I arrived back in Vegas World parking lot a week later at 11:30a.m. on February 20. Thats my first "official" day living in Las Vegas.
As I waited for my wife and two girls, I used a "coupon booklet" that Vegas World had in Baker, CA. They were about 4-5 hours behind me getting to Las Vegas. I had no idea that just over a decade later I would obtain the Internet domain rights to the term of the business I had just patronized.
The wife arrived about 6:30p.pm at the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise across from Vegas World.

As I write this, it saddens me somewhat not to be able to tell you all my poker related experiences in this draft.
The first thing I did was to sell my 1979 Ford Pinto. I got 1000 dollars for it. At the same time I signed with International Dealers School and recieved the incentive end of a student loan to take all the games.
We moved to Harmon Arms Apartments out behind Nevada Palace Hotel & Casino. Thats out on Boulder Highway next to Sams Town. I went to school only to learn that I was forced to learn poker dealing first. I semi-balked, actually. I came to deal Black Jack and Craps. I was taught to deal poker by Bob Rose, an Imperial Palace poker room suprv. All we were taught was the basics. They didnt teach us the first game I was ever to deal "live". $20-$40 Razz!
I also am glad that I did get THAT game, first!

From the end of February until Jan Bowman hired me at the Stardust Hotel & Casino poker room I took work as a security guard. I worked for Master Security. A guy named Doc was my superv.
I had posts way out in nowhere..but I write this in a place such as that. Because back then, most outer parts of Vegas today didnt exsist, or the construction was booming, and thats where I came in, heh!
I am learning alot about myself while thinking back on some things to write this as accurate as possible.
I learned that October 31, 1984 was one of the biggest days of my life.
I got off that early morning from a crudy job way out in what is now Spanish Trails. I drove around on a ATV and guarded the very first dwellings that went in, in front by the lake. I was asleep and I get woke up to a call from the Late Jan Bowman, cardroom manager of the Stardust Hotel. He asked that I come down to audition for Ray Shapiro, day shift manager. Ray plays high limit in Las Vegas these days. Ray throws the ol RazzO in a $1-$3 stud. NO PROBLEM!!!
He calls to Jan on the telephone on the north wall by the cage. "He's an excellent dealer!" (heh)

I didnt know of the stigma that went with the history of the room. I'm sure to this day people I encounter suspect I had something to do with it(The infamous "cold deck" brought in for a rigged badbeat jackpot almost three years before we arrived in Vegas ;).
I might have still been there today, if John Montello hadnt fired me when Jan left for a vacation with his new bride, Rene. John called me back to the Stardust one night after I had already left to go home. When I got back to the poker room, he called me into his office and gave me a pink slip. It reflected that I was terminated because of "lack of work." Oddly, John had put "no re-hire" on the notice. I was more disturbed about that, then the fact he had just fired me.. with no where to go(newbie, you see ;).
I recieved a call a week later. Its Jan Bowman. He was dreadfully sorry about everything. When I asked him about the "no re-hire" and why, he was flabbergasted to look down and notice it himself. I believed him when he said he was shocked, and had just for the first time noticed it on the pink slip, and was going to ask John about why he did it. He also said he would have it reversed. I was assured that when while job searching within weeks later, I went into the Stardust Hotel human resources office and confirmed I was again eligible for "re-hire" :)

This would put us at the beginning of 1985. Let me backtrack a bit.

From my involvment in poker, you remember? Feb. 1984? To this writing? I have never lost interest.
As a security guard, I looked for employment dealing poker. Jan's phone call on October 31 that year was the result of hounding the man countless times for an audtition. Finally, as you already know, he gave me one. But, I audition for others.. like Johnny Moss!
Thats right! And I'll always remember my attempts to get a job there at the Dunes(in that era ;)
Rocky Maddox, who still works on the Strip, was the floorman the day I finally got an audition. HEH! Johnny told me to come back after I went home and pitch cards in front of my TV.
During this period I met John Sutton and Tom Bowling. Countless others I cant mention mainly because I cant recall correct spelling of names. Some of us were called up by the school, through Bob Rose, to deal tournament poker at the old Bingo Palace. Its now the Palace Station(I-15/Sahara). We dealt the Sat-Sun morning freerolls. That was technically my first "live" experience, I guess, but it was just with tournament chips.
This is no lie. When I used to run into Johnny Moss after that, this was also after he left the Dunes Hotel & Casino and retired from cardroom management, he would see me, like, just standing there and/or walking by, and he would always give me the broadest smile of recognition. I get chills realizing that he and I had a secret. My terrible slow moving audition(chOKE!).

The short time I worked for the Stardust I think molded my feeling towards the game. I came of age as to what poker was while working there. I dealt John Esposito a Stairway to the Stars championship that year. I met Jack "Treetop" Strauss, too, and Jack Keller. There were so many.
When I saw Esposito's 100K+ dollars sitting there, it was at the time, by miles and miles, the largest amount of cash I had ever seen with my naked eyes.

As I said, that all came to an end the day Montello "layed me off."

I want to stop right here.

I relaxed for a few weeks and went to work at a few places.. I have a few stories...
But.., I was out of poker and doing many different types of jobs here in Las Vegas for just about a year. One night, I looked under my bed and kicked this old Poker Player magazine(now Card Player) out of the way for the last time. I looked at it. Something I read changed my life...and got me back into poker...
As many know I am PROUD to be an employee of Mirage Resorts and opened Mirage & Bellagio poker rooms. I work for, and have since my first day there, the legendary Bobby Baldwin, who has been president of Golden Nugget, Mirage, and, now Bellagio. The 1978 Binion's World Poker Champion! Its a great HONOR to work for such a man.

I feel betrayed in aspects of poker in my life, and I'll elaborate on that in Part #2.

Take care,

RazzO

RazzO and Las Vegas
Part #2 (or.., the semi-auto-biography of RazzO) - August, 1999

The biggest downfall I've ever faced is it seems that I'm misunderstood a lot.....

In my life, I have made most of my major mistakes, or, just "bad beats of life", on account of SIMPLE misunderstanding. That's mainly because I mostly "spoof" and kid around a lot. I'm very serious. But I just have a nature about me to joke and/or surprise..which I'm dumping from my itinerary. I ran into a dealer soon enough after the Stardust Hotel poker room to find out that Ken Lambert, Sr. (Ken Lambert is a historical figure in Las Vegas poker, and gambling itself.. Ken Lambert, Jr. is CRM in MISS. both worked at Mirage at the same time in 90's. Ken hosted high limit games as CRM of his rooms.. I will discuss Ken more later.. if I can) was opening the El Cortez poker room for a guy named, Jackie Gaughan. I was the first dealer he hired. That was at least on paper. Ken auditioned for that room at the old Sundance Hotel poker room (now Fitzgeralds-Downtown). He showed me the sheets (grave-days-swing). I swear they were blank. It was the first hours of hiring. Oh well. Ken resigned and the Natta's took over. Jay and Nita. I was "officially" laid-off" because Ken resigned and they said they were "closing room to put in new slots." YucK! To be my most horrid thought. That saying, heh! I took my wife Downtown the very next night to eat dinner at Golden Nugget. To this day we have never made that dinner, heh. We went to see what the area looked like in the poker room, first, now that it was supposed to have slot machines in it. Wh-oA!

No slots! Just poker games.and a full jamming room. $1-4-8-8 HE, $1-$3 Stud. The Nattas had taken over the room operations at El Cortez. I introduced myself to Jay who I discovered was CRM. He called someone and said, "You have been re-instated!" Weeeeeeeeeeeeee...!

That was really the only job I ever had, well, no, there was another, the Nevada Palace on Boulder Highway, where I had to PLAY ON SHIFT at least one day a week. Thats where I learned patience to wait for a hand doing this. So... we had it at the El Cortez where you played on you WED. I did this for several months.

I got out of poker when I transferred onto the El Cortez Coin Room. It was fun at first, after I got all the soreness out. I got steamed at something and just said "wtf!" I worked hard and got real buff, heh!

I worked for Jackie Gaughan for one year. He is very nice. He's from Omaha and came to Las Vegas and just started on the way up. One day, I was going to fired by the Coin Room manager. He warned me in the past about the incident/infraction. You see, when we got off from dropping coins we were to sit and wait anywhere from a half hour to 1 hour before we punched out. Very boring. The others just sat by the wall by the clock. Well, after learning to love poker, I would slip over to the ol' poker room and give some action. That is what I wasn't supposed to do. My supervisor didn't like me to do it. So I said, "Well, this is stupid! I can help the House more by playing these short games while I'm getting paid." Jackie agreed!

I was dealing poker at the Nevada Palace in October of 1986. I was in my room one night and saw this old Poker Player sticking out from the end of my bed. I had read through it numerous times. it was one of the last publication, and I still have it. Its about July, 1986 issue. I was strumming through it and saw Rocky Maddox's picture with some kind of tourney winners and dealers. I remembered Rocky from my audition with the legendary Johnny Moss. I went to the Dunes. I stood on the rail for three straight nights before I asked for another audition. I was studying stud h/l split 8 or better.

Fred Edwards was the first person I remember in the post-Moss days when I came back to the Dunes. He took me to Personal and processed. It would be the greatest job, to that date, that I would have. The players that I remember were Norman Berliner, Tommy Fisher, Marc Vernon, Dale Trigger Clem, and so, so many more that still play today. I got to be real close to the Savalas family. Telly liked me allot and invited me to a deal he had going at his apartment high atop the Universal Hotel-Universal City. A party for a family member, I think it was. His nephew (bro George son) came to my house a few times. I thought Telly was a class act on and off the felt. The last time I saw him was the 1994-5 World Series of Poker. I met plenty of stars at the Dunes in those three years. I can't remember all of them. I had kept a list that I would update yearly or so.. very long periods would go by before I would catch up logging all the celebrities I would meet. Then, when the list got to about 45, I lost it in all my books, mags, etc. That was 1990 I lost that list. I still have it :)

One night Fred Edwards and I was walking to our cars through the famous scale area back door and out past the Time Office. A we angled to walk to the south, where the employee parking lot was, we noticed commotion up at the Dunes Golf Course. We headed up there. They were filming a TV show. A TV show that would in some way change my life. You see I had a gig with Sandy Hackett in his show at The Mint Lounge. I had a comedy act. Sandy would shove us in between his main act musicians. I should tell you that I am good friends with Andy Clay, and I knew Sam Kinison real good. I was the biggest groupie. I would get off work and go backstage almost every night. I knew most of the comedians acts. Andrew Dice Clay is the funniest man I have ever heard (er.. sorry, ladies). Both went out of their way to stop and tap me, or say "hey!" or something, when they walked by the old Dunes poker room. At the time, they were unknowns to most. When I got my SAG card (Screen Actors Guild) I showed it to Sam. You know? Real proud like. He thought it was hysterical. For the longest time, he would walk by poker room, stop, look both ways (while he was looking at me, and remember, trenchcoat on) then whip out his SAG card. I have never laughed so hard while dealing then when he did that the first couple of times, hehehe. I often wonder what the world would be like with Sam.

Back at the golf course with Fred and I. They were filming a scene(which I didn't know they were in the process of doing). I yelled out, "Hey. Do you need any Extras?" It caused them to have to cut. *bLusH* The next night the whole Crime Story bunch, that was the TV series, was sitting in the Mint Lounge. After my act I went up and met allot of the stars in the show. I found the casting guy. He told me the name of the firm hiring extras. I got hired and did about 12 days of work when I was Taft/Hartley'ed into a small role.

I was talking to Dice(Andrew Dice Clay played Max Goldman in the Series) one day on the set. He introduced me to actor/director Bill Duke(skinhead- blackguy from Car Wash and pimp in American Gigolo). He asked me about gambling and stuff. I gave him an old copy of a Scarnes book, and my only copy of "According to Doyle".

The next day these same people (extra casting office) called me in for a read. I choked so big time, I could barely spit out a word. I was bummed. Went by Taco Bell and went home. Felt like crying. Turned on answering machine: "Hi Darryl, it's Rena, Congratulations! You've gotten the part!" I joined SAG the next month. I was famous for a while, as my spot on NBC kept getting bumped up. Finally, it aired. Yuck! What an actor!

I've told you only half of my stories at the Dunes Hotel. Mirage was opened in November, 1989. I went to work there. We are still in the summer on 1989. I left the Dunes, and dealt somewhere else for six months.

Until later!

---RazzO

He brought with him Butch Gottlieb and Tom Elias.. these guys are a piece of work. We had no business during this period in which I eventually moved to Ballys Grand, across the street. Tom Elias was the guy who gave away half of Charlie Brahmi's $370+ thousand dollars at the 1999 WSOP by accident, thinking of 50% instead of Charlie's partners 5%. Heh! He also under paid Cyndy Violette after her elimination, and caught it before she left. Horseshoe officials/security recovered/and straightened things out right away with the Brahmi money. And Tom wasn't terminated by tourn officials who were responsible for him. He would have fired me. This guy was responsible for running operations at the Dunes in my final days for Bob. He and Butch gave me, and others, no choice one day. Quit, or go on the extra board. Good-bye, Dunes! Big deal, anyway, I wanted to explain. I hate to work with people who are inferior to me in in regards to professionalism, motivation, and common sense when "dealing" with the poker public, and I don't mean literally "dealing". I have all of the above qualities, I think, , and with many other things, I strive to make people happy. I have my errors in my way, just as everyone, too. I just like people who can admit their mistakes and move on. Forgive and forget. Its so easy. I have forgiven Butch for his part, but Tom Elias? I will not devulge WHO was actually responsible for getting my 1999 World Series of Poker press pass. Many would think it was the Lotief's. But with full creditentials, Tom would try to work against me in my work to promote poker, by saying I couldn't take video/still photography. I had to pull rank, finally. Tom has no people skills. Tom Elias did teach me a few vital methods to speed dealing and be more efficient, I will give him that.

Jan Bowman asked me to come to work at Ballys Grand in July so I quit the historic Dunes Hotel & Casino, which I cherished as my best job, ever, at the time.. Those who know me and my site work know about Jan and myself. I'll briefly elaborate in a bit. One of the biggest stars I ever personally got to know was Red. You all know who I mean. FRED SANFORD? We used to keep cases of Graminue` in poker and keno for Red to have when he arrived. He used to sit in a $1-$5 stud game and play all night, while having the Keno runner fetch his $500-$5000 tickets, which were bet multi-way. He hit two 8-8 spots in his lifetime, both for over $50,000. Red was a very unique man. I went to his house a couple of times after that, this was after Mirage opened, but my first contact with him was at Ballys. His house on Eastern Avenue was made to look like the set of Sanford and Son TV show. I was backstage with Slappy White, Bernie Allen, and Red one night at the Hacienda, what a trip. I saw two sides of backstage comedian life in my days. These guys were just likeThe Comedy Store gang.. always looking for a gag, heh. I cried inside of me when The Great Red Foxx died :( I'm actually still saddened by his death. Thats where I met most of the big named stud players today, at Ball's Grand poker room. It was always a very nice room. 21 tables. $1-$4 - $30-$60 stud. Jan had just introduced Texas hold'em around the same time he took over the poker room. That's where I met Tommy Segal(laughing out loud), one on many poker celebrities. I also met Tom McEvoy there. He signed one of his last books in the How to Win Poker Tournaments. I drove my family to San Diego in July, to. I went to Saycuan Casino and played $1-$2 Texas hold'em HIGH/LOW :) I lost $60.

I worked at Ballys until the 10 days after Mirage opened its doors on November 22, 1989. Both Jan and Eric approved it. "I worked for Jan Bowman!" That is one of my own personal quotes I'm proud of. Jan was a very gentlemanly man who listened to you. I have sinced "not" worked with a cardroom manager who has done that, except for maybe Eric. I mean LISTEN, I didn't say anything about the bottomline. But yet Jan got alot of bad reviews or opinions on his ablility to run a cardroom. I thought he was a good manager, because he listened to both sides, the players and the employees. Somewhow, it didn't click with the majority, and that's always saddened me. God Bless Jan, for he has also passed on into God's hands. He died of a type of bone cancer in 1995. He went on to be the first Card Room Manager on the East Coast(Foxwoods). You remember I worked for him at the Stardust in 1984. At that time he was manager of 5 poker rooms in Nevada. Jan had sense about people. He saw the quality of person in me that most see in me. You see, my compliant is that the people who make the difference in my life don't care that I am what I am. You can also look at it like they are afraid to capitalize on it. I remember promising Jan that I wouldn't go to Mirage Resorts when it opened later that year in November. I broke that promise, as lots of people know. Jan didn't mind when I told him that I'm sorry. I felt a bad feeling when we discussed it. I try not to lie. I try and keep all my promises. When I don't, I get senses of major guilt. I don't like to let the people who count on me down, and hate even more to let down the people who want me to fail. I felt bad about something only once more. It was shortly later when Steve Wynn gave us all 10 shares of Mirage(MRI) stock as a gift when we opened. I treasured it, even though I didn't realize not only its value to be, but the fact that Mr. Wynn gave it to us. One day I was so desperate for cash that my wife and I decide to sell them.

The person I sold them to actually kept after me to sell them. Finally, one day I rolled over. Although we kept them in the family by selling them to a fellow employee, I feel I left Steve Wynn feeling betrayed. I sold the man's stocks he gave me. He had to monitor/sign whatever the transaction papers, I think. Terrible mistake in judgement. It opened my eyes to the Stock Market. I understand it now. When I was in New York in 1993, I went on the New York Stock Exchange tour. I watched "MIR" scroll across at 5 times the value it was. Saddened me. I'm sorry, Mr. Wynn. I'm sitting there in August 1989 reading a letter from the Golden Nugget employment office telling me I have not been excepted for employment at Mirage Resorts, Inc.. poker room. I was sad. Then, like a prayer had been answered, I get a call from Jimmy Knight telling me to come audition. That was something I never did do. The audtion was either cancelled or something, and I never auditioned for Eric Drache, Jimmy Knight, Donna Harris, or Frank Cutrona. *pheW* They hired me that same month, per qualification.

See you in the final part, I think it may be a long one.

RazzO