Mary Kenniston
Verified Member
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- Jun 24, 2011
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Henry "Gabe" Girardi, known in the pool world as "The Mailman," passed away on Christmas Eve in Las Vegas. He was 77.
Maybe I missed it but I don't see any mention of his passing here, so I will. I put together a tribute to him for my page on Facebook & probably due to a hectic holiday season, I neglected to post it on the other sites. I think it should be automatic that he be remembered here since for longer than I can remember, anyone looking for one pocket action in Vegas could get some from "The Mailman." He gave everyone action - he didn't duck anyone. I'm sure many of you here knew Gabe & maybe even played him some...many of you might not even know he passed away. Anyway, here's a copy of what I posted for my friend on Facebook...
I was first introduced to Gabe by my ex on a trip to Las Vegas in 1983 – they had both grown up in & around the pool rooms of West Haven, CT. As I had grown up on Long Island only about thirty miles away, also in an Italian family, we hit it off immediately as people often do coming from the same background & being far from home.
Gabe was in his late forties then – tall & slim with streaks of gray running through his dark hair. He’d walk into the pool room & had a smile, comment, wisecrack, joke or something for everybody. Gabe loved the pool room & the pool room loved Gabe. He was the consummate old school pool room guy – a character. He loved the game, loved the people, loved the conversation, loved matching up, loved to gamble. And yeah, he could play a little too…his love was one pocket.
Yeah, that was the Gabe that most people knew. I’m going to tell you about the other side of Gabe…the topnotch Vegas poker dealer side.
By the time I moved to Vegas in ‘86, Gabe & I had gotten to be pretty good friends through our frequent visits from southern California. When we first moved to Vegas, we shared an apartment with Gabe. I knew that if I wanted to live in Vegas, I was going to have to find a job. Gabe told me that he thought that I would love dealing poker but told me to go around to all the different casinos & look at all the job possibilities before making a decision. A few days later, I showed up at the Stardust, waited for Gabe to take his break & told him that, yeah, I wanted to deal poker too & asked him if he could recommend one of the dealing schools.
He laughed. “Dealing school! Ha! I could teach you in a week!”
Well, that was what he thought until he discovered that the only thing I knew about poker was that if you had three of 'em, it was better than two! He thought he was just going to have to teach me how to shuffle & pitch the cards! He didn’t know he was going to have to teach me EVERYTHING!!!
Gabe was off the next day so we went down to the Crystal Palace pool room & the owner, Henry Nogiec, gave us an old piece of cloth. On the way back to the house, we swung by the Stardust & Gabe came out with a set of casino playing cards & a hundred dollars worth of casino chips. We took it all home & Gabe spread the cloth over the kitchen table. He shoved the table up against the wall, went into my bedroom & came out with the mirror from my dresser. He propped the mirror up against the wall & that became my classroom. He showed me how to riffle & box the deck like the casinos require. After about a half hour, he stood up & told me that when I saw myself in the mirror shuffling like a Vegas dealer, we’d be ready for the next lesson!
It took me a couple days – I’m talking hours on end - to get to that point. I don’t know what hurt more – my butt or my hands! All I did was shuffle, eat & sleep! Over the course of the next many days, Gabe showed me everything – how to hold the deck, how to deal the cards for hold ‘em, how to pitch them in the air for stud, how to cut the chips, how to figure the rake. Since I knew absolutely nothing about poker, Gabe patiently explained what all the different hands were & I memorized which hands beat the others. He taught me the rules of the game, the mechanics, the vocabulary – everything. He had me deal out six hands at a time, flip them over & I learned how to read the cards – finding the best hand. Quickly. Of course, I did it in increments…one new skill at a time until the mirror told me I had it down. It was poker boot camp! I’d report for inspection & Gabe would teach me the next thing…
One night, as I was practicing, Gabe walked in with a few of the guys from the pool room, a case of beer & a few racks of chips. Surprised, I watched as Gabe took the mirror back to my bedroom, pulled the table out from the wall & the guys took their places at the table.
Turning to me, Gabe grinned & said, “Ready?!!!”
OMG!!! He wanted me to deal to these guys!
Talk about being nervous! I have to tell you – it was nothing like I’d ever felt playing pool! I was shaking like a leaf - I dropped the deck, cards squirted out of my hand, chips flew all over the table, I was brain dead on the rake, I couldn’t read the hands – but only for the first fifteen minutes or so. Then, gradually, I smoothed out, everything fell into place & I fell into a rhythm. I was dealing my first live game – even if it was just to the pool room guys!
As the night wore on, I gained more confidence & actually started having fun! When the guys finally left, Gabe told me that he didn’t think I could get any better without being in a real game. It had been almost three weeks of doing nothing but practicing & sleeping! He was proud of how far I’d come & admitted to me that when I told him I was a complete poker newbie, he thought about bailing & sending me to a school! He also told me that now would come the hard part – getting my foot in the door of a casino…
He told me to meet him at the pool room the next day…he had an idea. I walked in & saw him talking to a man that I had beaten out of a thousand when I first came to town. Gabe waved me over & asked me if I knew him. Before I could answer, Kenny growled, “Yeah, we know each other.”
Apparently, Kenny was still a little warm from the ass-whuppin’ I’d put on him. It turned out that Kenny was the poker room manager at the old Vegas World casino. Gabe had explained to him that he had taught me how to deal & now was asking him for a favor - to give me an audition. Kenny stood there glaring at me for what seemed like an eternity & then turned to Gabe & spit out, “Only for you...”
Walking away, Kenny barked over his shoulder, “Show up at tonight at 2 am in black & whites – tell the shift boss I sent you.”
I high-fived Gabe! Woohoo!!! Vegas World was a dump but hey – I had a shot! I showed up that night & it turned out that the shift boss had been a great dealer himself & knew Gabe well - they had come up together in the poker business. A friend of Gabe’s was a friend of Mike’s & he put the finishing touches on the job Gabe started – teaching me to be topnotch poker dealer. Within a month or so, I was the best they had & dealing to the owner, Bob Stupak, & all his high roller friends like Puggy Pearson, Jack “Treetop” Strauss, Gabe Kaplan, Bobby Baldwin, Sarge, etc. The rest is history…
I dealt for a few years, opened Cue-Topia & then returned to dealing until I left Vegas. I loved the job & it provided me with an excellent living for many years. I owed it all to Gabe. We formed a bond during those early days – a bond of deep friendship & respect.
Gabe worked hard, played hard, partied hard – he loved Vegas & all it had to offer. He was proud of his kids – they meant the world to him. When he said he was going to do something, he’d do it. His word was his bond. He was solid – he was a stand-up guy – a rarity in the pool room & Las Vegas.
This one was an especially hard one for me to write. He taught me a lot about people, Vegas, the poker world, the pool world, the gambling world - about life. My condolences to his family & many friends. RIP, Gabe…
Photo courtesy of Melissa Little
Maybe I missed it but I don't see any mention of his passing here, so I will. I put together a tribute to him for my page on Facebook & probably due to a hectic holiday season, I neglected to post it on the other sites. I think it should be automatic that he be remembered here since for longer than I can remember, anyone looking for one pocket action in Vegas could get some from "The Mailman." He gave everyone action - he didn't duck anyone. I'm sure many of you here knew Gabe & maybe even played him some...many of you might not even know he passed away. Anyway, here's a copy of what I posted for my friend on Facebook...
I was first introduced to Gabe by my ex on a trip to Las Vegas in 1983 – they had both grown up in & around the pool rooms of West Haven, CT. As I had grown up on Long Island only about thirty miles away, also in an Italian family, we hit it off immediately as people often do coming from the same background & being far from home.
Gabe was in his late forties then – tall & slim with streaks of gray running through his dark hair. He’d walk into the pool room & had a smile, comment, wisecrack, joke or something for everybody. Gabe loved the pool room & the pool room loved Gabe. He was the consummate old school pool room guy – a character. He loved the game, loved the people, loved the conversation, loved matching up, loved to gamble. And yeah, he could play a little too…his love was one pocket.
Yeah, that was the Gabe that most people knew. I’m going to tell you about the other side of Gabe…the topnotch Vegas poker dealer side.
By the time I moved to Vegas in ‘86, Gabe & I had gotten to be pretty good friends through our frequent visits from southern California. When we first moved to Vegas, we shared an apartment with Gabe. I knew that if I wanted to live in Vegas, I was going to have to find a job. Gabe told me that he thought that I would love dealing poker but told me to go around to all the different casinos & look at all the job possibilities before making a decision. A few days later, I showed up at the Stardust, waited for Gabe to take his break & told him that, yeah, I wanted to deal poker too & asked him if he could recommend one of the dealing schools.
He laughed. “Dealing school! Ha! I could teach you in a week!”
Well, that was what he thought until he discovered that the only thing I knew about poker was that if you had three of 'em, it was better than two! He thought he was just going to have to teach me how to shuffle & pitch the cards! He didn’t know he was going to have to teach me EVERYTHING!!!
Gabe was off the next day so we went down to the Crystal Palace pool room & the owner, Henry Nogiec, gave us an old piece of cloth. On the way back to the house, we swung by the Stardust & Gabe came out with a set of casino playing cards & a hundred dollars worth of casino chips. We took it all home & Gabe spread the cloth over the kitchen table. He shoved the table up against the wall, went into my bedroom & came out with the mirror from my dresser. He propped the mirror up against the wall & that became my classroom. He showed me how to riffle & box the deck like the casinos require. After about a half hour, he stood up & told me that when I saw myself in the mirror shuffling like a Vegas dealer, we’d be ready for the next lesson!
It took me a couple days – I’m talking hours on end - to get to that point. I don’t know what hurt more – my butt or my hands! All I did was shuffle, eat & sleep! Over the course of the next many days, Gabe showed me everything – how to hold the deck, how to deal the cards for hold ‘em, how to pitch them in the air for stud, how to cut the chips, how to figure the rake. Since I knew absolutely nothing about poker, Gabe patiently explained what all the different hands were & I memorized which hands beat the others. He taught me the rules of the game, the mechanics, the vocabulary – everything. He had me deal out six hands at a time, flip them over & I learned how to read the cards – finding the best hand. Quickly. Of course, I did it in increments…one new skill at a time until the mirror told me I had it down. It was poker boot camp! I’d report for inspection & Gabe would teach me the next thing…
One night, as I was practicing, Gabe walked in with a few of the guys from the pool room, a case of beer & a few racks of chips. Surprised, I watched as Gabe took the mirror back to my bedroom, pulled the table out from the wall & the guys took their places at the table.
Turning to me, Gabe grinned & said, “Ready?!!!”
OMG!!! He wanted me to deal to these guys!
Talk about being nervous! I have to tell you – it was nothing like I’d ever felt playing pool! I was shaking like a leaf - I dropped the deck, cards squirted out of my hand, chips flew all over the table, I was brain dead on the rake, I couldn’t read the hands – but only for the first fifteen minutes or so. Then, gradually, I smoothed out, everything fell into place & I fell into a rhythm. I was dealing my first live game – even if it was just to the pool room guys!
As the night wore on, I gained more confidence & actually started having fun! When the guys finally left, Gabe told me that he didn’t think I could get any better without being in a real game. It had been almost three weeks of doing nothing but practicing & sleeping! He was proud of how far I’d come & admitted to me that when I told him I was a complete poker newbie, he thought about bailing & sending me to a school! He also told me that now would come the hard part – getting my foot in the door of a casino…
He told me to meet him at the pool room the next day…he had an idea. I walked in & saw him talking to a man that I had beaten out of a thousand when I first came to town. Gabe waved me over & asked me if I knew him. Before I could answer, Kenny growled, “Yeah, we know each other.”
Apparently, Kenny was still a little warm from the ass-whuppin’ I’d put on him. It turned out that Kenny was the poker room manager at the old Vegas World casino. Gabe had explained to him that he had taught me how to deal & now was asking him for a favor - to give me an audition. Kenny stood there glaring at me for what seemed like an eternity & then turned to Gabe & spit out, “Only for you...”
Walking away, Kenny barked over his shoulder, “Show up at tonight at 2 am in black & whites – tell the shift boss I sent you.”
I high-fived Gabe! Woohoo!!! Vegas World was a dump but hey – I had a shot! I showed up that night & it turned out that the shift boss had been a great dealer himself & knew Gabe well - they had come up together in the poker business. A friend of Gabe’s was a friend of Mike’s & he put the finishing touches on the job Gabe started – teaching me to be topnotch poker dealer. Within a month or so, I was the best they had & dealing to the owner, Bob Stupak, & all his high roller friends like Puggy Pearson, Jack “Treetop” Strauss, Gabe Kaplan, Bobby Baldwin, Sarge, etc. The rest is history…
I dealt for a few years, opened Cue-Topia & then returned to dealing until I left Vegas. I loved the job & it provided me with an excellent living for many years. I owed it all to Gabe. We formed a bond during those early days – a bond of deep friendship & respect.
Gabe worked hard, played hard, partied hard – he loved Vegas & all it had to offer. He was proud of his kids – they meant the world to him. When he said he was going to do something, he’d do it. His word was his bond. He was solid – he was a stand-up guy – a rarity in the pool room & Las Vegas.
This one was an especially hard one for me to write. He taught me a lot about people, Vegas, the poker world, the pool world, the gambling world - about life. My condolences to his family & many friends. RIP, Gabe…
Photo courtesy of Melissa Little
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