Not a pro poker player, but curious about playing in a Vegas poker room? We’ll point you towards the best, you just worry about enjoying the experience. Making your first venture into a Vegas poker room can be a daunting venture, but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re planning to lose the smallest amount possible or looking to play deep stacks, rest assured that Vegas has an answer for you. We consulted a dealer who is a veteran of the Sin City poker circuit to get the low-down on poker rooms and compiled a list of the best poker rooms to play while visiting Las Vegas.
The Basic Experience
The Orleans
Let’s say you’re a first timer just looking for a basic taste of the Vegas poker experience. You want to play poker but lose as little money as possible. Fair enough. What you’ll want to seek out is a tournament or a 2/4 limit game. 2/4 games aren’t everywhere in Vegas, but you’ll find some of the best at Flamingo and even off the strip at the Golden Nugget.
Our recommendation, however, for newbees is the Orleans. Just a short shuttle ride west of the strip and you’ll be playing all the tight poker and drinking all the comped drinks you can handle. Serious players often use Orleans as a warm up for the real thing. Their words, not mine.
The Venetian
The best thing about playing at the Venetian is the sheer volume of players that cycle through there. You literally can’t enter a game there without sitting next to a tourist that’s never played before or a poorly disguised local. You won’t find a better run room for short stack poker than at the Venetian.
Parking doesn’t cost a dime either, so there’s that too.
The Real Vegas Experience
The Wynn
Some of the toughest games on the strip are played at the Wynn’s poker room, which also happens to be the classiest looking room in the city. I’d bring your A game if you plan to win there. While games at the Wynn are deep and elegant, the environment at Aria or the Bellagio isn’t far behind.
Either way, if you haven’t visited the Wynn in the last two years you haven’t played in the new poker room. More space, more tables, new color scheme, USB ports at every table, convenient restrooms and a mini sports book.
Planet Hollywood
What Planet Hollywood calls their poker room isn’t really a room. Rather it’s set in the middle of the casino floor featuring a wild, party like atmosphere. In other words a tourist magnet where the games are anything but dull. Even if you don’t take our advice and play Planet Hollywood, the action you’ll see in the party pit is worth a glance. They really bring the wild out of some groups. Seriously, this poker room is the antidote to the lonely table off the strip where you find yourself sitting next to a grumpy, coffee drinking retiree in a MAGA hat.
Planet Hollywood gets rowdy, especially late at night where they’ve been known to host some casual, yet competitive tournaments.
Caesar’s Palace
Unless you’re a professional poker player you’re better off not buying in for the maximum amount on your first trip through town. No use getting yourself into tricky spots if all you’re after is the Vegas poker experience. That’s why Caesars Palace should be your first stop on any Vegas poker trip. Constant 1/2 games being dealt with a maximum rake of $5 and $100 minimum buy in. Buy ins at almost every poker room in the city are between $100-$300, so old Caesars falls on the low end of the spectrum.
Final Words
Ultimately, you want to go to the Wynn or Bellagio for the most serious experience or a 2/4 limit game at Flamingo or the Orleans to kill a few hours for $50-$60. So now that you have a basic understanding of Las Vegas poker rooms, there’s nothing stopping you except booking the tickets.
Of course if making the jaunt to Las Vegas is too much for you, there are plenty of online poker rooms that we’ve matched to their brick and mortar counterpart using our tried and true vetting process. There is no substitute for the real thing, but sometimes you can come pretty close.
