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Caesars Palace Poker Room Review Last updated: 04/24/09 Sponsored Advertisement Phone: (702) 785-6566 Web: www.harrahs.com/casinos/caesars-palace/casino-gambling/poker-detail.html Email: Address: 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard Editor's Review Caesars Palace Poker Room News Caesars Palace Poker Room Information Tables: 25  Full Tilt Poker 100% Deposit Bonus up to $600! Use Code: ALLVEGAS. Full Tilt Poker Betting Limits:
Caesars Palace Poker Tournaments: Yes
Weekend Wait-Time: Weekdays < 30 minutes Weekends 30 to 60 minutes Smoking Allowed: No Poker Room Rate: Yes Daily Room Rates: $119 (Sunday -Thursday) $199 (Friday & Saturday) Daily Play Requirement: 8 hours Editor's Review - Caesars Palace Poker Room Total Rating: 3.60 Room Quality Rating: 5 Caesars Palace is the flagship/premier property under the Harrah’s Entertainment corporate umbrella. Opening in 1968 under the direction of Jay Sarno and Kirk Kerkorian, Caesars is one of the last remaining old time properties, and is the only one that maintains its luxury status, despite its age. Many years ago, Caesars operated one of the city’s premier card rooms until controversy and lack of card game demand forced its closure sometime in the late 1990s. The “poker boom” occurred in 2003, and Caesars opened the largest poker room in Las Vegas two years later. Though there have been a few minor remodels, the room is still quite large, and currently operates about 25-30 tables for cash games, and an additional 35 tables for tournaments, in a separate room. Caesars Palace poker room is unique in that it is a completely sealed room, located down a short hallway adjacent to the popular PURE nightclub and the Race and Sports Book. When the room first opened, it lacked almost any real aesthetical appeal, and resembled a church banquet hall, with above average chairs. Thankfully, the room heeded the feedback given by various critics, and spruced up the room quite a bit with artwork, photography, lighting fixtures, and other aesthetical adornments. The room still lacks real ambiance, due to the lack of music, which leads to a quiet poker driven atmosphere that many might find a bit too intimidating, especially for first time visitors. Being located down a hallway in a sealed off room, the venue lacks any sort of rail for outside observers to view the games, limits, and players. There are no windows or outside entrances other than the main entrance, and one cannot view the waitlists from outside of the poker room itself. Though a few decorative chairs were added to the foyer of the room at one point, it seems that those have been removed in favor of tables to display awards and flyers advertising various promotions that the room is offering. The brush desk is immediately approachable upon the room’s entry and allows players to sign up for games immediately without wait. The room uses the Genesis Bravo system for tracking its tables, but has not invested in the tableside player tracking units, which means that players are required to check in and out at the desk in order to earn their $1 per hour comps on their Harrah’s Total Rewards players’ card. The lack of the electronic tableside comp tracking has led to several problems with players cheating the hours tracking, thus qualifying for freerolls and other promotions with little to no play (as players can clock in and walk without being clocked out). As Caesars is the ONLY big room that drops a jackpot dollar, this is a major cause for concern. Aesthetically, this room is dull, expansive, and intimidating. It is not action oriented or very welcoming in overall physical nature (for that, see Wynn, Venetian, or Bellagio). The tables have been spread out over the past two years, allowing more space between the tables, and the chairs are the best of all the Harrah’s rooms (but still well behind Wynn, Orleans, and Red Rock). The chairs are adjustable height, swivel, on wheels, but do not offer adjustable backs. All cash tables are equipped with Shuffle Master Autoshufflers, though the tournament tables are not (Venetian is the only property that equips all tables, including tournament tables, with autoshufflers). Despite the rooms many aesthetical shortcomings, this room still deserves a 5/5 for room quality. Though far behind other large rooms, it is still a quality card room that offers better than average comfort, design, and layout. A small elevated top section offers the high limit games, which for Caesars includes 2/5 NLHE and 5/10NLHE. The bottom section includes the remaining popular games of 1/3NLHE and 3/6LHE (the latter of which is not spread around the clock). The room often goes dark, especially mid week, but does not close down completely. Games usually restart fairly early in the morning. Overall, the Caesars Palace poker room is easily the worst of the big rooms (rooms over 25 tables), but still offers a completely smoke free poker driven atmosphere for those desiring a serious game of cards, with little to no onlookers. Poker players are relegated to well drinks only, but this will be addressed in the Management and Cocktail section and does not adversely affect the Room Quality rating. Though aesthetically boring, the room has invested in some minor aesthetical improvements which is both appreciated and noted by this reviewer. Caesars just barely earns the top 5/5 rating for overall room quality. Competition Rating: 2 Considering that Caesars Palace is the only big room to both drop a jackpot dollar and rake at the 10%/$5 level, not to mention the requirement that poker players receive well drinks only, it is surprising how many serious and solid players choose to make Caesars their home base, however many do. Due to monthly freerolls, mega stack tournaments, and higher than average buy ins on all NLHE games, the room tends to favor experienced and serious players. The lack of quality alcohol may also be an outlying factor in why the games are not as soft as they could be since serious players usually don’t drink, thus they don’t care if top shelf is available or not. Overall, this room caters to serious players. It has a quiet atmosphere, is secluded, has well structured tournaments that cater to better players, and offers higher than average buy ins on all its NLHE games, thus giving stronger/deeper rolled players a slight advantage. The competition level in this room is significantly stronger than it really should be, considering the nightclub, hotel size, and adjacency to the sports book. Dealer Rating: 4 The dealers at the Caesars Palace poker room are all quite knowledgeable in dealing all games, and maintain solid game control. The staff is generally very competent and knows how to maintain professionalism when in the box. Though a few are openly disgruntled with their employer, they are still very welcoming, friendly, and know how to control a game. Some dealers go a bit far to defend their employer, including making statements along the lines of “$5 rake is the standard in Vegas now”, which is a flat out lie (out of over 50 rooms in Las Vegas, only 9 have a $5 rake, which is only about 16% of all poker rooms in Vegas). Dealers like that are the only reason that their ranking is 4/5 instead of 5/5. Overall, the dealers at Caesars Palace poker room are competent, knowledgeable, and welcoming to all players. They were receptive to courtesy and thanked all players for any tips received. The dealers at Caesars Palace are one of few true highlights of this venue. Cocktail Rating: 1 The cocktail service in the Caesars Palace poker room is easily the worst of the big rooms, and possibly the worst in the city. Though this reviewer must admit that the speed of the service has marginally improved in the past 6 months, the overall quality of the drinks, the servers themselves, and the overall room service is dead last amongst all card rooms. Caesars Palace is best known as being a poker room that decided publicly to not serve any premium alcohol, Red Bull, or blended drinks of any kind to its players. When this first become public, it was around the same time that Harrah’s Entertainment decided to go forward with a 10%/$5 rake in its properties. Ceasars publicly decided that in lieu of raising its rake to 10%/$5 max, it would simply restrict poker players to well drinks only. Some could argue that this was a good or poor decision, but it was what it was. Then, a few months ago, it was decided that Caesars would join all other HET properties and start charging the 10%/$5 rake on its raked games. However, premium alcohol was NOT brought back, despite it being the reason, supposedly, for the original hold out. So, at present, one can get much better cocktail service ay ANY OTHER HARRAH’S PROPERTY, and pay the SAME RAKE as at Caesars. Harrah’s, directly across the street from Caesars Palace, also charges 10%/$5 rake, but also serves Red Bull in the can, and has tableside Genesis Bravo player card tracking. The supposed “flagship” premium card room falls short even when compared to rooms of convenience like Imperial Palace and Bally’s. Many of the cocktail servers at Caesars Palace have been employed at the property for well over 25 years or more. This means that the women are often significantly older and well set in their ways. Some servers’ attitudes can often be unnecessarily rude, though this is not a majority. Overall, the Caesars Palace cocktail service is easily the worst in the city, on many levels. Other properties under the same corporate umbrella offer significantly better service and drink selection, and when compared to other big rooms (e.g. Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio), Caesars is embarrassingly laughable. Management Rating: 2 With the exception of a few select top of their game floormen (Mitch and Doug), the management of the Caesars poker room is truly the weakest link of the entire venue (with the cocktail restrictions falling directly under their prevue). Their main room management is horrendous, and will be addressed first. Their tournament management; however, is amongst the best in the city, and is the only reason that the Management earned a 2/5 instead of a 1/5 in this section. The room has done many things that appear to show a lack of any commitment whatsoever to improving the overall players’ experience and enjoyment of the facility. It is as though the decision makers go out of their way to treat players like idiots, even at the expense of their own time and tips out of their own dealers’ pockets. Case in point: The dealers have been instructed to take the $5 rake in multiple chip increments. Instead of dropping a single $5 chip, the dealers drop THREE chips. 2 $2 chips and a single $1 chip are dropped instead of a single $5 chip. What does this mean? This means that the dealers are constantly making change to take the correct rake, thus emptying their well, and requiring significantly more fills then they would need if they simply dropped single reds down the drop box for rake. Why have the dealers been instructed to do this? Because it is obvious that Caesars is treating players like idiots and hoping that by dropping multiple chips instead of a redbird that it hides the fact that they are dropping $5 out of every hand that hits $50 instead of $4 like all other big rooms. Also, Caesars drops a $1 jackpot, which makes them the only big Strip room to drop both a $5 rake and a $1 jackpot (the other big rooms are Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio, and MGM Grand; none which rake $5 or take a jackpot). In addition to this insulting practice of embarrassingly hiding their rake, the room does not utilize the Genesis Bravo tableside units that track the players’ hours and comps at the table. Instead, the room swipes players in and out at the podium. This is not a problem at premium properties like Venetian and Wynn, as the only thing that is being tracked is hours for the $1 per hour comp, but at Caesars, such is not the case. Caesars runs monthly freerolls where it uses player generated jackpot funds to run a free tournament for its players that play a certain number of hours each month. In order to earn a seat in the freeroll, players must clock in and out at the front podium. Since the room does not utilize the Genesis Bravo tableside tracking, players often swipe in and then either leave the game or play only a few hands before walking, thus earning the hours without putting in the required time. Aside from all the above, it is obvious that many of the dealers are severely disgruntled and disenfranchised with their employer. Constant ranting and raving can be heard from the staff concerning various people that run the room, and ethical controversies from the rooms very checkered past are still well discussed throughout the room, despite the fact that many people involved in the scandals have been terminated or have moved on. Though it is accepted that the previous controversies are now all matters of historical basis and no longer apply to the room, the room still maintains a hefty list of critical problems and management decisions that are severely hurting the rooms’ overall perceived reputation on a myriad of levels. Having said all that, I must commend the Tournament Staff/Management. The tournaments at Caesars (daily tournaments and Mega Stack/WSOP Circuit Events) are all well run, professionally managed, and award players with good values, solid structures, and good prize pools. Doug and Mitch stand out as top floormen in the industry and run their tournaments exceptionally well. Kudos to the Caesars management team for running tournaments that are second only to Venetian (Venetian has installed autoshufflers in all of its tournament tables, showing a true investment in poker). Overall, the management of the Caesars Palace poker room needs to really step up if it wants to be considered a world class poker venue. It most certainly has not earned that designation as of now, but has potential to gain it if certain issues are remedied. The tournament management is the sole exception to this, and deserves to be commended. Comps Rating: 4 Caesars Palace poker room comps are above average for the big rooms. 100 Reward Credits are earned per hour on the Total Rewards card, which equates to $1 per hour in comps, which can be used at any Harrah’s Entertainment property. The Total Rewards program is, hands down, the best casino player loyalty program in the world, with the most universal acceptance and convenience of use. Comps are put directly on the card, and can be simply swiped at various food outlets and retail locations at all Harrah’s properties, with no paper comp required. Caesars does not currently award Tier Credits for poker, as that is still in a test phase and is currently offered only at Harrah’s Las Vegas. Once the Genesis Bravo software update is tested and deemed fully ready for rollout, we expect Caesars to award Tier Credits then, but at this point, only Reward Credits are given (Tier Credits are separate points for earning higher levels of Total Rewards Status, including Platinum, Diamond, and Seven Stars). Caesars offers a monthly freeroll for customers that play a certain number of hours each month. Often these freerolls include the awarding of a seat in a special event tournament in lieu of a large cash payout. These freerolls usually require about 40 hours per month, and are announced a few weeks ahead of time. In addition to the freerolls, Caesars also offers high hand jackpots, including $100 paid for all quads (using a pocket pair). These promotions are funded through the player generated jackpot drop. Overall, the comps at Caesars are better than average simply because they are part of the Total Rewards program. When Tier Credits are awarded in addition to Reward Credits, we expect to see more lucrative comps being offered for higher games. Until that point, Caesars easily earns a 4/5 for overall above average complimentaries offered to poker players. Caesars Palace Poker Room News New and Updated Caesars Palace poker room Editor Review has been posted! Date: 04/24/09 Summary:Caesars Palace is the only big room within the Harrah's Entertainment chain, and is the only big room to restrict poker players to well drinks only and to charge a 10%/$5 max rake. A new and updated review has been posted! Caesars Palace raises rake to 10%/$5 max (plus $1 jackpot), and keeps cocktails restricted to well only! Date: 12/20/08 Summary:Caesars Palace poker room has raised its rake to the Harrahs standard of 10%/$5 max (plus $1 jackpot), and will continue to restrict poker room cocktails to well drinks only! Caesars Palace Poker Tournament: Mega Stack Series Date: 04/23/08 Summary:Caesars Palace in Las Vegas has announced the schedule for their 2008 Mega Stack Series. The tournament series is set to take place from June 1st through July 9th, 2008. Check out the schedule and details in our Tournament Discussion forum. No More Premium Drinks at Caesars Palace Poker Room Date: 10/16/07 Summary:Playing poker at Caesars Palace? Good luck getting that Patron Margarita. Lunch with Tournament Director at Caesars Palace Poker Room Date: 01/02/07 Summary:A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from David Riedisser, tournament director at the Caesars Palace poker room. David said there were some exciting things cooking at the Caesars Palace poker room and he kindly extended an invitation for lunch to discuss the enhancements. [more Caesars Palace poker room News story] |
Caesars Palace Poker Room Player Reviews Summary of Player Reviews: Overall: 3.77 Room Quality: 4.39 Competition: 3.00 Dealer Rating: 4.12 Cocktail Rating: 3.24 Management Rating: 3.90 Comps Rating: 2.89 A Great Place to Play. By: BluffnWin 06/23/09 Not as much action as expected By: howsbusiness 05/04/09 Remembered to Tourneys By: TripleEdge 04/04/09 huge rake By: foxnet 03/10/09 Pretty much lived here for 3 of the 5 days in vegas By: RSMILEY 02/28/09 Beautiful room but disappointed By: skeeball1998 02/10/09 This is what I expect from a Vegas poker room... By: rybraz 01/29/09 Rake Raised to $5 By: Classic 12/23/08 Tournament Room By: WRLichtenberger 11/12/08 Great Poker Room, Lousy Bed - real lousy! By: Surve 10/22/08 best room in vegas By: lardy222 10/06/08 Night 1/3 NL at the Caesar's By: sapol 09/26/08 3/6 Limit July 16-20 By: rasty 07/21/08 Very Poor Management By: dr diet 07/20/08 Visited during MegaStack week of June 22 2008 By: bscrivener 06/29/08 Huge room ran well By: zzjitterzz 06/19/08 Clean, well run, well lit, excellent dealers, and nice chairs. By: blue3715 06/14/08 number one By: arnie ba 05/13/08 My Caesars experience By: TahoeBilly 05/10/08 Harrah's Palace Review By: feltbettor 05/06/08 Big and beautiful By: #1BuckeyeFan 04/17/08 Caesars continues its slide down the toilet By: AtlPlayer 04/10/08 Great room. Ancient Roman Waitstaff By: bostonjohn 03/08/08 Good Poker, Decent Dealers, TERRIBLE Waitresses By: ezmofokine 03/04/08 For you Sports guys who play poker. By: mufasa413 02/29/08 Nice room, but needs to do more to attract the crappy players. By: Zurg_ 02/24/08 Good Room By: TexCuso 02/10/08 Great room-Waitresses older than Caesar By: punishvegas71 02/06/08 My New Favorite Room By: statsman 02/06/08 Bland By: Bullitt5135 02/05/08 The palace is a Palace By: stever88ca 01/15/08 Great tourneys, tight cash games By: Grange95 12/30/07 Great poker room By: Reps-N-Sets 12/12/07 The Worst of the Big Rooms By: Gman 12/04/07 Incompetent Management Holds This Room Back By: VegasDailyPlayer 11/23/07 SHOULD BE BETTER By: RobK 11/15/07 Caesars Is Not All That Great By: JohnS 10/18/07 Caesar's Staff drops the ball--foreign language and collusion excused By: gonzorocks 10/04/07 Nothing Special By: Krusherlaw 10/03/07 Large, Comfortable, and Catering to All By: joel1968 09/30/07 4 Hour Session over Labor Day Week By: tdkman2 09/24/07 Wow, what a room and what great tournaments. By: Slam Dunc 09/24/07 EASILY, the best room in town By: red_man_greg 09/04/07 August 27-30th Limit and NL By: Randysland 09/01/07 b Day trip 8/5-8/8 By: watbri 08/13/07 Nice Room/ Well Managed By: First&Goal 08/10/07 Best room I Have Seen By: DrRose 07/20/07 Classy well appointed room. By: Dondoh 07/17/07 Caesars is the place to play! By: Ross31 06/21/07 Bad limit action awesome room By: Punknfg 06/16/07 Great Room Across the Board By: vookenmeister 05/17/07 Great Room By: pallyw 05/14/07 Great Room By: slasman85 04/26/07 nice room By: skybuckets 03/29/07 Nice Room By: chektorazor 03/06/07 Great place for knowledgeable players By: Acehater 03/01/07 Great first visit By: VegasAl 02/07/07 Last Minute Fun!!!!!!!! By: SpecReynolds 02/07/07 Still a nice room, but needs more traffic By: Zurg_ 01/30/07 Nice , Spacious room By: Arbitrage650 01/26/07 Definitely top 3 in Vegas. By: Pokershadow 01/25/07 The Best on the Strip! By: LouMac 01/24/07 Fri Noon Tourney By: Diggger33 01/22/07 Caesars Noon Tourney By: catsss 12/30/06 My Favorite Poker Room Overall By: 200 Motels 11/06/06 Nice room - good tourn structure By: FL Mortgage Man 10/16/06 Caesars noon tourney surprise By: SantaFe 10/15/06 Very nice room, quality players By: Tucson Jim 10/09/06 A Week at Ceasars By: flossy 09/29/06 I wish they all looked like this By: deadlikeme 09/21/06 My favorite room on the trip. By: RAB777 09/06/06 A very good room with some wild play By: joebrazil3 08/21/06 Where did they get these dealers By: joshuatree78 05/15/06 Good room- should play at this one. By: Clem2754 05/13/06 Huge room for tournaments, quiet and empty By: AdRock 05/04/06 Big Beautiful room, tournaments abound By: Northern Dancer 05/02/06 Best Cheap Tourney By: MichMadDog 04/24/06 What a disappointment By: cardsfan 04/20/06 Nice Room...but By: Bobbo 04/17/06 Not too shabby.... By: ASUgambler 04/12/06 Awesome room! By: LJRed37 04/07/06 Large room, great tournaments By: Zurg_ 04/07/06 Number 1 for tourneys By: Amazulu 04/06/06 Caesars Palace review By: jorgenj 04/05/06 One of the best in town By: vegasfullhouse 04/04/06 Not a lot of Ambience By: Gaggles 03/26/06 Top notch room By: scrapngolfr 03/22/06 Exactly As Expected By: that_pope 03/21/06 Top notch all the way By: Tigerpiper 03/20/06 What a great room! By: braydo5 03/20/06 Just a tiny bit disappointed By: TheCaptain 03/19/06 Big Room Decent Players By: grimjack 03/19/06 dissapointed! By: grocery mony 03/04/06 nice room, good games. By: bigred 03/04/06 Fast, loose and aggressive By: timpramas 02/28/06 Big room By: PIPES123 02/28/06 Great room, great staff By: therrinn 02/28/06 Hail Caesar's !!! By: Vindice 02/27/06 Great Big Room w/ Lots of Action By: rifflerman 02/27/06 Nice room! By: wrobinette 02/24/06 Had a good time. By: lepoppet 02/22/06 Simply the Best By: jmeutown 02/20/06 Terrible management By: loupguru 02/20/06 I Loved This Room! By: AlaskaGal 02/16/06 nice big room By: allreadytaken 02/15/06 excellent atmosphere and staff By: henri 02/09/06 Good place to play! By: TXHudd 02/02/06 Welcome to Caesar's By: MichMadDog 01/31/06 3Days of Play By: stuball2500 01/31/06 It's Big, but Very Dissapointing By: Denise 01/30/06 Well run. By: idrinkcoors 01/25/06 GREAT By: joeyphresh 01/22/06 A Wonderful Addition to the Vegas Poker Scene By: Beachman 01/19/06 ALL IN at Caesars Palace By: EPAN 01/17/06 Beautiful New Room... By: DeanRx 01/17/06 Could be best room in Vegas if ....... By: azpoker 01/17/06 I've Found My New Home By: StevenFernandez 01/15/06 Great room... By: Deevo< |