Spent 6 days in Vegas last week. During the first part of my trip my girl and I stayed at Main St Station ( great little hotel/casino) and Palace Station for 2 days each, finishing at the Green valley Ranch for the last 2 days.

Palace Station
10/28
First poker room I played at was th Palace Station poker room. It currently is a temporary room (6 tables) with one hell of a bad beat both in house and through all the Station casino
(something like $100,000 for quad 10's beat)but next week they are opening a new room with one hell of a promotion. Every hour on the hour they will be giving away $500 dollars to a randomnly called seat and table. The new room should be nice but the promotion is definitly unique. Apparently they, Palace Station, had collected 50 grand for a 7 stud jackpot that never jackpotted!! So they are giving the 50G away starting today! Did not make any money however the dealers are some of the friendliest and the waiteresses and the service they gave was better than average. The $1 an hour towards a food comp is o.k.

Stardust
On Sat 10/29 I stopped in the Stardust poker room. A medium size room right next to the table games and in view of the Sportsbooks. Maybe 10-12 tables at most with 3/6 there lowest game. I was impressed by the way the room was managed. empty seats were filled immediatly and the floor staff were some of the most accomodating and courteous staff that I ever met. Made $50 bucks in an hour or so but had to keep moving cuz my girl and I wanted to try about 5 casinos at that end of the strip that night. When I cashed out I commented on how this was my first visit to the Stardust. The floor manager asked me my opinion of the room. He then gave me 2 $5 comps for the Coco palms restaurant for me and my girl who was standing ther waiting for me to cash out and encouraged me to come back on my next visit. Class move!! I will definlty be back there on my next visit. With all the poker rooms in Vegas it is good to see a room where the player still matters! (more about that later on!)

Tropicnana - MGM - Imperial Palace
Sat nite - Sun Morn

Made a poker room run to see some rooms that I had never seen before and finish at an old favorite.
Started at the Tropicana since thats were the Palace Station Shuttle dropped me off.
Nothing special 6-8 tables. Slowest waitress service I have ever seen. 3 tables goins (late sat nite) and half the players - young guns drunk as all be damn! Played 2/4 for bout a half hr. Everyone stays to the river. if i had time it probably would be the best place to play. Tables like that call for great patience and discipline since sooner or later you will get paid.
Walked across the street to MGM just to see if what I had read about there new room was true. It was. The room was very nice everything computerized however the floor staff really did not make you feel that your business was appreciated. the lady running the sign-in desk sent me to the "table near the wall"?? When I got lost a floor staff walked me back to the desk and asked "what table should he be going to?" It was obvious that he was upset with the woman who just sent me to the "table by the wall". Once seated the experince was different with all the computerization. the room was sort of loud since it is in the middle of the casino and semi-secluded. Oh by the way they swipe your card for the $1 an hour but if you don't ask you will never know. Played for an hour or so lost 20 bucks then got on the monorail to Ballys.
Ballys room was actually horrible . 7-8 tables stuck in between table games and slot machines... you might as well have set the room up in the middle of the slot floor. Too noisey and cluttered. Moved on to an old favorite the Imperial palace.
imperial Palace....same old same old, friendliest dealer, food and beverage around the clock, waitresses with the biggest B---s and showing all and some of the worse poker player known to mankind. I love the place. Oh did I mention the $3 an hour comp which is unlimited!!!!! 10 hours of play is $30 bucks which you can use on anything in the hotel restaurants, hotel room, gift shop... whatever.
Played about 2 hrs then went to the tea room around 2 a.m. and had steak and eggs and went back and played a couple more hours. PATIENCE is a virtue in this room. If you are patient you will get paid!

Green Valley Ranch.
Sun Night - Monday all day
Last stop on my vegas vacation. Great beds!!
Went to the poker room around 4 p.m. and signed up. Discovered that there was no way you could be notified if your name was being called other than being near the room and waiting. After about an half an hour got a seat at 2/4 table. Lovely room, well lit, 16-18 T.V.s surrounding the room and the sports books right next door.
The waitress service has got to be the fastest in the free-world (since the poker room has its own bar). The waitresses are not the friendliest however which is odd since they probably make a ton in tips since their drink turn around is 1 min or less - did I mention that the bar is IN the poker room? In fact it is called the POKER BAR!
The dealers are some of the best and most knowledgeable that I have ever seen. They were all friendly especially Mike, Russell ( from the Bronxs) and Victor who reminded us that he will soon be a stuffed shirt floor super. AAHHH the floor supervisors.
Last but not least. The people who manage this poker room have to be some of the rudest people in any poker room in the U. S. Case in point. Sun Night after playing for about an hour I noticed a dealer reminding a new player to make sure they turn their card in at the check-in desk for comp credit. When I heard that then I went to the desk to turn in my card and inform the desk that I was not informed of the comp credit or I would have turned in my card when I first got assigned my seat. The floor super "Kenneth" looked at me and in front of at least 3 other patrons said LOUDLY "it's only a dollar an hour!!!". Well I'll be damned (thats what I wanted to say) I can't remember being that embarrassed about asking for something that I am entitled to and feeling so belittled about asking for it. That crap was followed later on when I asked the same Kenneth about changing one of the TVs to another station. He assured me on 3 separate occassions that he would get to it. Finally the dealer at my table who watched with me and the other 9 players how my request was basically ignored changed the Tv when he switched tables.
That night Montel Williams was in the room and with the Bills( my home team) on the tube vs the Patriots the rest of the night was pretty good. The next day was more of the same great dealers, ok waitress with quick drinks and crappy treatment from the floor sup(s)
It is a shame that a room that nice with the potential that it has will not take time to give its floor staff some basic lessons on how to treat their customers. There are too many poker rooms in Vegas for the average visitor to put up with that crap. The room was 90% locals and they seem to have learned who the crappy floor staff are and basically avoid them and get to their table.