2D at the IP
Last time I stayed in Vegas I had the unfortunate experience of having to stay at the IP (it wasn't my choice). Since I was with the wife and another 2 couples it was more of a tourist visit for me than a playing trip. Anyway since we were staying at the IP I got to play in their Champaign Pit quite a bit. You know those times where you are waiting for your wife to get ready so you can go out to dinner, so you have 40 minutes to kill which is not enough time to go anywhere good but you don't want to watch TV, so I would waste it in the Champaign pit.
At first it was horrible. I don't even think their penetration was 60%. Plus while I don't think they were preferential shuffling, the dealer were uptight about even green action so they would reduce penetration even more whenever someone was betting green or above. After playing there selectively for a bit though the dealers seemed to loosen up (actually, I think they loosened up when the pit loosened up towards me once I got a players card). The games were by no means great, or even very good, but they were at least playable. I managed to spread $25 to 2x$90 easily and many times I was able to get out 2x$100 quite often. I also sometimes dropped my minimum bet to $10 or $15 but this was rare. I think what really helped was that I often opened with a $50 bet off the top and reduce if necessary. I know this increases variance but it seemed to help the dealers relax since it looked like I was only doubling my bet to $100. I also had to be really selective about dealers there were quite a few on the graveyard shift who offered good or even great penetration, but poor was the norm. Heavy wonging (not pure wonging, but making sure to enter and positive sounts and leave on negative counts) and moving around the pit quite a bit also helped.
I wouldn't recommend the place to anyone looking for a good game at all. If I wasn't staying there I never would have played there, but it wasn't really as bad as many have made it out to be.
Besides, look at the bright side. These were low limit ($5 and $10 )double deck games. Sure the game was fairly poor, but any other place on the strip and these would have been 6:5 games. I was glad to see a casino trying to comete for the low limit ploppies by offering real 2D games rather than the crappy 6:5 game. I my mind it was worth supporting the casino for offering real BJ rather than the shortpay junk. Besides, it was either waste my time at the DD games or watch Sportcenter for the 5th time each day........