Upon my arrival on the 19th of February, I was faced with the most traffic I have ever run into in Vegas on a Sunday. While I knew it was President's Day on the following Monday, I did not really expect there to be much more traffic than normal, but....The airlines were being held back from landing, once inside the airport it was shoulder to shoulder people, and when I got to the
US-RentaCar I was quickly made aware of why. Apparently, there were more conventions than normal in town, including a men's garment industry one called Magic, which is huge, soo... even though we had a car reserved, there was non to be had since people were not returning the rentals! This worked out fine, as US-RentaCar is always very nice in their dealings with us, and the next car that came in, a Chrysler Convertible, we picked up for the same low price we were to pay for an economy car.

Ok, on to poker...

Considering the number of people that were there in Vegas, I was thinking that many of them would be at the tables, but the poker rooms that I visited were not all that crowded.

I did not get to play any poker until Monday morning because of all the delays, so the first game I wanted to hit was the Luxor nooner. Upon arrival I found that the format was still the same, with the limit for the first hour, then no-limit for the remainder.
The dealers are all pretty nice as usual at the Luxor, but a couple of their floor people are a bit gruff with each other and the dealers. I did not catch any names, but if you hear the thick New York accent, you will know the one. The room has also changed a little since I last visited in October, with the host station moved up to the front. One of the things that I like about the Luxor room, is that despite the fact that it is not really a room, the way it is set up it still manages to be somewhat quiet. I also played the Imperial Palace 1pm on Wednesday and Friday. First off, I do NOT like the new location of the poker room. I understand the desire to put it in an area with higher traffic and easier access, but this room is an afterthought at best. The room is located just inside the main doors, turning right as you step down. It used to be the little open bar area. The bar is still there in the back, as well as the stage where the bands used to play, and all the tables are crowded together, and I mean crowded. The other bad thing, it was very drafty from the front doors. The glass breezeway has about a 1 foot opening at the tops of the glass, allowing a great deal of air in. May not be so bad this summer, but this week, the temp dipped down into the 30s at times. When I asked if they were planning on doing anything to warm up the area, the guy remarked something to the effect of, "yeah, wait for summer". Also of concern to some, is the loss of the free snacks and coffee station. From what I have read on other reviews, there may be plans to bring that back and remove the stage, but we shall see. A final note on IP, they seem to have some growing pains, and some of the dealers they called in to help were obviously NOT poker dealers. Troubles from getting the chips ready to start to push the pots to the wrong player, etc. There were rectified pretty quickly by the removal of the "dealers". May be they just had call outs and were short that day, I am not sure, but they need to get that addressed as well.
The other tourney I played this trip was one that I missed the last time I was here, and the main reason I like it, the timing. The Sahara runs the same tourney at 11am, 7pm, and again 11pm. It does have a single rebuy the first hour, and for the most part people were not playing it like a typical rebuy. I played this one maybe 4 times this trip, and each time there were 110 people or more. This one was well run, the dealers were on top of it. The only real drawbacks to the Sahara room, are the fact that despite its non-smoking status, it is still a smoky room, but then again it is a VERY Smokey casino. It is in a little separated area, not far from the front of the casino, but there is a door towards the back of the room where players go to smoke. The thing is, there is an open door they stand in, with an open door behind them, and it just shoots the smoke right in. That and the smokers across the rail at the front of the room tend to add extra smoke. All in all, playing at the Sahara was pretty darn fun, and the best of the three I played in this year. The staring chip count is better, the format is better, and they ran a pretty tight ship while I was there.