Hello, my name is Lindsey Cusey and I am the assistant of professional poker player Andrew Robl. I have worked for Andrew for about a year and a half now. The first thing people ask when I tell them what I do is “How did you get that job?” or “Where did you find a job like that?” I think I’ve told the story a million times. Gosh, is it not a common profession to work for a professional gambler? To tell you the truth it was a listing on craigslist believe it or not. Here’s the story…

I have lived in Las Vegas almost all my life. I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (so I am a diehard Vikings fan! They should have had it this year, damn so close!). I lived in a small town called Casa Grande, Arizona for a couple years before moving to dazzling Las Vegas at age 5. When we first moved here, it was for my dad’s job transfer, we didn’t have a house yet so his boss put us up at the Circus Circus for a couple months. I swear to God I was the happiest 5 year old on the planet. I played those midway games every day until I had the hotel room filled up to our knees with stuffed animals that I had won!

Since I graduated high school in 2001 I worked in real estate with my family as an agent, and as a marketing manager. Realizing that I liked the marketing aspect more than the sales aspect I then transitioned into working for a real estate magazine. That company then launched a hospitality magazine, and finally I was offered the Associate Publisher position at a national food and beverage magazine where I stayed for a couple years. Due to changes in the economy and in the company I was working for, I took a position at a popular nightclub as a VIP host. Although I liked my job and I like to believe I was very good at it, the late nights and lifestyle were really taking a toll on me, so I began looking elsewhere for something a little bit more normal again, well “normal” is not how you would describe my life or my job now.

My sister actually found the posting on craigstlist one day while I was attending my daily dysfunctional night club meeting. She called me and with a lot of enthusiasm she said “I found the perfect job for you!” and she kindly submitted my resume and picture for me. Surprisingly I got a call from a nice woman and she told me there were almost 450 applicants and that Andrew had selected 25-30 to actually interview and I was one of them! I was so excited, I always did well interviewing and talking to people in person but still I thought “wow 30 people… that’s a lot of competition!” So I was told to meet with Andrew the next day for a formal interview at a Starbucks nearby. Now, this might sound a little silly but you’re probably thinking because I am practically a Vegas native and have been a VIP host that I knew a little about poker… wrong! All I knew is that there was some kind of televised card tossing on TV that I have briefly experienced a glimpse of as I channel surfed. So I was expecting some old, hairy, crotchety old man who stunk like cigarette smoke and casino food. When I walked into Starbucks the next day I came upon 2 smiling younger gentleman who flagged me over to them, one was Andrew and one was his poker player friend Luke Kim. The interview was very comfortable, we all laughed and got along very well and they asked me a series of questions that I’ve never been asked in a job interview before… For example “How do you feel about packing up and leaving the country at the drop of a hat?” (my mind immediately raced, and I was thinking.. “ok, I am definitely not doing anything illegal!”). That question was followed by a more comforting question and something I was extremely skilled and familiar with, Andrew asked “How are you at picking out clothes and stuff for the interior of a home? I’ll need you to do a little shopping for me”. I smiled and said “No problem”. We talked about what some of my other job duties could possibly entail and before I knew it I shook their hand and Andrew said he’d be in touch.

The next day I got a call from him telling me that I got the job and asked if I could start right away. I was ecstatic! I am sure he probably hired me because of my marketing or writing experience or maybe because I had worked on web sites or computers before, but I like to think it was my sparkling personality and charm that got me the job. He asked me to come by his condo and get my set of keys because he was leaving town for 2 weeks. To me, this was odd… I just started a job with this guy and here he is running off for 2 weeks. I felt very unsure about the whole situation and hoped it wasn’t a scam. I pulled up to a beautiful high rise building with lush palms trees, a cute little valet man with a bow-tie and a glistening pool and spa in the distance. When I got upstairs it looked like Hurricane Katrina had touched down in his living room, I almost began looking for survivors. There were papers and objects of all sorts scattered everywhere. I thought “there’s gotta be like 5 people living here, holy cow”, nope, just Andrew. He handed me 3 sheets of paper, one of them was a list of all of his important information everything from his social security number, bank accounts and mother’s maiden name. The next was important phone numbers and addresses for people, like family members, his agent and last but not least the number for the maids, I immediately dialed it and explained the emergency situation. I guess when you are a professional poker player you don’t really have time to clean, and sweat the small stuff and that’s why he needed me. The third piece of paper was my “to do” list. Luckily I still have it (I keep everything), so here are a few of the tasks: “Get a Canadian cell phone, set up Rock Band bass guitar, install stripper pole, get a day-of-the-week vitamin holder, find resorts in Cancun, get new Louis Vuitton wallet”. The one I found the most amusing was, he wanted me to write a letter to all the other job candidates telling them that they didn’t get the job.

Since I began working for Andrew it has been a very interesting, fun and pleasant experience. I can honestly say that Andrew is a great guy and he treats me more like a friend than he does an assistant. Amongst all my crazy duties, I also handle a lot of extremely important things for him such as his taxes, some web site work, travel arrangements, transferring and transporting large amounts of money or chips, insurance, I also handle all of his bills, keep track of expenses, help at all Victory Poker events and parties, and sometimes travel with him to tournaments. Some of his requests can be extremely outlandish and funny, but it all makes for good stories. It seemed a little crazy, but for the most part it was all normal, for Vegas life I suppose… and then I met Alec.

To be continued…