Blue Chip's poker room is back

[Jimmy The Fish]

I stopped in for a couple hours on Sunday night. Offered games were 3/6 limit (with full kill), 1/2 NL, and 2-5 NL. The was a "list" for 6/12 limit that consisted of one name.

I played 3/6 for a couple hours. Newbie dealers, kinda slow, a couple rookie mistakes (one pot pushed to wrong person, one failure to announce a raise/not noticing a half-price call, etc.)

Tables are nice. Blue felt, betting line, no racetrack. The auto-shufflers are positioned a bit too prominently -- directly between the dealer and Seat 4. Seat 4 had to reach fairly often, as the dealers haven't yet figured out how to pitch the cards that far without flipping 'em. The room design leaves a lot to be desired; curtained walls isolate it from the rest of the gaming floor, and the room is dim enough to make the jumbo-face cards a necessity.

Might have been a function of the time/day, but this was one of the tightest live tables I've ever sat in. Average flop probably saw 3-4 players, with very few showdowns.

The rake is typically horrible for Indiana low-limit: 10% to $5, with a sixth dollar going to the BBJ.

I won't have the chance to see the place on the weekend; but the vibe that I got (combined with the overwhelmingly depressing vibe I get from Michigan City as a whole) makes me not too sad to leave Blue Chip as a one-shot room.

Suggestions for improvement (on the off chance that someone connected with the Blue Chip actually reads this):

- ROOM REDESIGN: Replace the curtains with glass. Make it easier for newbies to railbird and get curious. Improve the lighting. And if you're not going to put a beverage dispenser within a hundred yards of the room, step up the waitress quotient.

- TABLE REDESIGN: Move the auto-shufflers down closer to Seat 1, and out of the line of fire. Bring in the outer edges of the betting line (out of four dealers, only one could reach that far). The less time a dealer has to spend motioning for chips to be pushed closer, the better the game.

- OTHER GRIPE: Find a better way to ensure the correct chip/cash count when starting a down. Instead of keeping several hundred dollars cash in the dealer tray (where the bills are folded twice and stuffed down into the card-storage slots), how about having the floor come around and exchange square plaques for the cash? Easier to count, easier to store, faster, less risk of disappearing money.