Boris' Favorite Casinos
This is the section of the Diary where I mention my favorite casinos and/or favorite games in those casinos. Included in my recommendation is the reasoning behind my kudo-assignment. In all honesty, very few Blackjack games qualify for inclusion in this web-section.
Las
Vegas: Downtown
During
my recent casino scouting trip for Boris (Sept. 23, 2002) I made a
quick sweep of the downtown casinos. I found only TWO playable
game-sets; at Main Street Station and the Golden Nugget.
Golden
Nugget
Being
part of the MGM-Mirage casino group, the Golden Nugget uses the
standard (and yes, reliable) 6-Deck Stutter-7
<---> S-Thru(4)
shuffle, with no plugging or quarter-shoe swapping. I hit the G-N at
about 3:00 in the afternoon, finding predictably-clumped games all
over the casino. Not suprising, my best results in the table I
selected came with 3 players (myself included) in the game. Playing 1st-base,
the 1st-card tens were easily caught. When the table added 2 more
players, the 1st-card 10's consistently became 2-card STIFFs and the
Insurance-read errored-out - table departure time!
While
I was utilizing a combination of Clump-tracking and the BorisAPC,
the card-reads were strong enough that I could have dropped the count
and still do well (I sometimes did, as this is one of my first combo-plays).
Main
Street Station
To
me, Main Street Station looks as it did when I first encountered it
in 1992. The shuffle in use at the Station breaks the 6-Decks into 3
stacks (A & B
& C). Each
1.5-deck stack is riffled individually. Then a 3-zone V-style shuffle
is performed, assembling about 2/3-deck picks from each stack into
one [approx.] 2-deck stack shuffling the stack as follows: Big-Strip(3~~4)
--- Riffle-2 --- Big-Strip(3~~4)
-- Riffle. IF the
player number can be kept to 4 or less players (and 4 is pushing it),
the game is playable with Clump-tracking alone; otherwise, a
Clump-track & Card-count combination is recommended.
Las
Vegas: Strip
Although
shoe games abound on the Vegas strip, more and more the
"rigged" games (such as the 6:5 Blackjack and Super Fun 21
oddities) are displacing some of these games, while even more tables
are lost as these casinos increasingly become "slot
parlours". Horror of horrors - even Caesars palace has become a
DOG casino, as far as table selection goes.
Imperial
Palace
It
has been several years since I have found the I/P consistently
playable. I found several outstanding tables in my September trip
(remeniscent of the 92 - 95 days), although for me, ironically, the
games were 4+ hours off the wash - the play clumping seemed to have
reached a playable limit. Beware here however - my play seemed to be
scrutinized more than normal, with "blind-carding" occuring
at one table everytime I ended up playing heads-up with the dealer.
The
shuffle used in this 6-Deck game does not plug and involves
Big-Stripping 2-Decks, splitting into two stacks. This is followed by
a S-Thru using: Riffle
--- Strip-2 --- Riffle-2.
Play-clumping
seems to easily survive the shuffle.
My
Insurance-calls were over 75%, saving a number of important hands.
Note:
New tables are opened every evening between 6:00 and 6:30, creating
excellent wash-card opportunities. However remember, wash cards can
swing either way - your session-bankroll should probably give you
more "breathing room" against such cards.
Of the many California casinos I have played, I have discovered 3 favorites thus far:
Trump 29 - Indio - In addition to a clump-trackable shuffle, the table selection in this casino is outstanding. My next play session there, I will need to allow several hours for some "serious" Hit-and-Run play.
Chumash Indian Casino - Solvang - This is the best ShuffleMaster BOX (SMBox) game I've found in California thus far. Unfortunately there are less than a dozen tables available. Ironically, play conditions seem to be better at the relatively-empty low[er] stakes tables, than in the the high stake ($25) games. Remember: SMBox games use dual shoes, and therefore possess dual game-signatures.
Paiute Palace - Bishop, Ca. - While the "swings" in this game are quite large (due to the shuffle), this game has a lot of potential. I've only played at this casino 3 times; each before 8 p.m. so I have yet to see more than 2 of the tables open at a time. One advantage of this casino is that the dealers get to keep their own tokes (they bring their own toke box to the table); many who seem to be toke-influenceable, at least as far as penetration is concerned. A disadvantage is that there are several "older" dealers there who deal as slow as a tortise in a winter storm. Another disadvantage is that the first Blackjack table(s) don't open until 10:00 a.m. - something to think about if you are a morning person. As an aside, the Pauite palace sports a simple restaraunt with reasonably-priced food (breakfast at anyrate) and a gas station next door which tends to undercut the local gas prices slightly.