Making a trip out to Anaheim California in Late August

Hello fellow APer's,

I will be making a 5 day trip out to Anaheim California with my fiance' for her cousins 2017 World Championship Pokemon tournament from August 17th -August 23rd at the Anaheim Convention Center.

I looked at some neighboring casino's in the Los Angeles Area to play- I will definitely be checking out Commerce casino for the poker room.

I was wondering if anybody can recommend some casinos' with good blackjack tables/rules to count - within close proximity to the Anaheim Convention Center - in the Los Angeles /Riverside/San Bernardino/San Diego County's?

I read somewhere that California casino's dont even take action against players, and they only collect commission from players wanting to take the role of the bank/dealer. Is this true in all the CA casino's?

Any help or guidance is definitely appreciated as always!

The casinos not on Indian land (the card rooms) have unusual options when it comes to tables that I would stay away from.

Essentially, the casino cannot bank transactions. In theory a player must act as the bank with the casino taking a commission from the hand. What actually is happening is that a "third party" acts as a dealer. This dealer is not an employee of the casino but acts as a "full time banker" and takes actions and gives the casino the commission.

All Indian casinos in the area are H17, DAS, split to 4 hands, split aces one card. Some (most) are NRSA on DD, though I don't recall which. Penetration on a DD is mostly around 60%; single deck, if they have it, are mostly 6:5 and plays [6 or 7 minus (number of players)] hands. Morongo and Pechanga would be my two recommendations, based on location and nearby features. (Note that they'd still be about two hours away, one-way.)

Towards the east:
San Bernardino - San Manuel - Mostly shoe/CSM; they had a 6:5 DD towards the back for a while, but no idea if it's still there. Pretty good burritos, ramen if you clock some time in the HL Asian room (50$) (don't expect to get any other comps though). Pretty easy to get to.
Cabazon - Morongo - DD@25$ (occasionally 15$), very easy access and right next to a bunch of outlets if shopping's a thing for anybody in your party. Buffet is solid and you can pretty reasonably get it comped. They tend to get a bunch of weird and awful table game variants, which can be interesting and usually horrible.

Towards the south on/near 15 (in geographical order):
Pechanga - Big place, but pretty much the standard assortment. 6:5 SD, and a good number of DD tables. They use a lot of CSMs.
Pala - Slightly smaller assortment than Pechanga, but otherwise the same.
Pauma - Skip it, unless you want a surprisingly tasty (but oily) personal sized pizza.
Harrah's - Skip it, unless you particularly want a CET location. Tables are more limited than Pechanga/Pala, worse food, and it's further away.
Valley View - Skip it; place is mostly for machines. Not recommended for tables.

If you want specific details, I'll see what I can dredge up.

Venthus,

Thanks for all the info. I'm basically looking for favorable penetration shoe or DD games, in the $25 min range.

What did you mean with the abbreviation "NRSA"?

Thanks..

"NRSA" = No Re-Splitting Aces

Pala's DD looks about 65%.

Morongo changed their policy for DD on the main floor recently; they used to shuffle, cut, take some off the top, then insert the cut card, so it was like... 40%. The HL tables (50+) handle it like normal, somewhere in the 60-70% range.

Edit: And this is just a grouchy voice from the dark pits of variance, but I'd give Pala's HL a wide berth. I'd estimate the pit took in about 200k in a few hours last week, and there were probably only about 15 of us in there. (Lion's share was one woman playing 1k+ hands, but nobody made it out of there alive.)

Thats pretty good penetration -

So the rules on the DD game are -
H17
DAS
NRSA

Do you know if they have Surrender rule?

Miles from my hotel (Springhill Suites Anaheim):

Pechenga-69 miles
Pala-78 miles
Morongo-79 miles

Which there was something closer I could play BJ.

Are those the closest indian casinos to disneyland that have good BJ tables?

Definitely would like to play some DD games ($50 min ok) - we have virtually no DD games here on the East Coast. They use to have 1 at Sands (PA), but thats now a distant memory.

Quick disclosure; penetration is an estimate, mostly based on 'looks like a lot more than half, bit more than a quarter left, I think...?' I'll be headed out to Morongo tomorrow so I'll see if I can get an actual count on number of cards though.

I don't think any of them have surrender, but I could be mistaken. San Manuel allows it on their shoe/CSM games; no idea about their DD.

There's also a Soboba that may be closer, but I have NO idea what their rules are; I've only been there twice, and that was just for a meet-and-greet with Tuco Salamanca (Breaking Bad) and The Most Interesting Man in the World (XX). It's kind of in the middle of nowhere though.

Morongo and Pechanga are the easiest to get to, as they're right off of major highways. Pala's a bit in the mountains. Unfortunately, the only closer places would be CalGames, which are an entirely different beast. (Probably Commerce or Hawaiian Gardens, at a guess.) All of these also run bus routes out in that direction, which may make things easier. Heading south is a rougher route, but the good news is that there's 5 different locations within about a 30-minute stretch of mountain roads, so you can switch places semi-readily. Morongo is alone, unless you go even further east into Palm Springs-Coachella where there's more properties that are even smaller with, as I recall, worse rules. No details as they're out of my typical range.

Also, was over at Pauma earlier today (25$ lobster buffet on Fridays); their penetration on DD looked like 50%. The place is packed with kids and low rollers though; you'll get heat even with having a stack of greens and playing red.

Quote: stabworld

World Championship Pokemon tournament

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Quote: Confessor

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Mmmmhhhmmm--ah. http://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/pokemon-tournaments/pokemon-world-championships/

Given the forum, I automatically parsed it as an autocorrect for Poker...

Are they competing or just attending?

Morongo's now a lot closer to 50% then before; I counted 55+1 burn cards before the cut card came out on one shuffle. They don't use the discard rack to insert the card either, so if you're friendly and tipping, you might be able to wheedle for deeper penetration.

Quote: Venthus

Morongo and Pechanga are the easiest to get to, as they're right off of major highways. Pala's a bit in the mountains.

Morongo is alone, unless you go even further east into Palm Springs-Coachella where there's more properties that are even smaller with, as I recall, worse rules.

Pechanga is 3 miles from Hwy 15. Pala is 6 miles from Hwy 15 (You can take back roads for 15 min past Pechanga, but if you aren't stopping at Pechanga, it's easier to take the closer exit on Hwy 15).

21 Indian casinos (not counting card rooms):

San Manuel most north.

Morongo is the westernmost casino of 7 Palm Springs area casinos: Spa Resort (20 min east), Agua Caliente (25 min), Fantasy Springs (35 min), Spotlight 29, Augustine, Red Earth.

Soboba is a bit south.

The "Pala 5" are more south (Pechanga, Pala, Pauma, Harrahs, Valley View).

Even more south towards San Diego - Hollywood Jamul, Barona, Sycuan, Viejas, Alamo, Acorn

Cahuilla is between Palm Springs and Pechanga (but way east of Hwy 15).

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IMO, best buffets are Pala, Valley View, Barona, & Viejas - all of these four would be in top 10 buffets in Las Vegas.
Morongo is awful. San Manuel & Pechanga are not very good. But even these three have some decent items.

Quote: Venthus

Mmmmhhhmmm--ah. http://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/pokemon-tournaments/pokemon-world-championships/

Given the forum, I automatically parsed it as an autocorrect for Poker...

Are they competing or just attending?

My finace's cousin is competing in the championshipj, he lives in Peru, and is his countrys champion. He travels all over the world when not in school (hes 15) to compete. Myself and my fiance and her side of the familly is making a vacation out of it, to watch him play and go to disney world - and I will be playing poker and blackjack, once the fiance and kid goes to bed, lol.

Seems like the only places to play real blackjack (not the pay commision per hand) is in the indian casinos - which would be min 70 miles from my hotel.

Think im gonna pass up playing blackjack for my trip and stick to just playing poker - since the card rooms are 20-25 miles.

Not in the mood for long drives just for blackjack.