The "room" is half and half. 1/2 Walls and 1/2 railings. The funny thing is that although it is non-smoking if you can't stand smoke then don't play here. The railing ( at which you can smoke) is less than 4 feet from a third of the tables. Tables and chairs are average and the atmosphere was usually upbeat and sometimes electric being that this room is probably the closest room to the strip (disregard the 2 tourney only tables at Oshea's) and the casino "chatter" is alive and well. The vibes got better over the 5 days that I was there. On my previous visits I was never a big fan of this room but my opinion changed on this visit.
Stayed there from Thurs. till Tues with the first 4 days coinciding with the 1st week of March madness. Alot of tourists mixed with young guys drinking like no tommorrow! During the day light hours competition appearred to be tighter with more local rocks and always a tourist or 2. Weekends "katie bar the doors..." cuz the tourists are coming. All the dealers face the railings and those who are dealing at tables near the rails will actually yell out to people who are standing along the rail watching and say "Hey here a seat for you". Sometimes it works!
For the most part these dealers know what they are doing!
The bar is located at the west end of the poker room (less than 6 feet from table # 9). I mean you can see the waitress getting your drink no matter where you are sitting in the room. Nothing againest our seniors ( which i hope to be 1 day!!) but the Flamingo has to have some of the oldest waitresses in Vegas and undoubtly the older you are the better chance that you get to work the poker room. One waitress in particular "Brenda" had to be in her 70's. I did notice that out on the floor the average waitress was alot younger ( and showed a lot more) than the ones who worked the room. I guess I should say kudos to the Flamingo for taking care of their "vets!" they and Ceasars lead the pack in "vet" waitresses. Needlees to say the service is the poker room is fast! I never heard anyone being told that they get whatever they ordered. I don't drink so I am an easy 1......coffee, O'Douls and/or Diet pepsi
Awkward at times.. good at others. What I mean by awkward is that sometimes there would be only 1 person working so the cage where you buy your chips would be closed and or if there was a problem that the dealer needed assistance with only 1 floor person was available then all @#$% would break i.e. dealer says a player "needs a rack of blue" and with 1 floor with no cage ... well you get the picture. I would like to commend the dealers who pitch in whenever they can to help the floor if they are not dealing. The dealers help make this room! The Flamingo needs to make sure they have at least 2 people during the slow times and at least 3 during the busy times.
No comp system and there high hand consists of quad 10's or better and they take your name (rake 1 buck a hand). The interesting thing is that you only need 1 card in your hand to qualify and at least 20 bucks in the pot. The following morning you check the list to see if your hand made it to the paid list. On the weekends they "usually pay the top 16-17 hands ... week nights maybe top 10-12 with $500 going to the top hand of the day and $50 to last place. If you get the high hand on your last day in Vegas I am not sure what you could do to make sure you got paid the next day!