With the crowds at the blackjack tables abating somewhat two days after the opening at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, a visit on Tuesday afternoon June 24th found a variety of options -- mostly positive -- for blackjack players.

At one pit on the main casino floor, the table minimum had dropped from an opening night $25 to for many players a more affordable $15.

The trade-off in this pit was most of the $15 tables were using continuous shuffling machines, which provide more hands per hour for the house but which are not viewed very enthusiastically by most higher-stakes players.

A casino supervisor said lower-stakes blackjack players might even find a $10 minimum table during really quiet morning hours.

But he said there was little prospect the Seminole Hard Rock would ever get down to the $5 minimum tables that can still be found in some casinos in Atlantic City.

Elsewhere on the main floor, all of the $25 minimum tables -- as well as a couple of the $15 tables -- were using automatic shuffling machines to shuffle the cards for eight-deck shoes.

The rules of the game at the casino are on the whole favorable for the player: the dealer stands on soft-17, players can double down on any two cards except a blackjack, blackjack pays 3-to-2, players can split any two cards up to four hands, and double on any splits (except aces).

The only slight negative rule is the Seminole Hard Rock does not offer surrender.

But on the whole, these rules are about as good one finds on the Vegas strip these days. And as often is the case, the situation gets a bit better (at least from the perspective of many players) in the high-roller area.

At tables where the minimum is $100 per hand, the cards are dealt from six-deck shoes, and the shoes are all hand-shuffled.