I actually didn't mind the poker room even with its negatives. As said before, its not really a room but a walled area in the casino. It is close to the sports book for those that like to watch the game or have bets on the races. I, personally prefer a quiet room especially when the sports book is full of screaming men. There is one slot game that kept blowing a loud horn - everyone at the table complained and the dealer said that they have asked for it to be turned down but nothing has been done about it. One thing I forget about the Excalibur is how smokey it is. Even though there is no smoking in the 'room', players just fold their hands and run out to an ashtray just outside the walls where their cig is smoldering away. The tables used for cash games all had auto shufflers and a wooden race track. They were all in decent condition. The tables for their tourneys had no shufflers and the wooden track was so wide it was hard to keep your hand on the felt without people seeing it or picking up your cards discreetly if they land on the wooden track.
Ok I admit I'm a donkey...so this room suited me well. It was a bit boring and the plays were very predictable. If someone had a good hand they played it, if they didn't they folded. There were several suck outs or 'bad beats' It was pretty easy to figure out who was trying to push you out of a pot and those who only play their best hands. Everyone limped in/called a raise to see a flop. One man got a full house on the flop with his 7 2 offsuite after he limps in at the cut off! There were many locals there. One table I played there were only two of us as tourists. Not that it means that the locals are good (they are playing at the excalibur after all) but it means that once a local wins a couple of good pots they got the 'heck out of town!' Although I saw several rebuy rebuy rebuy. Everyone was friendly, and there was a lot of chatter between players.
Well some were decent, friendly and efficient. Others were just plain horrible. One dealer constantly made mistakes including giving BB his blind back after he folded to a raise!! One lady is too short to reach around the table..I won't fault her for that, but she was just so snippy to players that put their chips in front of them just out of her reach - it was very unprofessional. Tim and Daniel were fun, Greg was ok (he was at the end of his shift and looked pretty tired). The rules at the Excalibur are pretty lax so for those that are new to the game, the dealers are not intimidating.
I'm not going to comment on the waitress's atractiveness, but they were neat and clean and it was evident what their jobs were. I say below average because it took at least 20 min to get your order in and another 20 min to finally get your drink. you might as well order the moment you got your drink - it took that long. Two girls were IMO very rude to the players. One girl walked right by our table taking orders, one player called out 'miss i would like something'. She snipped at him 'i'll get to you'...Very unprofessional in my opinion! This happened again at another table, the man blew it off as 'feisty'. Personally I would have told her off if she treated me like that. Some of the girls were friendly enough and worked hard, others as above were just nasty. Drinks were average. I am a girl - so I like my girly drinks. No frozen drinks but I did enjoy the fuzzy navels, cosmos and others. One man specifically asked for redbull and the waitress didn't correct him that it was rockstar. One man asked for coke and the girl said they only serve pepsi.
The first time you walk in, its a bit intimidating for a newish player. There is usually two or three people around the cashier desk. At first I didn't know which one to talk to, and no one greeted me right away. After figuring out who you need to talk to, they are pretty quick at getting you on a list or to a table. After about 4 sessions, they finally recognized me and knew what I was looking for. Personally I would have liked to see someone more prominent - like behind a podium or dressed in more professional attire to distinguish them from dealers and such
I feel that the comps/promos are pretty decent. Although they never did ask me if I had a comp card, from what I saw their archaic methods were working for them. The main feature of their high hand/aces cracked is their wheel. It seems to have many 20 dollar payouts, but the 2 am to 2pm double the wheel promo helps with that. The wheel was constantly spinning. They have aces full of anything (it used to be aces full of 10s i believe) or better high hand and aces cracked spin.