My mother's cat, Jenny.

Work was brutally tiring last night. I was scheduled to deal, and I realized halfway through the night that it was probably the first time in three years that I'd had to deal on a "bus night." (On Friday night/Saturday morning on graveyard shift we generally get 40-70 buses of people in.)

Bus night is usually pretty tiring, but last night was even more so because it wasn't our usual bus crowd. This weekend is the Saints/Falcons game in New Orleans, so most of the people on the junkets this weekend were football fans instead of gamblers, and hence knew next to nothing about how to play any of the games. It was exceedingly frustrating, because not only were they loud, obnoxious and unruly, but they also had to be told how to do everything--several times. "One hand on the cards, please." "Scratch your cards on the table if you want a hit. It's not for me, it's for the camera." "One hand on the cards, please." "You have to scratch for a hit; I can't take verbal cues." "One hand on the cards, dammit."

Oh, and they didn't know how to tip either.

I'm a compulsive overtipper. I tip twenty percent minimum, unless the service was absolutely intentionally dreadful (and I don't penalize wait staff for a kitchen that is slow to send food.) I've been in the service industry to know that most wait staff make somewhere around $2/hr plus tips. (No, they don't have to pay you minimum wage if you make tips.) In other words, they make pretty much all of their money from tips. Dealers make less than minimum wage too. (When I deal I make barely above minimum wage, but that's because of my seniority. I'm a somewhat rare case.)

You would think that anyone who survives on tips would be a good tipper, but I never cease to be amazed at dealers and waitresses from other casinos or local restaurants who stiff the dealers and cocktail waitresses serving them. You'd think they'd know better. I can't remember where I read it, but I love it all the same: "The person who is nice to you, but rude to the waitress, is not a nice person." I believe the true worth of a person can be judged by how much they tip. Hey, it's only an extra dollar or two to me, but it means a lot more than that to the waitress.