Venetian poker room changeup

I’ve still seen some horrible, clearly inexperienced players in there.

And the 2-3 NL game is so far doing a lot better than the 2-4 game in the old room. Usually 2-3 and 2-4 are more about “poker” instead of high hands (high hand chasers usually play the lowest stakes they can). I’ve noticed some PLO in there recently. Not as sure about the 3-5 game.

True, the room definitely has regs chasing high hands. But that’s still mostly in a 1-3 game with only a $300 max so the competition is not going to be tough, unless you are just a small winning reg or worse.

From my experiences I still think freerolls and hours played promotions are the worst for the games.

Yeah, the $3/hr comp rate is a promotional comp rate through the end of the year. After December 31st, the comp rate will supposedly be $2/hr.

Hey, for those that have already had a chance to visit what's the drink and food situation like? I see there's some self serve options for fountain drinks and coffee, but do they have waitresses coming around for cocktails? Are they brining them up from downstairs or is there a separate bar here?

How about ordering food at the table? Can that be done?

On the previous page...

Is the rake still $9?

It's been $5 + $2 for a long time.

$5 no jackpot rake taken for PLO

I seem to recall them saying that the 3-5 NL is also no promotional rake.

I think Steve is pretty much spot on here.

I played two sessions there last month a few days apart and recognised many of the same faces on both occasions - lot of them were in the same seats on the same table (to the left of the sign-up desk as you look).

A better player than me would certainly be able to exploit their tendencies fairly easily I think.

I found the 1/2 PLO profitable in a fairly short session - couple of guys who were overly aggressive pre flop and then looked stunned when their AAxx whiffed a 678 flop. Also got at least 2 callers in a raised pot when I bet out on a 995 flop (I had a 9 obviously) and neither of them had the case 9.

Is it too early to call the new room a big success? It's been pretty busy every time I've been in there. Cash seems relatively healthy. Their 6PM $200 bounty tournament has been doing great numbers, far beyond what it had been doing in the old space. Also bumping this because there's a small bit of news you might have missed or not seen. Their poker room has a streaming studio attached towards the rear. They're supposed to go live for the first time in February:

A lot of people are lamenting the Caesar's situation, but at least there are a few operators in town still committed to poker. Early fears that moving the poker room out of the casino would be the first step towards its eventual death seem unfounded...for now at least.

Be interesting to see what happens to their numbers when the big high hand promotion ends on Jan 1 and the comps go back from $3 to $2.

I can not conceive of an instance where I would desire to play the mock Venetian poker room.

the room is crap, and if they don't change a ton of things (don't see this happening) it's gonna be a ghost town pretty soon

They had a lot of business when the comps were $1 whenever they ran high hand promotions. I don’t care for the promotions there but people must love them.

I’m sure they are benefiting from a bunch of other rooms closing down over the years, and their reputation in the past. And the average tourist probably thinks “New room? Awesome it looks nice! High hand promotions with a chance to win $10k? Awesome!”

I actually like this room much better than the last one. I almost never played in the last room because every time I did I was wishing I played at the Wynn.

I would absolutely love playing PLO double board bomb pots against NLH players.

That said, as profitable as it would be for that one hand, it probably also drives off as many players as it attracts. Sheep know when they are getting sheared and when they are getting slaughtered.

Just because someone is bad at poker theory does not mean they are stupid.

There was some discussion about stuff like this at the high limit game where I deal. The game is mostly made up of good regs. There are a couple of local mini-whales who play somewhat occasionally. They are not winning players, and they don't dump a ton, but they are clear donators to the poker environment and play often enough that they are the type of players that should be kept happy.

Yet, just often enough we get true whales in the game. The type of players where money doesn't matter. They just want to gamble it up and have a good time.

When one of those players are in the game, the good regs want to play the stand up game, or the 7 deuce game, mandatory straddles, or other stuff that is just a way of getting the whales to get their money into action as fast as possible. Of course the true whales do not care, they are there to gamble and these are gambling games.

However, it turns off the mini-whales. They would rather lose large sums of money slowly rather than quickly. They hate all of the extra shenanigans. So they have been playing less, playing lower limits, or going to a competing casino where this stuff doesn't happen, even if it means a little longer drive.

As a result, our high limit game has been going off less often (or shorthanded) and often it is just the good regs hoping a whale shows up. By trying to slaughter the biggest whales, they have driven off the lessor whales who probably contribute more in the long run anyway.

I'm guessing you can sit out the DBBP hands if you don't want to play those, so it should scare away fewer people. Though they are very slow where I play.

Yeah nobody is forced to play them. In my experiences I’d say 80% of the player pool is in for them

I have literally see dealer change DBBP take 20 min of a down. 10 min is pretty common with one slow player. Sitting out is certainly allowed but can mean you are sitting out 50% of the time. That will also drive folks away even if you are playing the BP but cold OTF a couple of times in a tow

Yikes - they are slow where I play, but not more than 5 minutes or so. That sounds like there is something going seriously wrong.

BTW, The elite move is to sit out the hands where you're in EP but play the ones in LP/

I think you do at Venetian. You can sit out I guess but it's like you left the table, they clock you out. If more than half the table doesn't agree to play it, it doesn't get dealt. I think when I played there, maybe 2 times it went.

Thank you for this update. There were predictions here that the move upstairs would spell doom for poker at the Venetian. I was skeptical of that notion, and I'm very happy to hear that the room is doing well. Can't wait to check it out for myself during the summer WSOP trip.

I’m late to the party, but just came back from a week in Vegas and the new Venetian poker room is amazing.

After you get used to the location, this room seems to now be the #1 poker room in Vegas, with many lower priced, fantastically structured tournaments in the schedule. Props to the free soda and coffee. The Wynn is no longer #1..

Now I really can’t wait to check it out. Did you play cash, too? Love to hear your thoughts on the action in the tournaments and cash games.