I've looked at a lot of poker rooms but O'Shea's was the first place that I've actually played. Before O'Shea's I'd only played online and where I played at O'Shea's isn't really a room. It's a table practically on the strip. There's a poker room in back but I think they use it only for tournaments. The location of the table makes for a very noisy and distracting playing experience. Loud music is playing, people are partying in the casino, the intercom system continually goes off, plus you have all the noise from the strip. It's so loud that you can't talk to someone across the table. In spite of this, I had a great time playing there. The players change often and it's a mostly a mix of first timers, tourists, and people playing strictly for fun. You will definitely get some drunks too. We had at least one drunk at the table each time we played there. One of the drunks was friendly and fun, the other was surly and mean.
Being a newbie I'm probably not a very good judge of competition but my wife is a worse player than me and won money both times by simply playing tight. Most of the people playing were inexperienced tourists. Each time we played there were several first-timers. We checked the table limits at numerous casinos and O'Shea's and El Cortez offered the lowest limits. We played Hold'em with a 1-5 spread limit with a single $1 blind.
My actual rating would probably be a 4.5 but that's not an option. We had four different dealers and they were all very funny, helpful, tolerant, and kind. To work at the poker table at O'Shea's you have to be pretty laid back. I noticed that they occasionally didn't enforce the betting limits (people were allowed to bet less than they should have) but I'm not sure if that was an oversight on their part or just the casual nature of playing there.
I was able to get drinks almost as frequently as I wanted them. Mixed drinks were of the usual watered-down weak type found for free in most Vegas casinos.
We didn't deal with the manager much but in the little that we did she was very helpful, friendly, and inviting. They did not keep a player list when we played. If there was an open spot at the table you simply sat down.
ree drinks when playing (of course), they took our players cards, and my wife won the aces cracked jackpot, which was about $50.
