Trip Report: Plaza Hotel and Casino - Las Vegas, NV

I had been to Las Vegas in both March and June, and was very disappointed with the Plaza Poker Room, which is located at the end of Fremont Street, Downtown.

Recently, they really spruced up the Race and Sportsbook there (now by far the best Race/Sportsbook in all of Downtown, LV) but the Poker Room was sad, to say the very least. No tournaments, other than the promised Sit-n-Go's which NEVER developed. Very rarely had a single cash game going, etc.

THEN, when I visited Downtown LV in August, I was surprised and delighted what the Plaza (Formerly the Union Plaza) did with their Poker Room!

Not only did they spruce it up, they added 2 daily tournaments. One a Freeze Out and the other a Bounty Tournament. I believe the Freeze - out was a $40 Buy in, the Bounty tourney a $60 Buy in.

They had just re-opened the room the week before I arrived, so there were only 15-20 players at each tournament, that paid the Top 2 only. Though a deal was made in the tourney I was in so 3rd place (me) would get my entry fee back.

It sure is nice to have a 4th Casino downtown offering Tournaments. (I believe the El Cortez has cash games, but no tournaments) Basically from between 9 am and 1 am you can find a new Hold Em tournament downtown starting just about every hour.

I sure hope the room succeeds and the tournaments get bigger.

Grading:

Poker Room: B-. Tiny (6 tables, I believe), but VERY comfy chairs and nice looking new tournament chips. A month earlier, my grade would have been a D-.

Dealers/Staff: B. The Poker Room Manager was very friendly and honored my seat request. He was also one of the dealers there. However there was one dealer that I feel was incompetent, as he made many mistakes in a short period of time. Either that or he had a REALLY bad day.

Strength of Players: 2/10 Players were the weakest of the ones I found downtown. Binions, Golden Nugget, Fitzgeralds all seemed to have stronger players.

Overall, I cant wait to go back there to see how the room is doing now.

Thanks for the good info. I'll be making my first pilgrimage to Vegas in a few months so I really appreciate reading stuff like this. Good Work.