I make several trips to Washington State each year but have never played in any of the casinos there. Anyone here have any experience playing in Washington State casinos, western WA along the I-5 corridor, that could recommend their favorite places to play there?
Exit 16 has three card rooms. I play at the Palace and Chips quite a bit. I've never played the third one and I'm not sure of it's name. Chips has a $1000 tournament every Thursday. $25 buy in and they give you $25 in coupons you can play at the regular tables. The first round starts at 6 and the second at 7. I've heard they do tournaments more often but I have not seen a schedule posted.
Highest limit at either place is $200. Mostly 6 deck shoes w/lousy penetration. I enjoy the DD game they offer: $10-$100, DOA, DAS, RSA-4, H17, 50-65% penetration depending on the dealer. I've never taken any heat but I am still learning to count so my bets don't very much.
I was playing there one night when two other guys were playing who were obviously counting (not very well, but counting none the less) and unless every dealer that night was deaf, blind and stupid they didn't seem to care.
I've played at Lucky Eagle before too (exit 89) but it's been a while and I don't remember any details that would be beneficial to a counter other than the 6 deck shoe offered $5-$500 limits.
I've mainly been along the I-5 corridor in Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia. I've seen billboards advertising Chips casinos. I might try one of those sometime. There are several larger Native American casinos in the area, as well. Although the recent message thread about lawlessness and non-accountability at the tribal casinos has me a bit spooked at playing at any of them.
I'll be heading to Sumner, WA in the next week or two. I will stop by Lucky Eagle and let you know what I find.
I'll be very interested in what you find. Thanks.
What a joke. 8 decks, H17, noDAS, noRSA, cutting off between 2-3 decks & $250 table max.
I figured if I was going to play those kind of odds I might as well become a real gambler and try some of those other casino games. Got lucky and turned my $200 buy in into $1200 : )
All in all, enjoyable because I won, but I wouldn't ever play BJ there.
I'm still in Sumner. I might swing by lucky eagle on my way home. So far all this has done is really made me appreciate my local double deck game.
www.muckleshootcasino.com if you want to check it out.
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I go there just because it's only 10 minutes from home but now that I'm starting to take it a bit more seriously I'm starting to look for better alternatives.
I was in seatac for a weekend this past summer. nothing spectacular but plenty of tables with low limits which are almost never crowded. anyone playing $10 and up can often play heads up until oblivion, but with these rules, might as well stick to the minimum and just have fun.
with almost no exceptions, all casinos along I-5 and Hwy 101 are H17. in addition, STAY AWAY from some of the large indian stores like Muckleshoot and Emerald Queen which are also NDAS. I guess these places are in good locations and make plenty of money on the VLT slots, so they don't need to deal good blackjack to survive.
there are two kinds of casinos in washington state. the indians can have as many tables and VLT's as they want (i'm sure there is some ceiling though). then any local bar, restaurant, bowling alley etc can get a limited gambling license which allows them up to around 10-15 tables per property (card games only!) and a handful of machines on the side.
the best indian store overall is probably Tulalip in Marysville (DAS RSA). Near Olympia, Little Creek and Lucky Eagle are decent too. If you don't mind taking the ferry or driving an hour's north of the Narrows bridge, there are some good games at Clearwater/Suquamish and Point No Point as well.
in town, I'd recommend the Silver Dollar casinos which offers late surrender and relatively good 8-deck penetration (exception: Tukwila). Club Hollywood and Drift On Inn, same thing but not as good pen. after that, you got Chip's and Grand Central with DAS and RSA (resplit aces might actually be better for EV than late surrender depending on how you play). most of the remaining urban casinos have DAS at the very least, but refer to CBJN just to make sure before playing.
Thanks kiosk! Some really good info there. I'll check out some of those places next time I'm there.
the lucky eagle in Rochester Wa is good. exit 88b off I5. H17 DAS Double any two cards. 6D
at the $3.00 minimum tables which they have 2 they have continual shuffling machines-otherwise 6 deck shoes-the dealer named Boon has no personality whatsoever.
good luck.
