Poker at the Riviera Casino is Disappointing

Of all of the places that I have visited on my trips to Las Vegas, there are only a few that I regret heading into. Most of the time, I find the poker play in Las Vegas casinos to fit my liking. This, however, was not the case when I visited the Riviera poker room. It simply did not offer anything that would make a player want to come back. In general, it was below average in just about every aspect of business.

The room itself at the Riviera is a small, indistinguishable place. It sits right in the middle of the rest of the casino, which makes it easy to find, but there really is no reason to find this casino. Each poker room generally has something about it that makes it worth going to and sets it apart from all of the others. This one has nothing like that. The room is tiny, dark, and offers no atmosphere. I would feel more prestigious while playing poker on my computer at home.

Going along with the seemingly amateur style at this poker room, the dealers are extremely raw as well. Overall, they lack any real skill and most had below average personalities. I don't doubt that these people are probably good folks, but their inability to deal cards properly meant that they really were not enjoying their jobs. This translated into a table that did not talk to each other and was generally very boring.

The real reason why I did not enjoy this poker room was because the people in management are not a lot of fun. They certainly do not go out of their way to make the players feel welcome and at many times, they are downright rude. When dealing with the poker room floor man, I found him to hate his job. It led me to wonder what kind of person gets in management if they hate dealing with people. Maybe he was just having a bad day, but he took it out on me and a few other players.

The room only offers a $1/$2 no-limit game, but there really is no reason to go there. Unless you are staying at their hotel, there's no point. They go out of their way to make you feel awkward. For the first time in my Las Vegas experience, I honestly felt like I was wasting my time when I sat down at this poker room.