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Trip Report

 Posted by Robbie on 25 November 2003, at 8:57 p.m.
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Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov., 2003

 
 
I spent a week in Las Vegas at the Polo Towers which is next to the
 
Aladdin, actually between the MGM and Aladdin. I took the Express shuttle from the
 
airport which cost $4.40 per person and it cost $21.60 for four including tip.
 
There was a half hour wait for the shuttle to fill up with passengers. It would
 
have been cheaper and would have taken less time to catch a taxi or
 
limousine. Fortunately, we were the first to get off.
 
 
The Polo Towers is a resort hotel with a 19th floor cocktail lounge with a
 
panoramic, 180 degree view from the MGM on the left, to the Monte Carlo,
 
Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, Mirage, Paris and Aladdin with the Rio and Palms in the
 
background.
 
 
My first casino visit was to the MGM which had crowded blackjack tables
 
between 10pm and 11pm on Sunday night. There were enough openings to Wong In and
 
Wong out. The cutoffs were mainly 1.75 out of six decks. Some were 1.5/6 and I
 
saw one shoe cut off at 1 deck.
 
 
At the Aladdin I had four shoes with superior counts but three of us
 
couldn't win enough hands and ended up losing. Cutoffs were fairly good at 2 out of
 
8 decks.
 
 
The Monte Carlo had some of the best deck penetration that I saw all week,
 
consistently near 1 deck cut off of six decks. Two decks were cut out of 8
 
decks.
 
 
New York New York also had excellent D.P. with 1 deck cutoffs out of six
 
decks. They had great cuts early in the afternoon during the week but were 1.5/6
 
on the weekend. NY NY had the most $5 tables of any casino that I saw. It
 
was always possible to find an uncrowded table of any denomination with good
 
D.P. in the afternoon. Some tables had a Shuffle Master so that one shoe was
 
always ready to be put into play. I noticed that the cut card slot is now at the
 
top rear of the shoe instead of the bottom rear and is set at about one deck,
 
or to be exact, at 1.2 decks.
 
NY NY just recently opened a single deck pit with six $5 tables. The deck
 
penetration was very poor having only two rounds dealt out to two players for
 
50% deck penetration.
 
NY NY now has a permanent polished granite memorial commemorating the
 
disaster of September 11, 2001, on the sidewalk in the front of the casino. It
 
contains plaques, letters, flags, gifts, messages, last regards and shirts and
 
hats of firefighters and police.
 
 
The Palms had some good cutoffs of 1.5 decks out of 6, but I was very
 
disappointed with their cheap looking and disconcerting Zebra/Tiger striped
 
tables. They have Super Fun 21 blackjack at the single deck tables at which they hit
 
soft 17. They had two single deck tables open and were dealing three rounds
 
to two players for more than 60% deck penetration. There are three major
 
differences for this game:
 
1. You can surrender or stand on two or more cards; after double downs
 
and after DD after splits.
 
2. You can double down after two or more cards.
 
3. Blackjack pays even money.
 
 
Paris had much better deck penetration on this trip than on the last time I
 
was there. Cutoffs were 1 1/2 to 2 decks out of 8, which is better than the 2
 
- 2 1/2 decks out of 8, that they were cutting off two years ago.
 
Interestingly, there were just as many Bally's chips in play as there were Paris chips.
 
 
Bally's had excellent DP with only 1.0 to 1.25 decks cut off out of 8
 
decks.
 
 
The Hard Rock was cutting off 1.7 out of 6 decks. There is a free shuttle
 
that runs between the Hard Rock Cafe and the Harley Davidson store on Las Vegas
 
Boulevard.
 
 
The Boardwalk was cutting 3/4 deck off of their double deck game for 62% deck
 
penetration.
 
 
The Barbary Coast had one single deck table open at $25 where a group of
 
three players were winning hand after hand to the tune of $4000 for one who was
 
betting $100 to $500 per hand, and about $1000 for the others. They definitely
 
were not counting because they were only getting one round per deck. But four
 
pit people were watching very closely. Eventually the pit brought out a new
 
dealer clothed in a black shroud and black mask so as to change the luck. Which
 
did not work.
 
 
The San Remo had two active tables out of six at mid day. One of the tables
 
was a $2 table with 7 players jammed in. They had rooms for $39 per nite and
 
had a steak dinner for $5.95.
 
 
Ellis Island only had one table that was open at noon. They have a nice
 
restaurant that features a complete steak dinner for $4.95 but is only $3.95 on
 
Wednesdays.
 
 
The Tuscany is a very nice, new hotel and casino which opened in Jan. 2003.
 
They had a small casino with about six blackjack tables and cut off 1.75 out
 
of 6 decks.
 
 
Terribles had some tables that were jammed with players and some that were
 
open with no players.
 
 
Key Largo only had about three tables with one getting ready to open at mid
 
morning.
 
 
The Imperial Palace was cutting off 2 decks out of 6. The last time I was
 
there, about a year ago, they had some of the best deck penetration at 5 out of
 
6 decks.
 
 
The Bellagio and Caesar's Palace only had CSM's which were everywhere I
 
looked. I did not see any hand shuffled games.
 
 
 
Robbie

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