Meet Pete, one of our highly skilled full-time dealers who has become a fixture in The Venetian Poker Room since it opened back in 2006. Pete has a heavy eastern accent and is quite amiable and easy to talk to. I caught up with him last month and barraged him with questions that—despite the fact that he doesn’t do social media whatsoever and didn’t even know who I was—he had absolutely no problem answering—and then some.

How long have you worked here at The Venetian?
I was one of the “founders” of the room and have been here since it opened on 23 March 2006.

Where are you from, and what brought you to Las Vegas?
I’m originally from New Jersey and have been in Vegas since 1980, so 39 years. I originally went to the New York School of Gaming, but after graduation, we had to find work in Nevada because that was the only option aside from Atlantic City, and I didn’t want to stay in Jersey. I started dealing craps, but eventually learned all the games and was even a dual rate for a while. Here in Vegas, I worked at the Sundance, Sam’s Town, Barbary Coast, and Caesars Palace and was in management with Caesars for 15 years.

What is the most interesting thing about you?
I actually fell into poker. After getting burned out in management, a friend of mine who worked at Bally’s at the time suggested I learn poker. After I finished poker school here in Vegas, I checked out existing and coming soon poker rooms and really liked the Venetian. I said to myself, “This is the place,” and the rest is history.

What do you like to do in your free time?
I work out a lot and really love my old hard rock and disco music from the 60s-80s. I love Donna Summer!

What is your favorite/least favorite part of your job?
The food is great! I also love my insurance, the atmosphere of the poker room, and my schedule. I also appreciate that your days off are your days off and they handle flex time off really well. As for least favorite, there’s not much that I don’t like.

Dogs or cats?
Oh, I’m definitely a dog guy, but I’ve never really had a cat.

So, next time you are playing some poker during the day, take a few minutes to say hi and get to know this quite interesting and friendly man.