dealer School

I've decided to use the blog section of THP to write about my experience about deciding to attend dealer school, what dealer school is like, and my job search following it. My hope is that someone my find this useful if they are considering doing the same.

First let me start with how I got to the point where I decided a change of careers was in order. Previous to beginning dealer school I had been working as an over the road truck driver for the last 4 years. Driving cross country had always fascinated me and so when I had decided that I was burned out on being a restaurant manager I gave it a try. It was a blast and I got to see more of the USA then most people do in their whole lives. In January I hurt my back(not at work) and had to take some time off. When my back was ready to get back to work I found that almost no one would hire me because they didn't want to take the risk with my back. It was at this point that I began to consider my options. At first I thought about going back to the restaurant industry but in the end my heart wasn't in it. Over about the last 3 years I have slowly begin getting more serious about my hobby of poker and had discussed with dealers from time to time how they liked their jobs. A vast majority of them said 2 things, that it was the easiest and best paying job they had ever had.

I started by googling as much information as I could find out both poker schools and what a career as a dealer would be like. An article I found in the Los Angeles Times had a considerable amount of information. The basics pluses where that that dealers could make $100-$300 and that top dealers made as much as $60k a year. The down side was that you often only start out with 2 shifts a week and that you'll need to either be on call constantly or work at 2 different casino's to be able to make the equivalent of full time wages. Another major consideration is that this is a job where dealing with the public is central and foremost. If you aren't a people person this isn't the job for you. As far as my personal experience with public relations, I was a restaurant manager for 6 years and a Transit bus driver for another 6 so I'm confident that I can deal with the public.

Next I googled Fresno(the nearest large city to me) and poker dealer school. Right at the top of the list was a school that seemed like a good prospect. They had several locations through out the USA and even a school in Asia. Reading further on there website they offered job placement assistance and had many testimonials from graduates. To check the truthfulness, I called a few of the casino's that the testimonials had mentioned and they did indeed confirmed that they employed several graduates from that school.

Feeling that this was a school worth checking out I gave them a call. What they offered was 80+hrs of instruction in poker and another 80+ hrs of instruction in carnival games(Blackjack, pai Gow, 3card poker, etc.). The price was $500 dollars which to me seemed reasonable so I signed up.

I'll do another blog this weekend about my first week at dealer school.