Poker Rooms Reviews and information: Rio

Phone: (702) 777-7777
Address: 3700 W. Flamingo

Rio Poker Room Information

Tables: 10

Texas Holdem: Yes
2/4, 3/6, 4/8.
Rake: 10% / $4 max.

No-Limit Holdem: Yes
$100 min / $300 max Buy-in.
2/5 Blinds.
Rake: 10% / $4 max.

Stud: No
No regular stud game, but will spread if interest list large enough.

Omaha: No
No regular Omaha game, but will spread if interest list large enough.

Tournaments: Yes
Daily NL Holdem Tournament at 12:00 NOON.
Maximum 60 players.
$40 buy-in for $1,500 in tournament chips.
(1) $40 optional add-on within the first hour for an additional $1,500 in chips.

The daily poker tournaments are averaging 40 to 60 players, and tournament schedule is temporary and may change after the new year.

Weekend Wait-Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

Smoking Allowed: No
Completely non-smoking room.

Review - Rio Poker Room

Total Rating: 2.90

Room Quality Rating: 3
Overall? The Rio poker room is a little disappointing. For a hotel that will host the WSOP in 2005, the new poker room is a gutless showing. My expectations were not met, but my expectations were not that high. I was just hoping for something with a little more quality, and a little more style.

The Rio poker room occupies a portion of the Rio sports book. There is a 4 foot high wall that separates the poker room from the book. The big advantage of this location is watching sports. There are several big screen televisions and many smaller tv's easily visible from the poker tables.

The poker tables are new, but are only average quality. Also, only two or three of the tables have auto-shufflers. Each player space has a drink holder. The chairs are also new poker room style chairs of average comfort.

Because the poker room is located within the sports book area all cell phone use is prohibited, whether seated at a table, in a hand, or just standing around the room (in Nevada, it's illegal to use cellphones in a sports book to prevent communicating point spreads posted on the board).

The Rio poker room is of average quality, but on the night I visited it was in poor condition. There were empty bottles littering the management desk area (perhaps 30 to 40 empty glasses and bottles scattered around – really trashed). Also, there was some type of human hair all over the poker table I was at. Literally hundreds of little hairs that looked like eyelashes. Totally disgusting. I had to ask the dealer to call over a “brush” to literally brush off the table.

Competition Rating: 3
The competition is average. The players seem to be older than average, with few players in their 20s. Definitely not the superabundance of kids that inhabit most of the larger Vegas card rooms these days. Most of the players I encountered were playing at the Rio poker room because they were staying at the Rio hotel. I suspect that this will be the trend, at least until the Rio itself becomes a tourist attraction because of the WSOP.

Dealer Rating: 4
Dealers were friendly, and there were very few mis-deals. Above average.

Cocktail Rating: 3
The Rio cocktail waitresses are smoke'n hot. The female waitresses that is. You see, the Rio hotel has had a reputation for good look'n ladies for years, and the reputation is still justified. However, these days there's a little twist.

Management Rating: 1
The Rio poker room management is definitely the biggest let down.

First of all, list management was terrible. There is no podium or clearly marked area for signing up for a game. The list manager works behind the same desk where chips are bought, which would be fine – if the manager actually managed the list. I walked up and literally stood at the desk for 10 minutes before being acknowledged. There was a huge group of waiting players standing around the desk. A good list manager tells waiting players to back away from the desk after their names are on the list, so new players (like me) can get their names down. The manager was also not very good about calling names and directing them to the proper table. After my name was called, I had to ask him three times which table I was at, and twice he gave me the wrong answer. These type of screw ups do not make me happy.

Second, the list was 20 to 30 players long for both the 2/4 and 4/8 games. This is fine too, except when there are THREE poker tables WITHOUT DEALERS. How the hell does a poker room expect so many players to wait around without finding dealers to work the tables? If you can't tell, this really bothered me. I can handle a long list, but not when 30% of the tables are not even being used. Very poor resource allocation.

But here's the worst part. The same list manager that couldn't keep his players in order also couldn't count chips. Not only did he try to short the player who cashed in ahead of me by $20 (thinking $247 in chips was only $227), he also thought my $140 was only $120. Here's a lesson – ALWAYS count your own chips before you cash out.

Comps Rating: 3
Poker players at the Rio can earn $1 per hour, up to $8 per day.