ES
The IP's room isn't the fanciest in town, but it was great to play in. The table was a bit wobbly, but it didn't bother me any. The auto-shuffler was nice to keep the game moving.
I found the crowd at the table to be generally more knowledgeable than I (to be expected), but I was able to take a couple of pots with reasonably tight play, so it wasn't a shut-out by any means. I get the feeling that a better player than I could do quite well.
The dealers and staff in general were very accommodating once they knew that I was new to live poker. I got great help, and most-useful prompting at those moments when I didn't know how much I could raise at a particular moment, etc. The guy who greeted me intially (Nametag said "Uncle"-something, great friendly guy) dispelled my nervousness right away.
I was only there for about an hour, got a couple of beers during that time, and quite honestly found the cocktail waitress to be rather more attractive than I expected. It would've taken me a long time to get hammered in there, but since that wasn't on my agenda, I'll rate cocktails at a 5.
Management didn't have to make any game-decisions at my table, but I found the electronic list-management to be quite nice, and the podium-guy was kind enough to come get me from the neighboring VP-bar when my wait was over. I also noticed the management helping an over-served player get help from security to make sure that he got back to his room safely. It's nice to play somewhere that they care.
At $2/hour, from what I read, the IP has some of the best poker comps in town.
