Product Description
The glitter and excitement that tourists associate with casinos is only a facade. To the gaming industry’s front-line employees, its dealers, the casino is a far less glamorous environment, a workplace full of emotional tension, physical and mental demands, humor and pathos. Author H. Lee Barnes, who spent many years as a dealer in some of Las Vegas’s best-known casinos, shows us this world from the point of view of the table-games dealer. Told in the voices of dozens of dealers, male and female, young and old, Dummy Up and Deal takes us to the dealer’s side of the table. We observe the “breaking in” that constitutes a dealer’s training, where the hands learn the balletic motions of the game while the mind … More >>
Dummy Up And Deal: Inside The Culture Of Casino Dealing
Though the writer is obviously gifted, and the stories are without a doubt amusing and accurately detailed, the author seems distant from his characters.
The author seems to stay un-involved and to coldly inspect his subjects as though they were fireflies in Mason jars, or butterflies on pins.
The writing is superb, but the lack of involvment in the characters inner workings and lives, leaves these stories sounding like a girlfriend repeating a soap opera in the office, to someone who missed an episode.
I’ll lay off with these last words. The author should look into his own heart and write real, breathing characters, not try to bring to life cardboard cutouts. No matter how excellent it is, it must heart. This book does not have heart, though it does have plenty of good writing. Rating: 2 / 5
I’m a dealer myself, and it’s true that this book shows you the inside of the business like no other does. You REALLY get how it REALLY works.
My problem is that it is only a chain of stories, one after another. It ends up being quite boring if you read it in a row.
An interesting book, but to read pieces by pieces.
Rating: 3 / 5
This wonderful collection of non-fiction accounts on the other side of the table is a true and accurate look at what makes the casinos tick: not the people who come with the money, but the people who take it. Lee Barnes has a gift and it is to conjure so many voices into one cohesive book. It is funny, sad, and terrible. If you ever wanted to know who lives in Las Vegas, read this. Rating: 5 / 5