ES
A very pleasant room to be in, nice colors and clean, new tables, I love the ceiling, very nice. I like the fact it's close to the sports book, the ponies aren't far away. Close to the escalator, so everyone who comes in from parking has to go right by it. Also, it's close to starbucks, so it will get plenty of notice. Not too loud in there, you can hear yourself think, which is a plus.
I would say that there are very few sharks in the room, except on rare occasions. A couple of the employees can play, and a couple players such as me and Photoc show up on occasion, but from what I have seen, the games are full of magoos.
The dealers are mostly new, that's apparent. But I was once a newbie too, and everyone gets better with time. What I look for in a dealer is whether they make an honest effort to do their best, and whether they improve with time. Over the time the strat has been open, the dealers have improved noticably. Some are better than others, but considering the fact that most rooms all over town have a ton of brand new dealers (including some of the best rooms, like MGM), how can I be too critical here? Give them time and the strat's dealers will be as good as everyone else. The ones I have met have been very pleasant and friendly, but also have been paying attention to what they are doing and not over-socializing while in the box.
Cocktails are fine, in fact they bring them fast and furious, so I'd rate them as better than fine. It's close to the bar, so there's no problem with the service. Since I usually drink beer, I don't know whether their mixed drinks are strong enough, but whatever, they come fast anyway so keep 'em comin'!!
I'd say the management was "old school." No complaints as far as how they treated me as a player, it was courteous and reasonable. Management can often be found playing, keeping short games together. Basically I like this, anything and everything to please the players should be done. Managers seem to be pleasant and friendly while playing. Writing this review as a player with about five trips to the room, I have yet to have anything bad happen, nor have I seen any bad decisions (and I do know the difference very well), so based on that, I am rating the management as good.
Comps are currently kept track of manually, which I think sucks. Get the player tracking card, and give everyone a dollar an hour. It's the industry standard. Any room that doesn't have it won't get a good rating by me on that category. However, they will give you SOMETHING rather than nothing, so I will rate it "below average."
