I spent the weekend at the Rio, which is a wonderful hotel with great swimming pools, but the minimums were way too high for the nickel player. Friday and Saturday night it was $25 minumum. Saturday and Sunday morning you could find a few $15 tables, but not many. And if you want to eat or buy a cigar or anything, be prepared to pay for the nose. The games were that lousy Super Fun single-deck BJ with BJ paying even money, and a 6-deck shoe with penetration of about 60 to 65 percent.
Gold Coast, located across the street, had better offerings for the red chip player, at least in terms of table minimums. Most games were $5. On Sunday morning, I found a $3 game. But the playing conditions were mediocre at best. They offered a double-deck game, but dealt ony about 55 percent of the deck. There was a 6-deck shoe for which penetration was very dealer-dependent. Sometimes you'd get about two-thirds of the shoe, other times only half. Not really worth going out of your way for. Both games offered double on splits, and dealer hit soft 17.
I did play one shoe at the Excaliber Sunday afternoon. Penetration was mediocre.
