EN
The poker room at Mandalay Bay is well appointed, but is rather small. It sits adjacent to the spots book, so on big game days it gets pretty loud. The tables are nice, many with auto-shufflers. They also have a wood grain inlay around the edge of the table - this looks nice, but the seam between wood and felt is uneven. I watched multiple players knock over chip stacks that either sat on this uneven surface or knocked them over when moving a bet stack from the wood onto the felt.
I played in the lower limit games and the players were O.K. No big sharks lurking, but few easy targets as well. A few wanted higher limit games (but no opennings at those tables), so you got automatic raises to double the big blind almost every hand. This would make it tough for a low limit or novice player to play without feeling intimidated.
Dealers were good - fast and accurate. Most did not interact much with the players other than a "good luck" to a new player and a "thank you" for any tip thrown their way. They get in lots of hands per hour on these tables.
Its wet, the right flavor and gets to you quickly. What more could you want. MB doesn't hire too many Dogs to schlep their drinks, so the eye-candy factor is good, if that matters.
A PET PEEVE OF MINE - They have this stupid rule that you can NOT check with chips in your hand! If you do, it is considered a bet. Whats worse, is they don't inform the players of this until someone at the table has committed this "Breach of Etiquitte" and is forced into making an unintented bet. They also want you to move all chips of a bet in at the same time, regardless of whether you declare "raise to XXXX" amount. I got accused of trying to string bet twice when I declared my bet amount, counted out the chips behind the line, then tried to move them in two stacks onto the felt using just my right hand! I'm no pro, but I know a string bet - and I do NOT string bet. Besides how can it be a string when you declare the bet amount prior to moving any chips?
To be honest, I was there on a Saturday afternoon and waited over 1 hour to get seated. The managers were somewhat abrupt and acted like they didn't really care if you sat down unless you were buying in for $200 or more. On Saturday, I couldn't get into a high Buy-in NL game, so sat at a $2/4 limit table. I came back Sunday and bought in for $300 and got treated very differently.
I'm rating this a 3 because I didn't get comped at all. I was only at MB because my friends wanted to watch games there. I can't say I'll be back, the MGM is accross the street and looks to be a much better poker room. I don't know for sure, it was still being built on my last trip...
