The editor's review is out of date, the room moved to the other side of the casino many moons ago where it is now more an "area" than a "room"...but it's not necessarily a bad thing. The poker room has 12 tables and is very open visually to say the least. Has loud contemporary music that brings in the young players, plus tourists, with a few locals. And lot's of amazing looking women, and for the lady players, plenty of guys as well. PH just opened up their new club, The Gallery, so now it's a virtual eyecandy paradise, with female clubbers, female pleasure pit workers, female "social workers", female partiers...well, you get the picture. And I like the chairs, can adjust up and down, and PH just put in new felt with a good feel and pleasant color.
Probably the one thing (there is another) that has saved the planet hollywood poker room (formerly Aladdin) is their soft 1/2 no limit games, and a softer 2/5 no-limit when they have it. Today it hasn't changed. People going all-in blind, three-betting with queen high, chasing gut-shot straight draws, or just plain not knowing what they are doing but looks like a fun game crowd. It's juicy. Fortunately because of the relatively high rake (10% to 5$ with 1$ for a high hand jackpot (royal flushes get up to thousands of dollars) and because of the walk to poker room from the parking garage, it becomes less of a choice for many local grinders and "pro's". But that's good, because it prevents the room from getting ruined by too many local grinders like what's happening with MGM grand and such. Very seldom will you sit at a table where all the players know each others name and address and what they ate last night and their life story. This room is mostly tourists, young guns, people out for a good time. And the local grinders who do excuse the high rake and walk from the parking garage usually get rewarded. It's all about the easy games.
This is the other reason planet hollywood survives and thrives. Although a few recent hires aren't quite as strong, they still have some long-time dealers who are very good with great personalities. Every room has strong or weak dealers, but this room has probably the most friendly dealers around. Don't believe me, just play at planet hollywood for a bit than go play at Bellagio or Mandalay Bay or Hard Rock and one can start seeing differences in attitude and culture. I found the dealers to be proficient, some funnier than others, but not too many that are blah or mean or non-english speaking.
Cocktails waitresses are very attractive, but have a tough job in this room, having to walk a distance to get the drinks and come back. And usually, the room assigns one cocktail waitress only, so during busy times, takes longer than normal to get a drink. And there are some restrictions on top-shelf alcohol. However, on a normal night, you will get asked for cocktails every 10-15 minutes or so and be served by an attractive host. Who could ask for more? Yes, the drinks are complimentary.
I find the management has alot on their plate in this room, but do the best they can, which is usually good enough. But they go out of their way to make sure the players needs are addressed, the lists are accurate, correct rulings apply, and so forth. They do better when they have a cashier, but I find sometimes they have one, sometimes they do not.
Comps isn't great, 1 dollar an hour. But strip casino's usually aren't known for great comps anyway. The high hand jackpots can be juicy if a royal flush is hit (they start at a grand and go up and up and up until it is hit, sometimes they are over 10 grand) and the table gets a share as well) but they watered down the quads and straight flushes to $50 for quads and $250 for straight flushes. No free food or food service, but can get food and bring it back to the table.
