From minnow to whale.

If you read my "introduce yourself" I referred to coming after whales in the steemit context, But here is the beginning of my story. Something very similar.
In 1973 I trained to be a croupier at one of London's finest training academy's, Charlie Chester's casino, in Soho. We were all young fresh faced boys in those days, no women allowed.
Over a relatively short period of time we were trained in three game types Blackjack, Roulette, and Dice or Craps as the yanks call it.
Shortly after we were unleashed on to the gaming floor as brand new croupiers. Nervous as hell, sweaty palms and shaking knees.
At this point in a gaming career you are a "lumpy" hence the analogy to minnow, a very small fish.

Over the next 18 months/ two years you were honed into a decent croupier primarily by the ever watchful and very scary table inspector. Your confidence grew you became dexterous, polite, and efficient, but most importantly fast.
Speed is what casinos are all about. This is a money game that's fair not rigged, but mathematically always in the house's favour.
The longer we keep a gambler playing and the faster we keep the game going, eventually the edge in the casino's favour will fleece the punter (sorry customer).
So a good Blackjack dealer could bash the cards out at an alarming rate, and quickly hustle the player to make his decision. Card or no card sir? 11, Double down sir, Pair of eights madam, split. At lightning speed we'd force the game's pace and the players decisions, hustling them to make bad choices.
In the real work splitting kings is madness you've already got 20, now you have to double your stake for two kings (or 10's). And the suckers bite.
You are now a valuable commodity to the casino, no longer a lumpy (or minnow) but a Dealer. The world of gaming is now your oyster. You career path is now firmly fixed on the dolphins.