At dealer school students are hoping the odds of landing a job
The dealer surveyed the table with a cool gaze, her eyes flicking across the cards laid out before each player.
Then came the drill: Hit or stand? The first player waved off more cards. The second did the same. The third signaled ''hit,'' with a quick scratch of fingers on green felt.
Dealer Kathy Chan snapped a card onto the table, face up. ''Too-wenty-one,'' she announced with a satisfied smile. ``Congratulations, sir.''
At the Casino Dealer's Academy, a storefront operation in a Hollywood strip mall, today's lesson is blackjack. Tomorrow, it might be Texas Hold 'Em poker or baccarat or pai gow. Students like Chan pay up to $1,200 to attend classes that can last six weeks or longer, depending on aptitude, to master the intricacies of being a professional card dealer.
Many students are hoping to land jobs in South Florida's expanding gambling scene. Texas Hold `Em has been a mainstay for years but new games including blackjack are set to debut Sunday at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino near Hollywood.
The tribe has hired 700 dealers, most from out of town, for the opening of its Hollywood casino card games and will be hiring hundreds more as it adds the games to its Coconut Creek casino and others.
''The bigger the talent pool, the better for the tribe,'' said spokesman Gary Bitner. ``Having locally trained dealers is important.''
Most aspiring dealers walk through the door of the academy in search of something -- a second chance or second career or bit of excitement. Among them: a former AT&T communications worker who was laid off. An ex-engineer from the Midwest. A single mom looking for flexible hours and decent pay.
''It's hard work, but there is glamour,'' said instructor Alina Barcelo, 38, who worked at the Paris Las Vegas casino. Now a poker dealer at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, she also teaches blackjack, baccarat and pai gow at the school. ``And you can make a good living at it.''
$100,000 PLUS
Though most dealers are coy when asked how much they make, estimates range from $40,000 to more than $100,000 a year.
Schools dot the South Florida landscape, including Casino Career School Inc. in Pompano Beach, the Ace of Spades in Hialeah and The Academy of Professional Poker Dealers in Lake Worth.
Poker is probably the most demanding game to deal, Barcelo said, in part because tempers can flare when players compete against each other. Blackjack and pai gow, played against the house, are generally easier on the dealer.
''Anyone can learn to do this,'' she says, shuffling and cutting cards as she talks. ``Every person is different in the way they learn.''
Speed is important. The faster the dealer, the more money players can make, the more the casino makes -- and the more the dealer can make on tips, she notes.
Chan, an assistant manager at a Japanese restaurant in Weston, is in the back of the room practicing her blackjack-dealing skills. Among them: how to cut the chips into correct stacks by touch, how to count the cards and how to display her hands -- wide open, front and back -- after every payout. That's so overhead cameras in casinos see dealers aren't cheating.
Perhaps most critical, dealers must learn how to manage customers, including losers. Sometimes, instructors tell students, it's all about the smile.
''You have to control the table. You have to control the game. But you have to make sure the players have a good time,'' Chan said.
The 27-year-old is so serious about acquiring this new skill that she and her husband, also enrolled at the school, built a blackjack table at their Lauderhill home, a plywood-and-felt affair they can use to perfect their card dealing.
''It takes a lot of work, a lot of practice,'' she said. ``I want to be ready if I get an audition.''
Casinos test dealer applicants through auditions. An experienced card room manager can tell within minutes whether a potential dealer has the necessary skills.
Be warned, though: State law bars dealers from gambling at casinos where they work.
Scott Poole, card room manager at Gulfstream and a former dealer, said he looks for people with skill and personality. About 65 percent pass the audition, he estimated.
Lately, he said, he's seen a lot of applicants seeking refuge from the tanking housing industry.
He understands why. ''They want a change, and they look at the dealers. It's fun. It can be lucrative,'' he said.
Bobby Veillette, poker director at Mardi Gras Racetrack and Gaming Center in Hallandale Beach, said he sometimes hires dealers straight out of the schools but also sometimes offers training to employees with schooling but not enough experience.
''We try to give everybody a fair shot,'' he said. ``If we think someone has promise, we'll work with them.''
It can take a thick skin to succeed as a dealer, said Joe Rodriguez, poker room manager at Miami Jai-Alai.
A former dealer himself, he loves the work despite the occasional difficult customer -- like those who call dealers ``criminal.''
''They're trying to insinuate that you're a criminal because you're killing their hands,'' he said. ``You have to try to smile anyway or make them laugh.''
BETTER PAY, HOURS
For Chan, with a job in the restaurant business, dealer school is about better pay and better hours. She works six-day weeks now. Dealers, though, usually work 40-hour weeks, for full-time jobs, with one hour on and 20 minutes off, or 90 minutes on followed by a 30-minute break.
Chan figures the customer service skills from her current job may come in handy at a casino. She also thought being a blackjack player would help, but it turns out the two roles -- player and dealer -- are very different.
''I was a player, but I didn't know all the rules,'' she said. ``As a dealer, you have to execute all the mechanics, the rules for the house, and how you deal the game. . . . Every movement that you do, you have to make sure the cameras above it can see.''
At the Hollywood school, classes are held day or night, and students must pass written tests along with ''auditions'' in front of their instructors. Those who don't pass are allowed to remain at the school to polish their skills. Courses cost $1,200 for poker and $900 for three other games: blackjack, pai gow, and baccarat.
At other schools, prices vary from $300 to $1,000 or more, depending on which classes a customer purchases.
For James Rogal, who has been taking classes at the Casino Dealer's Academy since February, the school has offered a new direction -- and a unique challenge. At 57, he was between jobs when he was offered a chance to deal blackjack in West Virginia.
He had to go to school first, and he has family in South Florida, so the academy made sense. A tremor in his hand -- which could be an issue for a card dealer -- is being calmed by acupuncture, he said.
''It's taking me a little longer because of that,'' he said. ``They're very thorough on every aspect of the game. If you get your certificate here, you can deal almost anywhere.''
A little smile plays across his face as he contemplates a future in casinos.
''It's very glamorous. . . . I might be able to make double what I made before -- $80,000 to $135,000 a year or more,'' he said. ``You're in the casino environment so it's always very fast moving and there's a lot of action going on. If you're a gambler like I am, it's a dream come true.''
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