Vegas Poker: Red Rock Casino Poker Room

Located about 15 miles west of the strip on Charleston is the year old Red Rock Casino. Sporting a movie theatre, bowling alley, and a great variety of restaurants, Red Rock is definately worth a trip off the strip during your stay in Vegas.

The poker room at Red Rock is a large, comfortable room with a very friendly staff. Because the majority of the players in the poker room are locals, the staff works really hard to keep their business.

The room features 20 tables spreading games of a variety of limits. Starting at 2/4 limit poker all the way to 5/10 no limit. 1/2 no limit and 2/5 no limit are the most popular games in the room, though there is almost always at least one table of 4/8 limit omaha hi/low going as well.

One of the great things about this room is that it is always busy. There is always a game going and most of the time there is a very short wait to sit down at a table. I've never been there and not found a game I was looking for. The dealers are quick and the floor staff is fair and knowledgeable.

Red Rock is part of the Station Casinos. If you get a players card, you can earn comps that can be used at any of the restaurants in Red Rock (or any of the Station casinos) or at the movie theatre, bingo room, bowling alley, or the buffet. Some of the restaurants at the casino include the Turf Grill, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Fat Burger, The Salt Lick Bar-b-que, the Tides Oyster Bar, and Terra Rossa which happens to be the restaurant of Heather West, winner of the T.V. Reality show Hell's Kitchen.

The poker room also has a bad beat jackpot that starts at $150,000. Often it gets up to $300,000 and I've seen it get all the way up to $400,000. When the jackpot hits, the winner of the bad beat hand gets $30,000 and the loser gets $45,000. The rest of the players in the poker room or any station casino poker room split the remainder.

What's really nice is that since most of the players in the room are locals, they know the rules of the games and keep the games moving at a nice pace. It's not like a lot of the Strip's poker rooms that have a lot of tourists who tend to slow the games down a bit. Though the tourists are sometimes easier to win money off of, as the locals are sometimes a little tougher competition.

I've eaten at the buffets at Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch and the Santa Fe Station numerous times using my players card, and have yet to pay a dime for them. Of course - I earned those comps by putting in time at the poker table, but it's nice to have something besides winnings to show for it. It always feels good to receive a free meal.

If you need a break from the strip, head out to Red Rock and check out the poker room, it's never lacking in action!