ES
Venetian's room is certainly well-finished and in "good condition." But the property made several critical errors when developing this room. First, they spent millions on fitting this room...but didn't include bathrooms? You must traverse a pretty good distance to find the men's room in the casino - you can easily miss 4-5 hands just to pee. Next, there are many reasons why traditional green felt is used on poker tables, not the least of which is proper contrast so you can see cards and chips easily. Venetian's day-glo tan/gold felt is simply craptacular and will strain your eyes all day and all night. Lighting levels are also high and all from above, so everything tends to flatten out - very similar to the poker "supermarket" effect seen at Ceasars. Venetian's high ceilings and lack of softening (drapes, fabrics, etc.) means that there is no intimate feel to this room. I don't like to play poker in a warehouse, and Venetian is too much like one in overall volume. Wynn and Bellagio do a much better job of providing intimacy in similar large spaces.
This is the best part of the Venetian room. I made $160 in less than two hours at a 3-6 table with standard tight/aggressive play. Many locals that used to call Mirage home for 3-6 and 6-12 limit games are now trolling the tables at Venetian looking for tourists and finding them.
In a span of six dealt hands there were four cards exposed by the dealers' sloppy card handling (two different dealers). These people need help.
Outfits good; occupiers of the outfits, overweight. At lease sodas come in a jumbo waterglass instead of the 3-oz. snifters you get at Mirage.
The second time I came to Venetian to play, I walked up to the stand and was greeted by...oh, wait, I wasn't greeted. Three separate employees were too busy staring at computer screens to make eye contact...for over two minutes. At least I could retreat and look at the computerized list - but wait, I COULDN'T look at the list because, every 10 seconds, the annoying Bad Beat jackpot would take over the screen and flash and gee-whiz you to death. Atrociously annoying. I approached the stand again, but the three employees at the stand were so enamored with their computer screens that they simply didn't know I existed. Not a good show at all.
OK, so Venetian has a bad beat jackpot, and it's funded by the casino. And what qualifies as a bad beat? Aces over jacks or something? Nope? OK, quads or better? Uh, no. Quad TENS or better. There's an awfully good chance that Venetian will get to promote this bad beat jackpot for three or four or six or twelve months, and never pay it out.
