Poker at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino

This week marks the beginning of the end of one of the few knocks on the famed Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the is no longer no Poker at the Hard Rock. However, instead of a Poker Room, The Hard Rock came up with the concept of a Poker Lounge and spent 30 Million Dollars to see it come to fruition with the help of Zeff Designs. Many players thought that a lounge idea would be a bad one however upon seeing it open to the public this week many are saying the fears are not needed.

The Poker Lounge features a 16 zoned state of the art sound system that is designed to give ambiance and not take away from the game its self. As part of an attempt to move away from the stuffiness associated with Poker Rooms floor staff (housemen) at The Hard Rock wear an Ocean-Blue collared shirt un-tucked with Denim Jeans, the dealers do however wear a matching black collared shirt and pants. The 18 table room is very inviting with a full service bar large comfy leather chairs, a hard wood floor and a warm atmosphere.

The Poker Lounge is also introducing so different “twists” to the game, such as a kill on a No-Limit Hold’em table where the kill would be 5 times the small blind. They will also have the Rock Straddle, which is very similar to the “Mississippi Stradle” with some small differences. The Poker Lounge also features LCD TV’s and will soon have a Race and Sports ticket booth right in the room itself. The Bar in the Lounge also offers Bottle Service at a very good price around $100/bottle, and with the bar being in the lounge the service time is very quick especially in comparison to other Poker Rooms in Las Vegas. The Lounge has a $1/hr comp rate with no max and a standard rake of 10% to $4.

The Poker Lounge will also offer a variety of tournaments and sit-and-goes. Tournaments will include deep stack structured weekend tournaments with $330 and $540 buy-ins, as well as daily $65 tournaments that have gotten off to a good start with an average of 40 players per day. The Poker Lounge will also aim to offer a variety of sit-and-goes with buy-ins ranging from $65 to $2,200.

I look forward to playing in the Poker Lounge soon, and I’m sure you will too, hopefully I get there before you do!