[jamby]

Sadly, we don't have many.

Only three in Illinois in fact - Joliet's Empress with four tables and Aurora's Hollywood with six tables being the only two anywhere near Chicago. Indiana's Gary-area offerings are closer to downtown Chicago. Those include the Majestic Star with nine tables and Resorts East Chicago Casino with 16 tables. The Blue Chip in MIchigan City is also fairly close with 11 tables.

Every time I've been at the Empress it's been 100% limit play with only $2/4 games spread. I've been told that they spread what's requested, so that must be all any of the locals want to play. It's very small and crowded and not much fun for somebody who doesn't care much for limit hold 'em.

I've not fared much better at the Hollywood, but have only visited a couple of times. Once all the tables were relegated to a no-limit tourney that was ongoing and there were no cash games spread at all. The manager said they'd spread a cash game once folks got KOd out of the tourney, but there were rebuys and few folks waiting for cash play as a result.

In my opinion, Majestic Star and Resorts East Chicago are pretty much the only game in town if you're looking for relatively low buy-in no-limit ring games. You can pretty much always find a $1/2 or $2/5 game running in those two rooms. They only get really fishy on weekends, especially at night. During the day you'll find a lot of grinders who head there after their day jobs and for the most part know what they're doing.

I've not visited the Blue Chip in years so don't even want to guess about it's current state. Can anybody else speak to that?

Also - many taverns in NW Indiana offer well-run, albeit illegal, regular games. It's pretty easy to get connected to one of those by visiting the casino card rooms and getting to know the locals.