ES
Great, comfortable environment with great management that always gets you table changes quickly. Venetian has too many hot shots who play too many hands, in my opinion. They aren't the true fish that you'll find at Mandalay or Mirage, but they also aren't nearly as solid as Wynn players. So I say stick with the Wynn 1-3 NL game.
I guess "very tough" is a bad thing, but I disagree. I think if you want to get used to playing in high stakes tournaments, you can't just feed off the fish all day long. Generally the players at the Wynn are by far the best I've played with. That means you won't get rich quick without hitting some hands, though, like you would against the fish tourist crowd, but it means you won't be knocked out by K5 offsuit and want to beat someone bloody, either. Play here if you want to test your ability, not necessarily to pad your pocket book. The raises are standard here, too, instead of the usual 1-2 NL raises of 4-8 times the big blind. In the 1-3 game you'll see raises of $6 to $12 at most, usually (2-4 times the big blind).
The dealers are quick and friendly, and they should be -- the players don't generally get out of line, and the management takes care of loud, ugly players before the dealers have to do anything. A few dealers have made some major errors, but it's rarer than at most other casinos in Vegas.
The waitresses are generally stunning, especially the primo crew on a Friday or Saturday night. The quality of the drinks is amazing, and they give you a true double if you order a double. Only problem is that sometimes service is very slow, with an hour or more passing between drink orders. This is the one area they need to improve on -- have the waitress be dedicated to the room instead of meandering off to hit the nearby roulette or craps tables and getting lost. They serve the same high quality brand names as Venetian, generally.
I could not be more complimentary of management at the Wynn. They never miss table changes, they are friendly whenever you arrive, and they make sure that no one waits too long for anything, including an open seat.
$1/hour is not as great s the Venetian or TI, but they do their best to make sure you remember to swipe in and out; they will swipe you in when they bring you your chips and you can swipe out at the window next to the cashier. Still, play here for the game and not the comps.
