The Venetian poker room — Local services in Paradise

Unfortunately had a pretty negative experience here.

I'm not sure what I did to offend the person at the desk, but after asking about the threshold needed to start an "interest" list, which had at least 11 names, I received snark to the effect of "look, I'll start a table for just you and another guy heads up if you really want to". I have to assume this was sarcastic, since that never happened, and ended up waiting about 35 min for the "interest" table to start, which was immediately full.

Unfortunately for me I think this table was filled with regulars that made quick work of my chips (of course, cannot ding the casino for this). I'm more of a tourist in it for fun than serious gambler.

But it was very frustrating playing at this table for other reasons. Shout out to the one kind gentleman who explained the bomb pot rules: not a single dealer did that. The bomb pot hands also took a lot of time, and felt like mostly shenanigans. There was one hand where players were arguing with the dealer about a chopped pot and the back and forth ensued for about 3 to 4 minutes. The same dealer also complained about having to rake my chips: they were over the betting line, but seems like they were expecting me to do more work and hand deliver it to a convenient place for them? The game flow/pace was also irritating, players allowed to deliver inner monologues for 5 minutes at a time, things were not kept moving.

All these things resulted in a pretty miserable time and almost hostile experience.

Last year spent some time at Caesars poker room and found the vibe better, wait time 3x better, and games moved...

Marked cards?

This poker room is nice and dealers are friendly and willing to take time to explain rules to newbs. Okay, I was the newb to 5 card PLO Hi/low, but many years experience in NLH with some dabbling in 4 card PLO.

But, why do dealers/runners/workers need to stand in line with customers to change out money and not have their own counter? Super frustrating and adds way too much time to having to handle transactions!

Additionally, there were so many tables open between cash and tourney and there were only two cashiers open with at least 8-10 people in line.

Tournaments were fun. Appreciated to $200 “deep stack” with 30 min blinds and $50 dollar bounty. Too much money in the room for people to not call crappy hands, but it was still fun.

Lastly, all cash games decks were marked at the three cash game tables I sat at. Like WTF. Marked as in visible “dents” in the cards, with some more than others. I brought it up immediately and they changed two decks and the replacements were still the same. I brought it up again and was told “it must be the shufflers”. I’ve been played poker for 25+ years at least 50 casinos world wide, and this is the first time I ran into it where it was MULTIPLE decks and multiple cards in decks.

I took one crappy photo, but it doesn’t really show the...

I had the chance to visit the newly relocated poker room at the Venetian for the first time, and I was thoroughly impressed. While I initially thought it was strange to have the room located in the mall area, I quickly came to appreciate the decision. The location is actually very convenient — easy access from parking and, best of all, no need to walk through a smoky casino floor.

The room itself is beautiful and thoughtfully laid out. There’s ample space between tables, which gives it a more relaxed and comfortable vibe. The tables are top-notch and have USB and USB-C chargers, and the staff — from dealers to floor personnel — were all professional and welcoming. Management seemed solid, and the overall vibe was upbeat and well-run.

They offer a nice spread of games, and I happened to be there during the DeepStack tournament series. The action was great, and the tournaments were well organized.

Small touches also made a big difference: soda and coffee machines in the room, and even better — a bathroom located inside the poker room, which is a huge plus compared to places like Resorts World.

All in all, this was a very positive experience. At this point, I’d rank the Venetian as one of the best poker rooms...