I visited Las Vegas for a long weekend in mid December 2017. The Venetian poker room was my last and best stop. It is huge, gorgeous, well staffed, professionally and politely managed and full of the right mix of competition. I mostly play tournaments with a bit of cash games every now and again.
I really, really like their approach to tournaments. A good mix of low/mid/high level buy-ins combined with guaranteed payouts allows me to pick and choose according to my schedule and budget. The tournament I played in (and finished 3rd) contained the typical selection of local and traveling pros, tourists, as well as local non-pros.
BTW - they had recently installed soft drink and coffee dispensers in the poker room....which is a very nice thing....need that caffeine for those long nights. The wait staff has quite a hike to the kitchen area, and that hike combined with a big-crowd event, like tournaments, can yield some rather long wait times (20 minutes + some times) when ordering food or drinks. I did order some food and the service and the food quality were excellent and plentiful.....not inexpensive but you really don't expect cheap food at a casino - do you?
Venetian is the first and last place I check when I am planning my tournament activities for the next month.....unless one of the tours has a stop scheduled close to me. Although I live in Texas and have numerous casinos within a two to four hour drive I vastly prefer a cheap flight to Vegas and a top flight tourney at The Venetian. Both thumbs way up!
