Very much in keeping with the dark and dusky Hard Rock. Good chairs, felt, cards, etc. The 'hard rock straddle' is an interesting wrinkle. Bathrooms in the poker room is a good idea, as is a sport book writer/the ability to place sports wagers from your seat. Was there midweek in the day less than a week after it opened and my only complaint was they had a really hard time adjusting the televisions. If you're going to have sports betting in the room, it shouldn't take you fifteen minutes to get only one out of the two games that players requested. (Management gave some excuse about the channel changer being 'in the back' but that's pure nonsense. How old were you when you learned how to operate a remote control?) If there's one problem with the Hard Rock property in general is that sometimes their staff is very easy on the eyes but, well, not too bright. The amenities are all around very aesthetically pleasing, from lighting to the adjacent 'lounge'. One interesting factoid about the games here is that the Hard Rock has a buttload of various 5 dollar chips so players spend a lot of time going 'Oh, No Doubt," 'Oh, Eminem,' 'Hey, I'll trade you my Motley Crue for your Santa Claus'. Could be exploitable but also could lead to lack of attention and constant reminding people that the action is on them.
Games in Vegas these days are pretty juicy, especially the 1-2 and 2-5 NL Hold 'Em. They'll need some time to spread some other games and to get word out about their tournaments, but so far it's mostly local rounders and people staying at the hotel, many who are surprised it has a poker room now and figure they'll give it a try.
One guy was a first-timer but the rest came in from other properties around Las Vegas. In general most dealers aren't as assertive as they should be in enforcing rules and the case is no different here. With the crazy straddle rules though you might want to keep an eye on them.
Free Fiji water (even though it doesn't fit in the cup holders) and quality name brand liquor. Service is fast. The waitresses don't include any grammas although they're not all drop dead gorgeous like at the Wynn, there's still a decent amount of orange tanned gals who went 'way too big' on the implants for their tiny frames.
They got me a player's card right away and managed the few questions and floor calls that occurred. We'll see how they deal with crowded weekends and drunkenness though.
Buck an hour for 1-2 and then up from that. Average.
