GVR's new room is nice. They have a good amount of flat-screen LCD's and the room is very tall, so I've never really felt cramped. The tables are all in good condition as well. Plus all tables (that I can think of, at least) have automatic shufflers.
As with any poker room, there is great deal of variance in the competition you can find at GVR. At 2/4, you mostly have older players that play a tight game. At 4/8, I have found a great deal of variance depending on the night. At 1/2 you have a lot of open limping and simply limping in general (this is extremely common for small stakes NL live-play though).
Also, this room used to have some really, really, good 4/8 games, especially on friday and saturday night. However, those games are dying down and 1/2 NL has become the majority game (unlike the sister station casino Red Rock, where I have seen the trend reverse and 4/8 is the main staple for low stakes). IMHO the 1/2 NL is easiest game to beat there now, since all the 4/8 drunks have left.
You will find a lot of locals obviously, but the good thing about the GVR poker room is the amount of young guns that come to the table with little experience. GVR and Red Rock are probably the two locals casinos that attract young guns. The atmosphere of these places brings club-going folks to the table, who often have been drinking or to whom money is not that big of concern (meaning you can stack opponents more easily, but you can't win pots outright as often).
All that being said, I would say I find tougher competition at other local casinos than I do here. But you will run into many people who know what they are doing.
I've never played 2/5 NL, so I can't comment on it to a big degree, but from what I have watched, it looks a lot more tougher than 1/2 NL (which is kind of a duh).
The dealers at GVR are generally more than compotent and very friendly compared to nearly all the other local casinos I have frequented. How GVR ended up with better dealers than Red Rock (which is the stations newest casino) is a mystery to me.
If there was more service this would be 5 for sure. They have a very liberal cocktail policy (I usually don't drink when I play, but other's seem to get higher end stuff often). Also, they will bring you Red Bull in the can! And, a big issue for me at least, they have sugar-free redbull! Most casinos will serve you energy drinks in a glass (I presume to make two drinks with one can, and they often have more generic crap).
The cocktail waitresses are good, haven't seen too many mistakes, they could probably use a few more, but they have an okay speed.
The management here is very friendly. I can't really say I have seen them had to make a huge decision at the table, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt (Again the dealers are really good, so for the amount of hours I have played, I have seen the floor called little). The staff there give you better treatment than other local casinos for sure (they will call waitresses over, call for cocktail waitresses, etc...)
All the station casinos are pretty much the same. For the record: ALWAYS GET A COMP CARD AT EVERY CASINO YOU PLAY IT. The base is $1 per hour for up to 8 hours a day. With Station Casinos, you have a PIN and can use your comp dollars at most restaurants or buffets.
The Jumbo Bad Beat Jackpot is always very big, but very hard to hit. It usually starts at Quad Tens beat. Both cards have to play for both hands and quads must be paired in the pocket, 2 in the hole + 2 on the board. Straight flushes can't be counterfeited for a higher straight flush on the board.
That being said, when the Jumbo does hit, all players playing in any Station Casino (that are logged in with a PLAYERS CARD) receive a player share depending on the size of the Jackpot and the number of people playing. It's usually around $300-$600 dollars. The two people involved in the hand get more like $60,000. But it's very hard to hit, I've played a lot of poker online and live and never seen a hand, on a table that I was playing on, that qualifies for it (except in Omaha, but that's totally different). Statistically, I would guess you best have a chance to hit the player share is on friday and saturday night, but you will get less player share because so many people are playing.
To me, the player share feature makes there comps move from a 4 to a 5. It doesn't often, but everybody gets a decent amount of money when it does.
There is also $500 for a Royal Flush. Also don't count on hitting it.
