Golden Nugget new room?

Quite the hike from the casino floor, if I recall correctly. Past the pool, Claim Jumper, etc. Wonder what it used to be?

i hope it maintains the vibe of the old room! the saloon feel is something i really like.

Yes, forgot to post about this when I was in Vegas earlier this summer, but they are moving the poker room to a new location close-ish to the ballrom where they hold the summer tournament series.

Edit: I see now in Langdon's picture that there is a description.

I asked a dealer about the room when I was playing in a cash game, and he said the new room would only have 7-8 tables though? Seems weird, as the old room have something like 12 tables. But maybe he just wasn't that informed.

The old room is obviously cramped and smokey, but it definitely has it's charm. I really hope this won't effect the game quality or the number or droolers finding their way to the poker room.

They (some in 2+2) said that about the Venetian move, too. Jury still out on that one? But I'm just being contrarian. I think it's an awful spot, too far from the casino floor, with nothing nearby except self-parking. Yeah.

The old room has way too much smoke especially if you’re sitting around the edge of the room. One thing I like about Venetian is the lack of smoke.

The Venetian room started doing more things to at least make it look like they wanted customers. I doubt Golden Nugget will change much besides the location of the room.

Maybe they don’t need too many tables. They usually only have 1 or 2 limit games and a few NL tables, and the old room almost always has a few empty tables. BUT I don’t want this new room to feel small and cramped so I tend to view the small number of tables as a bad thing.

I love the new Venetian room.

I think the notion of drunk whales stumbling into a poker room hasn't been a thing for years. may still happen on a rare occasion, but in my experience people in poker rooms are poker players. I don't think a room next to a casino floor is by definition better

as long as it's not in a weird spot like PH

I also visited the new Venetian this trip. Got there around 4 pm. Turned out there were 2 tourneys going and huge lists for all the cash games. Every table going. Waited about 30 min to get into the one 1/2 plo game that was going. Liked the room a lot - knew ahead of time to park on parking level 2 and how to get to the poker room on the second floor. No problems with that but on leaving I had planned on trying the Yardbird restaurant which I could tell was on the edge of the casino on the first floor. Even with the aid of a map I couldn't find a way to get to the casino. No signs, all kinds of retail shops, a gondola ride plus the map was confusing. I know I am going senile but me not finding the casino is the exact opposite of a whale not finding the poker room. After wandering around for 20 mins or so and not finding anyone to ask I said the hell with it, found my car and went to Ellis Island for dinner. Half rack of ribs and half chicken always good there.

In my opinion, any change that isn't an obvious and apparent upgrade is usually not a good move. Especially given how long they have been at the current location (as long as I can recall like 20+ years, probably 25+), if everything was great, why the change. It seems like mgmt thinks there is more value for the existing floor space over a poker room there. The new space also sounds smaller (at least fewer tables but honestly the current room was took cramped and I don't think they routinely used all the tables so fewer is Meh to me.) The uh-oh is pushing it off the floor alone. I generally feel the 'walk by drop ins are good for the game' is often over rated (a la the old PH "room" in the Pit was an exception IMO) but completely isolated from the floor after decades being right there seems drastic.

Also need to think of this in light of the CET buy out. GN has walked away from poker in at least two locations (AC and Biloxi) in the past. They pushed the room off the floor in LC (and then shrunk it consierably there also.) So GN isn't a historical champion of pushing poker. OTOH, seems awful early to begin modifications to major casino based on a merger that still isn't guaranteed to even happen (though it seems very likely).

My simple reading of tea leaves says this is neutral at best but IMO likely a negative

likely true.
as I said I haven't been downtown in a few years, not sure if this change is a reason to check it out in my next trip.
as it's the only room downtown I suspect it is safe for the long run

haha great story. I absolutely understand that, if you take a wrong turn after a long tiring session you get totally lost.
back in February I was tired and trying to get to TI from the V room and ended up, I don't know where I ended up but it wasn't next to the Wynn

The Venetian poker room is now the best poker room in all of Las Vegas, ainec..

Not sure if the whole article will load, but there is a photo.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/casinos-gaming/only-downtown-las-vegas-casino-poker-room-relocates-now-open-3848037/?utm_medium=social&fbclid=Iwb21leAS7-VJjbGNrBLv1tmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHs6ljME-7bT4pUuNyCE6HQUkzof96FuqwUyuNWwnn3uz13imGuds42JeS2OU_aem_Xx93USVxhTZI4E30ZC8LWA

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Only downtown Las Vegas casino poker room relocates, now open

To be fair, the old Venetian room didn't have to run promos, except for weird stuff like 8/16 LHE.

Depends on your definition of best room. My definition is whichever room has the best overall quality of games day to day.

I don't care about amenities like the drink machine or prettiest room or best lighting or closest location to parking or even comfiest chairs. I play poker to make money and have the highest hourly.

I've put in sessions at Excalibur back in the day. Overall horrible conditions to play in but almost always had the softest games.

This

Oh yes, we need the Excalibur poker room to return!

(extremely unlikely, but one can hope)

Re the picture of the new room - note how along the left side the dealer's back will almost be against the wall. I have played in too many rooms laid out like this. At every dealer change seats 1 and 9 will have to deal with dealers trying to slide in and out behind them. Annoying at best. Looks pretty nice otherwise.

Looks almost identical to what GN Biloxi had post COVID…them it closed.

I'm confused by the article where it says there are 9 tables but seating for 63 players. That's only 7 players per table, but in the photo it looks like each table has seats for 9 players. There are also only 7 table in the photo; there certainly could be more, but 7 tables with 63 seats would make more sense.

This is such a funny thing for me, someone who plays almost exclusively graveyard shifts in Vegas. Over at Aria and Bellagio I have seen hundreds of drunk people, and probably well in the tens of people being so drunk at the poker table that they were thrown out of the poker room. It’s still there, you just have to play between midnight and 7-8 am, especially on weekends. That’s when all the crazy stuff happens.