Best place to play in the country?

[RobinHood21]

I'm still fairly new to this lifestyle. I have only experienced the California and Nevada area. Was wondering if people wanted to share some of their best casinos to play at. I do know there are games that are "too good" to let everyone know about. I myself have one in particular. But I can expand on some of the games that I play. For me I have been in SoCal, LV, NorCal, and Reno. Out of all, I've found Reno to be the best overall. I have made more money overall in LV but I constantly feel like I'm stealing there. I spend much more time scouting and preparing for LV then any other area. Reno on the other hand (bare in mind I play only red and green levels in Reno) has not given me even any heat other then the one of the big 3. I have played Reno regularly for two years now and have only been BOed once. I do have to say most of the SD games (I should say dealers) have poor pen and break the deck on you quite often. But if you do some decent scouting you can find a few dealers that will deal quite deep. I have also found the dd's to have good pen. And for all the east coast guys I personally know that the 6Ds are constantly overlooked by personnel. Everyone is so focused on the SDs that they get overlooked tremendously. I can say with confidence that you can spread from 1-160 every weekend. Actually I should say, $5-2x$400 anything higher might be noticed. (Stay under the pink chip level and you'll be okay in the larger shops). One major point is that for newbie CCs I feel like Reno is a great place to start. SDs are and will always be the easiest games to beat. And they are also IMO the least taxing on the brain as there is shuffles or break periods every few hands.

Anyways... I don't expect to get a lot of clear and definite responses but it's worth a shot for me and maybe others as I am trying to expand my playing area and I don't want to be traveling to just mediocre games.


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[mrw464]

Lot's of variables - your stakes, how long you plan on playing, your AP approach, so on and so forth. I feel like it depends on if you are committed to travelling or prefer not to.

[mcallister3200]

I've yet to see one excellent pen dealer at an ASM table.

I have seen plenty but there is some validity to this. For the short time I was dealing, if I was on a double deck table with an ASM, I didn't make a mental effort to put the cut card shallow or deep but it was usually about 65-70%. If I was hand shuffling, I would be cutting it at 80% every time because I hated shuffling.

[Exoter175]

From what I can gather, there's two games that are absolutely superb on either side of the country. One's in California, the other in Pennsylvania.

I"m absolutely positive there's more though, just a bit less "public" from what I gather.

[LVBear584]

If you are playing at low stakes (you mentioned red and green in Reno), you cannot afford to travel much. But you can take I-80 for 120 miles west or 400 miles east of Reno, to find excellent games in both places. Beyond those, see Current Blackjack News for places to play in the Midwest that will pleasantly surprise you. Flights to those venues are plentiful and inexpensive; mostly non-stops from Las Vegas.

I hope you are aware that spreading to two hands in single deck is usually sub-optimal, and may explain why you sometimes do not get the pen you wish for.

[moo321]

It totally depends on what you're doing. I know a bunch of ok to good games that you can play to your heart's content. I also know "great" games that will back you off in ten minutes for red chip play.

[RobinHood21]

Mcallister... While I was a dealer shuffling was the biggest pain. I broke in on hand shuffle 6Ds and learned to dread it. After a year or so I learned that I can control when I shuffle so I started to move the cut card back further and further. Never got even a wiff of discipline.

Exoter... Hopefully one of these days I can gain the trust of a few in this forum to disclose that info to me. (I do have a subscription to receive PMs)

LVbear... I am funded to play any level stakes in the country other then possibly $500 mins. I am a monthly reg to LV $100 mins. And when those are unavailable I play the $300. I play small stakes in Reno as I visit extended periods of time. I've logged over 300 hours of play in Reno already this year... Also, I understand how important pen is even on SD. My favorite strategy right now is depth charging if you know what that is because I have found a game that deals to the bottom no matter what dealer is dealing. And your statement of, "spreading to two hands is sub-optimal" is highly inaccurate. If you spread on the last hand you may be able to gain an extra 10% of depth. 10% in SD is very big. You may be referring to the fact that you may be shuffled up on. That's why this game of BJ is an "art" and not a "science". You need to know when/how you can apply your sciences.

Moo... I am looking for the greatest of "great" games.


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[Three]

f you spread on the last hand you may be able to gain an extra 10% of depth.

Or they will shuffle rather than deal that last round that they otherwise would have dealt.

[FalseCount]

I know of a game that I am certain the "scouters" for CBJN intentionally hid. It is DD with surrender, double on anything, RSA, everything good except for H17. The penetration varies by dealer but I have seen LESS THAN 15 cards cut off. Tiny house edge, surrender, and fantastic pen. You understand the motivation to hide the game.

However, the game is hardly undiscovered. Last time I played at this shop I witnessed THREE other counters, easy to confirm. One brought a basic strategy card and acted like he was consulting it everytime at minimum bet, yet spread like a robot, even jumping to two hands, and made a soft 20 max bet double at index.

Haven't been back in two months, but hope to return to see if any aspects of this great game remain. I have little hope.

[ahjooma]

I went to a place somewhere that had good rules that I hadn't been to in a while.
somebody/somebodies must have hit them hard recently because there were extra personnel, security whispering
communication with eyes in the sky, etc. it's too bad because it used to be a nice relaxing place to play.
i understand the reluctance to share because some people just clean the place out like there is no
tomorrow and and that place becomes paranoid.

[Three]

Falsecount, I would delete your post. I had enough info to find your game using the rules offered.

[biggg]

The best place to play is almost certainly not going to be whatever is listed as best on a public bj forum. Especially not for very long.

[BJGenius007]

I know of a game that I am certain the "scouters" for CBJN intentionally hid. It is DD with surrender, double on anything, RSA, everything good except for H17. The penetration varies by dealer but I have seen LESS THAN 15 cards cut off. Tiny house edge, surrender, and fantastic pen. You understand the motivation to hide the game.

However, the game is hardly undiscovered. Last time I played at this shop I witnessed THREE other counters, easy to confirm. One brought a basic strategy card and acted like he was consulting it everytime at minimum bet, yet spread like a robot, even jumping to two hands, and made a soft 20 max bet double at index.

Haven't been back in two months, but hope to return to see if any aspects of this great game remain. I have little hope.

There used be a great 2D game at Wheeling Island, WV. Great rules: H17 (initially S17), LS, DAS, DOA. But there are only two tables and table maximal is $300. The casino knew it is losing money but they used it as a promotion to attract people to the casino. If players aren't greedy, they let most AP play. So I used to call it "counters' table". But still I saw people spread $5 to $300x2 and sit out all negative count. Eventually these morons killed the game. If you play with $10 to $70 spread, they won't back you off.

One funny story. Initially the game used to be no surrender. But when PA casinos opened and offered late surrender, Wheeling Island management thought they had to follow suit to keep the customers. But no pit boss knows what surrender is, people told them that it is to surrender the hand and have half of the bet back. Forgot to mention you can't surrender if dealer has Blackjack. So for two weeks, they offered the super rare S17 "Early Surrender" game. It is like you went back to 1960's. I saw some AP play 16 hours a day for 2 weeks.