Texas Station's poker room is what you would expect from a resort that has been open for 50 years (i.e. Stardust), but since Texas Station has only been around for 11 years, this room is pushing it. The room itself has a distinct "dirty" feel to it. The kind of room that after spending several hours in it, you want to go home and take a shower (even moreso when you take the clenliness of some of the clientele into consideration). On the good side, they have electronic list tracking with players card swiping done at the table itself (like MGM), the tables are spread apart, there are plenty of side tables available, the chairs are bingo hall standard, and the tables all have auto shufflers. On the bad side, it is non-smoking, the side tables and room in general are far from clean (alive cockroach in a cupholder of a side table is common, and personally witnessed twice). All in all, the room quality here is no reason to come here.
Well over 95% of their clientele is locals, and not the cleanest ones either. I am a local myself, but some of the guys here are just gross when it comes to personal hygiene, and give us regular locals a bad name. It seems that the clientele at Texas Station tends to draw from South Rancho more then North, as the further north tend to go to Santa Fe Station. Regarding competition quality of play, it is very standard for a locals room. Very loose passsive. Lots of limping, lots of calling. With discounted blinds, limping is the standard MO preflop. Raises are always called and do nothing more then build a pot. Honestly, the competion at pretty much all Station casinos is about the same, hence the reason I don't play in them anymore. Not that they are too tough, it just seems to be a boring game with little anima. Also, they are strictly a 4/8 house, which is not my game of choice.
As with most Station casinos, the dealers are top notch, and very down to Earth. Fast, competent, and efficient. There is nothing to complain about in this department.
Drink service is standard. Usually takes about 10 minutses or so. Girls do their job well, and two drink orders are accepted. Drink quality is as expected for a Station casino, and all in all, the drink service is average to good.
The room seems to be managed just fine. Managers could work on the overall cleanliness of the room by putting additional pressure on cleaning staff, but other then that, floor decisions were fair, and the electronic player list is well orginized. Typical of a Stations casino, the management is good to high quality.
$1 taken from the pot when it reaches $10? That is HORRIBLE. It used to be $20, and the house bad beat used to be 20K, now the house bad beat is 10K ,and they drop at $10. There is the "famous" collective bad beat jackpot that is in the 150K territory, that pays everyone that is playing, but at $1 per pot (at $10), what do you expect? The rake will kill you in their games. Yes, they offer a big "free roll" to those with hours, but with $1 from every pot, how free is it really? A True freeroll is at Venetian, where they have a bad beat and a true freeroll without taking an additional drop. I'm sorry, but I consider Stations casinos comp system to be among the worst in the industry, despite the many locals that seem to adore it. All in all, Texas Station has got to be bottom of the barrell of Station casinos (Fiesta excluded), and unless your car breaks down in front of it, there is really no reason to go there.