I live in Southbank, Melbourne and go to Crown very often. In the main gaming floor they have recently introduced Sports Blackjack which are $10-$200 8-deck shoe games, No Hole Card, H17, DAS, D9/10/11 and penetration ~75% with blackjack paying 6-to-5!!:flame:. Upstairs they still have the usual $10-$200 Crown Blackjack with all the same rules above except bj pays the normal 3-to-2.
I have recently started using ReKO (
http://www.qfit.com/rekostrategy.htm) with moderate success (won $850 in 2 visits in roughly 10 shoes) at the tables upstairs. But from my own CVCX simulations the win rate will be about $15/hr in the long run given those Crown Blackjack rules. I have realised that the most important thing at the moment for me is the get enough bankroll and time to spend if I really want to make a decent earning from it.
I know Crown's rules are very bad, but they are still beatable (according to CVCX simulation). You just need patience. And given it's just metres away from my house I think it's the only reasonable choice for me.:grin:
They do use quite a few CSM machines but there are still shoe games available, I think the ratio of CSM to shoe games is roughly the same.