If any of you played at the IP between 2/25 and 2/28 please email me at asmith6476@insightbb.com. There were several of you I didn't get info from that I would like to play online against just to keep my first vegas POKER experience alive. Now, on to the Ratings....
The tables do seem old. But they are the largest in Las Vegas. plenty of room for whatever style of chip tower you want to build (I had what the dealers were calling the Great Wall of China after 11.5hrs straight hours of play). You can eat at the table and the side tables are well designed and large enough to fit your drinks on as well as a sandwich. I would not recommend a novice to play the 1/2 NL there, it seemed like at any time there were at least 2 people on tilt at the table.
I am a novice, and someone would probably put in thier report that I was easy competition, but I feel I can hold my own. There were some decent players, few and far between. Several 40-something married men so happy to be away from thier wives they were spilling testosterone all over the table. But if you just wait for the right hand, you can take them down a notch. Most people were very friendly and we had one night when my entire table were new found friends. Serious pojker players will probably be annoyed by that, but get over it. If I'm on vacation, I'm going to play poker, but I'm going to have fun doing it. Fact is, loosen up the competition with a little chat, get them drinking and even a novice can rake it in, I did.
I am giving them the highest score possible because they were the most talkative and friendly dealers I met. Stefano (WE LOVE CHONG!) is a stand-up comedian in another life and was very informative, friendly and a blast to have dealing. There were two Davids, the first was my new best friend OFF the tables, when we went out to smoke together and he gave me good pointers about my play and let me know which hands I played right. The other David was very good at controlling the foul language of drunk players (there we quite a few at 2-6am when I was playing). Josh was very funny as well, Brian was a WONDERFUL room manager, taking care of any needs you had. At about midnight Monday night, they were scrambling around trying to find out who won Dancing with the Stars for me because I missed it. Jake called everyone by the state they were from, except I was from Indiana and he called me Brooklyn the entire trip because I had a Brooklyn shirt on the first night. Carole was my favorite, of course becase she dealt me pocket Kings and two kings landed on the flop. (I'll talk more about that in my trip report). Wanna, Sunny, and lots of others were just as friendly, and while they let us have a good time, they kept the table running at a smooth pace. Only a few mistakes, but caught very quickly. I did have to point out when a pot was almost pushed to a loser when the winner didn't realize she had a @#$% flush in her hand. Only pointed that out so someone would do the same for me if I happened to miss it.
Yes, they were attractive. A Brittish gentleman sitting next to me continued to comment on their "large fronts". As a female, I didn't really care about that, but more how quickly they could bring me a drink. And it was very fast. They actually dug out some punch for me to provide me with my favorite SoCo and Hawaiian Punch. Plenty of alcohol in the drinks, trust me.
Brian was my favorite, VERY accommodating and a good manager. Like to rag on the toursist like me but in the end would get you whatever you needed. Jackie was very professional, but also was very friendly. Hand writting waiting list, but you really never had to wait. Only time I had to wait was around 7am, but that was only because there wasn't enought to open another table yet, but 7:30 there was.
Comps have changed. Was $3.00/hr, now is $2.00/hr. But I still ended up earning enought to cover at least one night of my stay. The sandwich and cookie station is gone since they moved downstairs, but David promised me the next time I come back to vegas, it will be there. They are going to reorganize the room to accommodate it.
