[jamby]

I've got this fascination with the card room at the Strat. Probably because I tend to do pretty well there. Anyway, I decided to pay them a visit again this year and was surprised to find that they've moved it again for the third time in the three years I've been visiting.

It started out as an open area between the sports book and Starbucks that was cordoned off and received a ton of foot traffic as a result of it's prime location. I believe there were eight tables originally. They then moved it to an actual room behind the sports book that held six tables. It was hidden away from the general casino patrons so didn't get a lot of walk-ins, but was a great room for the players as it was intimate, fairly quiet and mostly free of smoke.

I was surprised to find that this year it's been moved all the way to the back of the casino to another open and cordoned off area near the clubs and restaurants. It has eight tables again as it's a pretty big area so that's good. Also gets a ton of foot traffic. The bad news is that it's next to the salsa club and they play this endlessly loud music to a mostly empty nightclub that drove just about everybody crazy. It couldn't have been louder or more annoying.

Also bad is that the management has decided (in their infinite wisdom) that they should close the card room between 4am and noon each day. It's utterly ridiculous. One of the dealers told me that he thinks they're the only casino card room in the country that closes overnight. It's had a really negative impact on the regulars that used to flock there after their own work shifts.

I'm still fond of the place, mainly because I really like the staff and I still do well there for some reason. Not so sure that they'll continue to be a favorite though given these most recent changes.

[Freelancer72]

i played there a couple years ago when it was in that intimate setting room. friendly dealers, but i wasn't impressed with their skills, they were all pretty green in experience.

[jamby]

Surprisingly, many of them have stayed on and they're now a pretty mature group of dealers. I remember thinking the same thing in the past.

Originally Posted by Freelancer72

i played there a couple years ago when it was in that intimate setting room. friendly dealers, but i wasn't impressed with their skills, they were all pretty green in experience.

[cdnmoose]

Last played there a couple years ago when it was next to the sportsbook. Starting the gambling day with a coffee and bailey's and whipped cream was great. But yeah, even then the room was being shut down around 3 am.