I did not have a good run at El Cortez this past week either. I lost in every session I played down there. The same thing happened with my "luck" at Plaza the last trip I made and El Cortez bailed me out. I can't tally the hours I played last week, but when I got on the plane to come home, I was dead even! But, that was augmented by a $200 win on a nickel poker machine!
One thing I noticed was that during the day and night, Plaza had mostly empty tables! They now have a couple of tables that are 5-deck CSMs. Pen varies at Plaza. I saw really good cuts and others that were horrid. You just have to scout the tables out there.
4-Queens is still offering $5 DD and SD during the week (SD using rule of 6 and DD giving barely acceptable 60% pen).
El Cortez has only SD and DD at $5 minimums with good pen. No reason for me to lose so much down there. But Roberto's still has one of the best meals if you dig out a coupon! Their prime rib is prime!
California Club had $5 DD (6/5 single deck) but they only deal out half the cards no matter how many are playing (no cut card).
Las Vegas Club seemed always to have full tables with barely acceptable pen.
Gold Spike doesn't have any tables, but the kids who made the trip out with me just had to go there at night to say they had!
I think I had the most fun (and win) at Slots of Fun! But beware...it crowded there at night and you'll see the book of Basic Strategy completely rewritten! $3 (one $1) 6-d and $5 double deck. Funky double down rules. Only allow double down on 8,9,10,11 but you CAN double on soft hands that total the 8,9,10,11 counts! I've never seen that rule before. Had to stumble over Rug Rats in Circus Circus to get from the parking garage to Slots of Fun. NOTE TO DRIVERS....park at Stardust and walk to Slots of Fun. It's closer! Of course, they are imploding Stardust in November I think.
I was killing time at Golden Gate with the boys who had a yen to play blackjack but were not up to the variance in DD or SD. Golden Gate is undependable on their practices of cutting off cards. Pen varies from really good on 6-d to almost 1/2 deck. A couple of the Asian dealers really gave bad pen. Strangest hand I had there was a hand split to hands with a low count and me with 8's against a dealer face. Lost all 5 hands with one of them doubled. I think that is the first game I've played that allowed splitting to more than four hands.
Didn't play at Binion's this trip. Always crowded when I was there. The Nugget is to high for my budget and I won't play at Fremont Hotel. I did play at Fitzgeralds but only one short session. I don't like the way they cut down there.
I didn't play at Main Street Station. I think that covers all the Downtown casinos.
