Ceaser's Palace, Las Vegas - New BJ Rules (Multi-Deck)

[playersare]

well, caesars palace has only recently sucked after decades of good conditions. on the other hand, the Rio has ALWAYS sucked. all the 6:5 singles you want, and their base shoe game is H17 DAS but no resplit aces or surrender (house edge just over 0.6%). you probably have to bet at least $50-100 in order to get a halfway decent 6 or 2 decker there. with gold coast across the street with tons of good $10 pitch tables and the VP paradise at the Palms on the other side, there's no point in gambling a single dime at the rio. any reason why you have to stay at a harrah's brand casino in the first place? I have a partial excuse because my diamond status generated from VP grinding in AC gives me free deluxe rooms anywhere in the country plus unlimited lounge access. depending on circumstances, I'll spend $100-200 net theo on bad gambling to get $500+ of promotional considerations. but if you're paying rack rate, then you should definitely shop around much harder.

under the HET umbrella, I would opt for BJ at Harrah's, Bally's or Paris. at the latter two, you can usually get $5 shoe games during off-peak times with late surrender, and while double deck games are reported at $25 minimum, I found $10/$15 available often as the game seems to be shockingly unpopular on the strip...I played $10 heads up for almost 2 hours while the 6:5 tables were packed. the Paris is the next best looking Harrah's casino next to CP, and they are the only place that offers an even remotely playable 25c VP game (8/5 BP). and they have "The Producers" musical with David Hasselhoff dressed as a woman, and later on, singing and dancing - badly - in an adolf hitler costume.

the rio offers none of these benefits, and you're off the strip on top of that.

[ThreeBeers]

I am a lowly Platinum player but my buddy is a Diamond player and wants to stay loyal given the perks he gets.

ThreeBeers

[playersare]

[ QUOTE ]
I am a lowly Platinum player but my buddy is a Diamond player and wants to stay loyal given the perks he gets.

[/ QUOTE ]
whose TR account is the room booked under? if you yourself are not obligated to play at a HET property to fulfill a marketing/host offer, than you should play elsewhere while you're in LV. I do all my points whoring in AC where affordable 9/6 JoB and S17 shoes are still a right not a privilege (fingers crossed), and then the free vegas trips are just an opportunity for me to enjoy myself at Harrah's expense.

I'm sure everybody's situation is different, but going to Las Vegas just to gamble at a Harrah's property is a bit counterproductive IMO. of course if they're paying your way, show them a little love but after that, you're wasting your time vs. other opportunities in sin city. remember, Harrah's made all their money juicing quarter slot grinders in smaller markets and only had something resembling a true strip presence after buying Caesars Entertainment 2-3 years ago.

[NL Rounder]

Bummer to read this as I used to have a lot of good blackjack trips to Caesars in years past.

I would hope that the good Caesars multi-deck BJ game can still be found at most of the major MGM-Mirage properties as well as at the Wynn.

"F" Harrahs forever!

[playersare]

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I would hope that the good Caesars multi-deck BJ game can still be found at most of the major MGM-Mirage properties as well as at the Wynn.

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I confirm that the good 6-deck game (S17 DAS RSA LS) is still available at the MGM Grand and Mirage as of this weekend. I didn't visit the Wynn but there would be no reason to believe it was changed more recently than the March 2007 CBJN.

the crapitization of caesars seems to be isolated to Harrah's management, and hopefully will not spill over to competition at the other high-end properties on the strip. however, given how quickly the big houses have phased out even halfway decent video poker in the past year, we'll unfortunately just have to wait and see.

[ReidDeCardes]

Good to hear about MGM still having a good 6 deck. I like playing there because I have made consistant wins there. Yeah, I know that isn't a scientific study, but it makes me feel better.

[Acquiesce]

At least they didnt bastardise it completely though, but it seems like they're leaning a bit more towards the UK blackjack rules. I'll definitely make a note to avoid playing BJ there when I get over to Vegas next year. Just hope they don't add more of our stupid limitations that we have over here, it was such a nice change playing BJ in a US casino the one time I was able to.

[aargh57]

Just a note. Just got back from Vegas and stayed at Monte Carlo, NY, and MGM and played a little (not a lot) of BJ at each one. Monte Carlo also had good BJ games and they had a 2 shoe S17 one but with no surrender in the high limit area (only $25 when I played) and a 6 deck stand on 17 in the same area. Also played the good games at MGM a little. Don't know anything about counting but these were all games that according to wizard of odds had less than .5% HA. I wish counting were easy, it seems like it'd be fun to break from poker.

[StevieG]

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just got back from LV, looks like almost all the low limit tables (not just the pussycat pit) have been converted to H17, D10/11, NDAS, NS - house edge just below a full 1%. also looks like the original

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From this it seems that the Pussycat Doll pit is paying 3:2 on blackjack. Is this still true?

[playersare]

[ QUOTE ]
From this it seems that the Pussycat Doll pit is paying 3:2 on blackjack. Is this still true?

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yes. what I think CP/harrah's is doing is tinkering with other rules to gain a similar HA of a 6:5 single game without having 6:5, which some (but surprisingly not all) players now know to avoid playing.