Jan 07 2009
Where are the clowns?
Gardena was known as the Los Angeles Gambling Capitol until the big clubs like The Commerce, The Bicycle and Hawaiian Gardens sprung up. There were no dealers, just the players dealing at the table and it was awful. There was plenty of cheating and rock tight games. Some players were so old they could hardly keep from exposing every card. In 1981 I was dealing Pan at The Rainbow Club in Gardena. Then jackpot hold-em came on the scene in Los Angeles County. I changed departments the first day hold-em arrived. Most of the players were not too happy about this change and the arrival of the jackpot which cost an extra $1 drop. I soon became dealer manager amongst a crew of hard nosed floormen who didn’t want to see women in management. I moved on to The Commerce Club upon its opening. You wouldn’t believe the cheating going on there the first year. I tried to enforce a uniform deal when I was promoted to manager. The big boys on top were getting their feathers ruffled with me there. Mr. Ross sent me to Dick Bisbine’s office, who was the new Casino Manager, to discuss my salary options. Instead, DICK says “Honey you’re doing a fine job but I think a man would get more respect”. I took it upstairs to Human Resources and I was asked to not repeat what the moron said because this was not the old days. You cannot discriminate in this manner. H.R. assured me that the new G.M. wasn’t to verbalize his reasons in such a blatent way. I had 4 positions in three months. The new owners were quick to see that this was nothing like the coffee business, which they knew much more about. Harvey gave me a sabbatical and said to take some time to relax with my family. After a few months managemant changed again and I was invited back. Fred, my new boss inforned me that I was to deal poker with no further chance of advancing. As herstory now shows, I did outlast Fred and did advance in management. It was just a merry-go-round that I wanted off of. When I left the floor the jackpots were hitting in record numbers. The owners, Harvey Ross and Herb Stern finally made a clean sweep of the culprits. I couldn’t wait until they opened their eyes and I moved on to The Bicycle Club working for the egomaniac George Hardy. He liked seeing his name in print so much that they named their special “The Hardy Burger”. The Commerce Club is now the biggest in L.A. It’s hard to believe that it was 25 years ago when it began. It is a factory but you will have a choice of many games. I guess with these big card rooms and the Internet gambling, poker is not the intimate game that it used to be. It has more of a circus style now! It’s no wonder that so many tournaments have been held in tents. Bring in the clowns…
