Since I am no longer a member of Green Chip, this was the only board that I could post this message on.
I just came from Valley View, which is in Valley Center, just northeast of San Diego, near Escondido. The current issue of CBJN is outdated on this casino. They have converted all but one of their six deckers to CSM's. The one six decker they still have uses an automatic shuffler and they cut off about 1 1/2 decks. I thought you guys might like to know this.
A year ago you could get a great game at Pauma, and decent games at Valley View and Pala. Now Pala is the last hold-out of anything playable.
--Eliot
I will be at Pimco, based in Newport Beach, for the next couple of months and want to know how close the casinos are. Thanks.
Newport Beach (California) is in Orange County, and there are no casinos in Orange County. The nearest casino is probably Pachenga, in Temecula. To go from Newport to Temecula is about 65 miles via Freeways. There may be a toll road that can cut that distance to 45 miles.
It is about 90 miles + to the Palm Springs Area casinos, about 80-90 miles to the North San Diego County casinos (Pala, Pauma, Rincon) and about 125 miles to Barona.
If you're a counter, the best game within 2 hours is Barona. With DAS and late surrender, you're in a good game for both DD and SD. Minimum DD is $25 and SD usually $50. Worth the drive if you're serious.
Only $5 DD game is at Trump 29 in Indio. It's the same hour and 45 minutes as Barona.
Both Agua Caliente and Pala are about an hour and 20 minutes but their games are inferior. Pala may even have you on a $25 DD table and decide to bump it to $50 and there's no grandfathering. Pala is packed and basically sucks if you want to win but they do have a nice house Cabernet.
Good luck!
