[MicroBob]

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I already am a substitute teacher. It's not particularly socially acceptable to be in your 20s with a degree from a decent school and substitute teach.

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Well then that indicates that OP wants to do something that is up a different set of standards than I was previously envisioning.

I was in my 30's with a degree from a decent school (Miami U. in Ohio) and was dealing blackjack for almost a year.
There was another dealer there in his 40's or 50's with a PhD from Wisconsin (smokers and non-smokers are in different rooms during the breaks...so I didn't get to know him very well so don't know his whole story).



I understand why you would feel pressure from others that you should be more successful in your career.
But, really, why should you/I care??
If others have a problem with it then it's THEIR problem.


Again though, I do understand where this kind of pressure comes from.
My girlfriends parents (from South America) just have a picture that EVERYONE with a college degree in the U.S. should easily be successful so why was this guy dealing cards at a casino (and now playing online-poker full-time)??



Anyway, probably not for you, but for others out there....BJ dealer worked great for me.
If it's a low-traffic casino then you might be able to get out early on virtually every shift if you wanted to.

you sign an 'early-out sheet'...on swing-shift they bring in more dealers than they need 'just in case' they have a bigger than expected night.
Around 10p or 11p on a Monday they will start closing tables and sending dealers home in the order in which they signed the sheet.

It was perfect for me...if I had a couple bad weeks at poker then I could put in full 40 hours weeks most of the time (or even overtime on weekends if I wanted) and when I was running well I could give-away a shift and/or sign-out early a lot of the time and bring my hours down to 20 or so (giving me more time for poker at home obviously).
It was the perfect type of situation to get in my hours and experience at poker while also keeping steadier income coming in to balance out the downswings.

Eventually they had a bit of a dealer shortage as the low-paying casinos are always losing their dealers to places that pay more (have a higher toke-rate) and they tried to make me a full-timer which is about the time I decided to do poker full-time instead (and could always go back to dealing if it went badly).