| Many six-deck games on the Strip have the dealer hit soft 17 nowadays, leaving a game that's tougher on the player than the multideck games with the dealer standing on all 17s in the Chicago area at Harrah's and Empress in Joliet, Trump and Majestic Star in Gary, Harrah's in East Chicago and Horseshoe in Hammond. When riverboat casinos first opened with 7-5 Jacks or Better, 6-5 Bonus Poker and some really ugly versions of Deuces Wild, it used to be a treat to get to the Strip for some full-pay video poker. Today, full-pay games on the Strip are a dying breed. If you look hard, you can still find some 9-6 Jacks or Better--although availability often is skewed toward high-end players. Anyone for $5, $10, $25 and $100 Jacks or Better at Bally's? And Barbary Coast, near the center of the Strip, is a legitimately good video poker casino. But overall, if you took Majestic Star and dropped it on the Strip, it would be one of the best video poker houses there. One way in which the Strip and Chicago-area casinos differ is in their treatment of multiple-hand games, such as Triple Play. Near Chicago, most casinos have taken the higher wagers made on these games as justification to raise pay tables and offer more attractive games. On the Strip, multihand games usually have lower pay tables than the single-hand games, as if opportunity to play multiple hands is enough of an attraction that they might as well stick the suckers who play with poor games. Think it's just the skill games, blackjack and video poker? Nope. In May, the last Nevada figures I have, quarter slots on the Strip returned about 92 percent, while dollars returned 94 percent. Both figures are lower than average returns in Illinois. There's still plenty of good gambling in Las Vegas. Playing at locals casinos, with good single-deck and double-deck blackjack and great video poker, can be a real treat, just the way the Strip used to be. "We ran our own dealers' school for three months," said Jones, a native Texan who had been a card room manager at Sam's Town in Tunica, Miss., and at Binion's Horseshoe in Shreveport, La. When the Horseshoe closed its poker room--slots are much more profitable than live poker--he helped a friend open a small place with four poker tables in Oregon. Boyd Gaming, which owns Sam's Town as well as Blue Chip, was his ticket to Indiana. "We have a mix of experienced dealers and break-ins," Jones said. "The poker room has 50 employees, 25 or 30 with experience. We didn't want to overwhelm them at first. We needed a little seasoning. But now I feel they're coming together as a group." If Indiana Gaming Commission approval is forthcoming, Jones hopes to start tournament play in late November. "Tournaments are going crazy," said Jones, pointing to the World Poker Open in Tunica as an example. "Our tournaments will be small, but who knows? Looking forward, we could have a bigger tournament." That will be something to look forward to, in a terrific facility that is off to a good start. MORE BLUE CHIP: Next to the poker room on the third level, Blue Chip has opened a table games room and a high-limit area. Table minimums range from $5 to $25 in the main room. They start at $50 in the high-limit area, which also has a lounge area with a couch, chairs, television and snacks. I couldn't stay, but this looks like as comfortable a place to play as there is in the area. |
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