Playing Cards Is Tough Work for ‘Props’ : Casinos: Clubs pay proposition players to keep poker games going. It sounds like a gambler’s dream, but it’s hard on the nerves when your earnings are at stake.

It is 6:45 a.m. when Dave Simon clocks in at the Commerce Casino and readies the tools of his trade--$100 bills.

Simon begins his shift slowly, calling and raising $5 and $10 bets at a poker table where the all-nighters wear fatigue on their faces and dollar signs in their eyes.

The stakes go up as Simon moves to a different area of the card room, where the pots hold $500, $1,000 and sometimes more. Simon has lost about $400, but his workday is not over yet.

In what would appear to be a gambler’s dream come true, Simon is paid to play cards. For eight hours a day, five days a week, he helps start games or keeps one going when other players drop out.

Several dozen “players” like Simon work in area casinos, earning as much as $72,000 a year plus benefits.

But it is not a job for the tight-fisted. They must play with their own money. Simon could lose a day’s pay, $275, in one hand. But he gets to keep what he wins.

“There’s a great deal of mental strain because your money’s on the line,” said Simon, 34, a tall man with short brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. “There’s something about working all day and going home and you’ve spent money. It just doesn’t sit right.”

But, he added, “I come to work to have fun. That’s the bottom line.”

The area’s casinos have long used what they call proposition players, or props, to bolster business. Casinos make their money by charging a per-hand or hourly fee. So if a prop helps to keep more players at the tables, a casino makes more money.

California law does not allow Las Vegas-style gambling, where a player wins or loses money while competing against the casino. Here, players compete against one another.

Props tend to be skilled players, but there is no proficiency test or strict bankroll requirement. The game is the final exam.

“It’s a rough job and I’d never do it again,” said a casino official who once worked as a prop.

The deck is stacked against the prop, and one who survives three or four years is doing well, officials say. Props have to play where casino officials tell them to play. Suddenly, they must leave one game and go to another--even if they are on a roll.

To make matters worse, they do not have the option of leaving a table to stop a run of bad luck. They must stick it out until a customer shows up to take their seat. Nevertheless, “there are a million guys who want to be props,” said George G. Hardie, managing partner of the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens.

The area’s two largest casinos, the Commerce Club and Bicycle Club, employ 15 and 12 props, respectively, officials say.

Joyce Mason is a veteran prop, having worked in Southern California casinos for the last 10 years. The job has enabled her to make a good living and put her son through college, she said.

One of the worst mistakes a prop can make, Mason said, is to become impatient and try to instantly win back losses--only to end up more in debt.

“When the cards go bad don’t worry about it. The cards will change, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but they’ll change. Play a good game of cards and the cards will take care of you.”

The cards were so cruel to Rex Jones that he worked for only about a year as a proposition player in a Gardena casino before he went bust.

“The name of the game is survival,” said Jones, 53, a free-lance writer who plays poker independently at local casinos. “I got a hold of a bad run.”

Simon was a Federal Express courier in 1989 when he decided to follow a friend into the business. “I knew I could play cards,” said Simon, who started playing poker in college. His wife, Claudia, was leery at first but has since accepted what he does, Simon said.

Clad in a black leather jacket, casual pants and shirt, he sometimes fills in a crossword puzzle between hands. He knows many of the players and jokes with them. He also keeps mental notes: The man with the curly black hair likes to stay in until the bitter end--not a good guy to bluff; another man plays “as if he had lots of money and didn’t care if he lost it.”

But Simon is getting mostly small cards and no pairs and folds hand after hand. At times, as many as three other props play at his table. Props often find themselves in competition with each other but do not ease up, props and casino officials said.

At one point, everyone drops out except Simon and another prop. They bet $30, $60 and raise as well.

“We’re independent contract kind of guys,” Simon said. “I’m in there with my money. I’ll be damned if I’m going to go soft on anybody.”

All the players seem to know who the props are. Simon and most other proposition players are required by their employers to disclose their profession when asked. Occasionally, a player will refuse to play with a prop. But usually they are accepted, even if most players would rather face a less experienced opponent.

Savvy players adjust their game, knowing that props usually play conservatively to protect their salaries. Most props do not engage in foolhardy bluffing. “I know they’re not going to get out of line,” said Steve Kotfica, 71, who frequently plays against Simon and other props.

Nevertheless, props sometimes take a serious beating.

Simon said he once lost about $2,000. His boss gave him the rest of the day off.

“If I lose $2,000, that means there’s $2,000 in the poker community that the players are chopping up, and they’re happy,” Simon said.

This day, Simon decides to work late. He is at a high-stakes table and down about $700 when his shift ends at 2:45 p.m. He works an hour of overtime and recoups $450.

“Lately, I’ve been staying once or twice a week because I’ve been getting beaten up,” Simon said.

A prop has had a decent year if he can hang on to his salary, props and casino officials say. Simon, like most props, does not discuss his bottom line except to say he pretty much breaks even at the tables. But he is not reluctant to discuss job satisfaction.

“When I explain what I do to people, they say: ‘What? You play cards?’ ” Simon said. “I can’t think of another thing I’d rather do than this.”