poker what is it good for ?

Here is my story of succeeding in NYC poker and the education I received as I can best recall. When I first showed up at the infamous D.C. in about spring 96, the club had just been open about a month. It was located in Chelsea, when you walked in all you saw was a locked gate and a camera. The stairs and walls going up to the club looked run down and seedy. You would buzz in and walk up one flight and then you were in. Once you were inside the place had a good vibe, all these books and red brick walls and a big picture of a boxer taking a knock out punch. You felt like you were in some sort of after hours, but what was being served was poker 7 nights a week. The club had 10 tables and after a couple of months they were all in use. The action was great with 3 tables of 10-20 hk going 2 tables of 4-8 limit, and usually a 2-5 pot limit that played bigger and sometimes a stud game. After I started playing and became a dealer I can't say I have looked back often. I don't know if I choose this life or it choose me. I was like a fish in water. I told one of the owners a couple years later that he should have paid me extra for all the beefs and altercations I got in the middle of. You may think I'm a sucker to put myself out there like that. To me its all I wanted to do was be around poker 24-7. People got to know me not only as a dealer but as a stand up guy. All sorts of people came through there. The action was crazy, with 30 k bad beat jackpots in a underground club. I dealt a jackpot in 97, two straight flushes in a 10-20 limit game. The place went nuts with all the players shares and of course that money came right back in the game. It was a great place to learn the ropes and be around action. This wasn't a tourist game with fresh blood in every hour. A lot of the players were very tight who knew each other for years. The 2-5 pot limit game was a real tough field with plenty of chips on the felt. They waited for fish and gutted them. Whoever it was gypsies, actors, street guys, wall street types and young trust fund babies they usually cleaned them out. With all the pros who came out of that game if you held your own you could play. The field was tough with experienced players. I remember flopping a set against a hooded pro and him putting me all in. I loved playing in that game. Not that I was a consistent winner or anything but I did become a great dealer and that aloud me to take a shot at those big games. So one way or the other I was involved in the action. I actually enjoyed dealing that game and always knowing the bet and how much was in the pot and what they could make it. That's how I became a good dealer by these pros riding me and I didn't like to take shit so I got good real fast. Players from all over the city came and the friends I met there are the friends I have today. I didn't do this alone and the people who helped me along the way from the real knish to the brothers who owned the joint I wouldn't have it any other way.