Archive for the ‘Casino reviews’ Category
What happened at Harrah’s
January 30th, 2010 | 
Author: I knew that Harrah’s was on their way to spoiling what was probably the friendliest little casino on the Las Vegas Strip (O’Shea’s) when I was there last year, but this year confirmed it.
My husband has a conference he’s attended in Vegas for years now. It’s been at Caesar’s all but one year, and that’s where we’ve stayed. I liked O’Shea’s because it’s a small place, right across the street from Caesar’s. I could go there early in the morning, before my husband woke up, get a decent cup of coffee in a decent-size cup and play $5 minimum blackjack and talk to the dealers, all of whom I’ve found to be very friendly. The tables were all hand shuffled and they played pretty good rules on blackjack. Shoes were 6 deck, they played a couple of double deck tables and a couple of single deck tables. If you play early in the day, as I did, you could easily get a seat at one of the $5 tables. Later in the day, when it’s busier, they shut down to only one $5 table – but I was usually gone by then, anyway. They hit soft 17, but you could resplit aces and you can double down on any two cards (except, of course, aces).
Now – O’Shea’s and Caesar’s are both owned by Harrah’s. I don’t know how long Harrah’s has owned O’Shea’s, but if it’s been for a long time, then they left well enough alone until the last two years or so. And maybe the tanking economy inspired the ridiculous raping of customers that I’m seeing in Las Vegas this year. I can’t figure out why people are still flocking there, but I can tell you I was somewhat relieved when my husband said we probably won’t be going to this conference again. If I’m going to go to Vegas, I’m going to find the best deals – and Harrah’s properties aren’t it.
Let’s talk about Caesar’s itself for just a minute. The only deal they gave me was an upgrade to the Palace Tower at no additional charge, which was nice of them. I booked in one of the older towers because my husband wasn’t sure his company would reimburse him this year. But still – you’re talking at the conference price almost $200 a night. In a day and age when most hotels are offering free wireless internet, Caesar’s is charging a whopping $14.99/day for a wired connection to the internet, and $24.99/day for each wireless connection. Yes, you read that right – $24.99 per connection. If my husband and I had both wanted to wirelessly connect to the internet using our laptops, it would’ve cost nearly $50/day. I was glad to have my AT&T wireless air card because in the four days we were there, it would’ve cost me more for the wired connection at Caesar’s than I pay for a month of air card service. Suffice it to say that I’d never stay at Caesar’s if someone else wasn’t paying for it.
Last year, I didn’t play much at O’Shea’s because when I walked in, I saw that all the tables were paying 6:5 on blackjack. I don’t play games that pay 6:5 blackjack. I didn’t check out anything else, so I’m not sure if the changes I saw this year happened a year ago – and I just didn’t look close enough last year – or if they happened in the interim. But – given some time constraints I was working with, I was really hoping O’Shea’s would have something worth playing because I couldn’t really spend a lot of time tromping up and down the Strip. So I tried to look past the 6:5 blackjack to see if there was anything else that might compel me to sit down and play in spite of that.
What I found was actually pretty horrifying. And not just in terms of what a great place O’Shea’s used to be, but in terms of blackjack games in general.
First of all, in addition to the 6:5 on blackjack, they’ve gone from a 6-deck shoe to an 8-deck shoe. You can’t get even money if you have a blackjack and the dealer has an A showing. You’re no longer allowed to resplit aces. All the double deck games are gone – they have 8-deck shoe and single deck.
This is not a game worth playing.
I fully understand that casinos are in business to make money and we would all be fools if we acted as though they weren’t. But at some point, consumers (and players in a casino are consumers) have to draw a line and refuse to feed corporate greed. I’m no economist but it seems to me that when people are hanging on to their money tighter, you have to offer them better deals. Harrah’s seem convinced that the opposite is true – squeeze as much money out of the few(er) customers you have.
I’m not sure when I’ll make it to Vegas again, but I can assure you that I won’t be staying or playing at a Harrah’s property.
Pechanga Casino in Temecula, CA
I have to congratulate Pechanga Resort Casino for a well-run blackjack tournament. I understand they’ll be running a tournament monthly, so keep checking Blackjack Tournaments listings for updates.
As far as the actual blackjack games at the casino – I’m not impressed. I was in the casino to watch the tournament and planned on playing some blackjack while I was there. I got there at approximately 8:30 a.m. on a Monday and left at approximately 4 p.m. and played probably less than half an hour because the blackjack tables simply didn’t offer anything I found playable, especially with better games 10 miles down the road at Pala.
On this particular day, there was a large area of the floor under renovation. I am pretty sure from the layout and my prior trips to this casino that it’s a slot area and therefore the renovations didn’t remove any blackjack tables from play. It’s possible the tournament displaced some regular games – I couldn’t say for certain because it’s been quite awhile since I was at this casino last.
First of all, let me go on record as saying I absolutely hate the continuous shuffle machines (CSMs), which I’ll bitch about in a completely different entry.
These things are all over the Pechanga blackjack pits. On the regular floor, all the low-limit blackjack tables are dealt out of a CSM. Any table with a $5 or $10 minimum (and there weren’t many of them) were being dealt from a CSM. I did see one $15 minimum table not only being dealt out of a shoe, but hand shuffled, as well – you don’t see that very often any more. I would say that was a 6-deck shoe, not 8-deck.
Still, resplitting aces is not allowed. I am not so in love with playing blackjack that I will sit down at a game that doesn’t allow resplitting of aces. There is also no surrender and the dealer hits soft 17 (A/6). Bundle all this together with a CSM and it pretty much kills any desire I have to play at that casino.
All the tables I observed paid 2:1 on blackjack
If you have a larger bankroll, it might be worth checking out the high-limit rooms. One of the tournament contestants told me they had a pretty decent double deck game with a $25 minimum, but I admit I didn’t go into the high-limit room to check it out.
All in all, my feeling is the casino can afford the prizes for the blackjack tournament because the regular tables are raking in the dough off players who don’t know enough about blackjack to know they’d be better off at Pala or players who have so much money they simply don’t care how fast they lose it.
Posted in Casino reviews | 
Tags: blackjack, blackjack tournament, continuous shuffle machine, CSM, H17, no surrender, Pechanga, RSA, tournament | 
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Morongo Casino Resort & Spa
I was visiting in Palm Springs back in May of this year and my friend suggested we go to the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon. Going into Palm Springs from Los Angeles, the (fairly new) casino and hotel tower are about 30 miles west of Palm Springs. I hadn’t been there to play since it was less than a year old, so I said sure.
This was a Wednesday night, so the casino floor was busy, but not crowded. The last time I had played there, it was crowded. We wanted to find a $5 table, so we wandered through the pits for several minutes, looking for one that was open. The casino floor was busy enough that all the easily accessible $5 tables that were close to the restaurant and the doors were full. Even the $10 tables were pretty busy. As is usually the case at these casinos during the week, the $25 tables were dead. We finally found quite a few $5 tables further into the casino (by the bathrooms!) – the problem was, these looked really sad. I was shocked at the shape the table felt was in – it was stained and looked like it hadn’t been changed since they opened the new casino.
To make things look even sadder, the entire group of tables in this section by the bathrooms weren’t very busy. While the tables closer to the front were popping, there was very little action at these tables. I think it’s because they had a side bet feature, with a light inset in the table (which I’d never seen before). I was pretty sure the side bet wasn’t required, but I asked, just to be sure. Maybe other people didn’t feel like asking. Or maybe they sensed something strange about these tables and just moved on.
I don’t think my friend and I played for more than 15 minutes before we got up and left the casino. Aside from the strange vibe and the stained table felt, the dealer was one of the rudest dealers I’ve ever played against. I understand it’s a job and you get tired and want to go home, but it’s like any other job where you’re dealing with customers looking to socialize and have fun – suck it up and put on a smile. How would you like it if you went to Disneyland and Goofy moped around, telling everyone he wanted to go home? This dealer was the equivalent of a limp handshake. It wasn’t just that she didn’t want to talk – my friend and I are perfectly capable of carrying a conversation between us – but the attitude was confirmed came when a co-worker passed and she told him how much she wanted her shift to be over.
The last straw, however, was when I asked her if we could get drink service over to take orders. In a barely audible monotone, she responded: “They come by here every hour or so.”
That was it. We cashed in our chips and left the casino.
Let me tell you how I tip dealers: I tip them if they’re making it fun. It’s not on them whether I win or lose money. All they do is deal the cards. Therefore, my tip is completely unrelated to my winnings. A lively, fun, engaging dealer has a good chance of getting some generous tips from me.
I won’t be going back to Morongo unless someone writes and tells me how management has really made some changes and it’s a great place to go.