time off, I won't start the job. I spoke via email to former Swamper, current USPS employee Timgod, and he told me he's sure they'll play ball, so it looks like I'm embarking on a new journey.)

Man that’s the tits. Great job to ease into he golden years. Plus exercise for the old ticker. Nice work!

That’s assuming it’s a walking route. I dunno. I had a friend who chose to walk but that may not be practicable in all situations. But a good gig nonetheless.

I predict you won't be the last Swamper to do this.

Just reading through.

Sucks for Mrs Giff, but these things generally work out for the best. We'd probably still be in Boston of Mrs. Rush hasn't been let go in a bullshit way.

SC. Congrats on the new gig. An added plus, maybe your wife had a thing for men in uniform!

Rush2112 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:38 pm An added plus, maybe your wife had a thing for men in uniform!

Had is the key word. Now that SC is wearing a uniform, it faded.

Congrats sancarlos.

I'm pretty sure I met timgod once, but I don't recall it being general Swamp knowledge that he worked for the USPS. Probably just as well, as it will give us a longer window before we run the mailman jokes into the ground.

rass wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 6:38 am Congrats sancarlos.

I'm pretty sure I met timgod once, but I don't recall it being general Swamp knowledge that he worked for the USPS. Probably just as well, as it will give us a longer window before we run the mailman jokes into the ground.

You did meet him. He didn't start working for the USPS until after he disappeared from the Swamp.

That was swampmeet where I thought it happened, too. Thanks.

That's awesome, SC!

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:51 am

rass wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 6:38 am Congrats sancarlos.

I'm pretty sure I met timgod once, but I don't recall it being general Swamp knowledge that he worked for the USPS. Probably just as well, as it will give us a longer window before we run the mailman jokes into the ground.

You did meet him. He didn't start working for the USPS until after he disappeared from the Swamp.

Some of the food he cooks looks pretty tasty. He's a pretty good writer, I've read over some of his short stories and movie script ideas.