After a week of first-hand reporting, here, in order, are the best poker rooms in Vegas:
WYNN LAS VEGAS
This 27-table poker room is a wonderful combination of comfort, great equipment like automatic card shufflers that speed up the game, friendly staff, low-limit action and high-stakes games that should give any poker player a pleasant experience.
The Wynn is a great bet for the impatient, due to manageable waits for games (compared to the often overrun Bellagio).
The Strip's newest room is notable for its great cash games, but in late September the room added $300 tournaments on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and $500 tournaments on Fridays. If that's too rich for you, you can play cheaper "satellites" - mini tournaments where participants try to win their way into the pricier events.
And if you're a poker voyeur, you'll be interested in knowing that the Wynn's poker "ambassador" is famed pro Daniel Negreanu, who can often be seen playing heads-up for hundreds of thousands of dollars (3131 Las Vegas Blvd. S., [702] 770-3090, wynnlasvegas.com).
BELLAGIO
The 40-table Bellagio room is home to more World Poker Tour events than any other casino. It's also the room where the world's toughest pros, such as Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Chau Giang and Jennifer Harman routinely play in the biggest cash game in the world, which takes place in a large, elevated area for high-stakes games. It's not uncommon for somebody to win or lose $1 million in a session.
Don't be intimidated if you don't roll like that. There are games as small as $4-$8 limit hold-'em here, where winning or losing $200 is a big swing.
This room also has the advantage of being next to the nightclub Light, which remains Vegas' hottest hot spot, and where you often find poker pros like David Williams and Antonio Esfandiari grooving the night away (3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S., [702] 693-7290, bellagio.com).
BINION'S
Downtown mainstay Binion's was the original home to the World Series of Poker before the event moved to the Rio this year. The 44-table room is a wonderfully beaten-down destination that feels like the heart of old Las Vegas, when things were dirty, smelly, dangerous and wildly entertaining.
It's still a great place to play poker. The three-times-a-day tournaments, starting at $60, are always fun, and being in the room where dozens of champions made their name adds a level of excitement when you're deciding if you want to make a big bluff (128 East Fremont St., [702] 366-7397, binions.com).
LUXOR
There's no better place to play low-limit poker than the nondescript Luxor poker room, where the maximum buy-in for its no-limit game is just $50.
Plus, you'll often be sitting down with friendly drunks who have no clue what they're doing. If you want to understand how casual this room is, we played against a guy who kept falling asleep between hands - and he was one of the better players at the table.
If you want to learn the game without risking the nest egg, this 12-table room, which offers free daily poker lessons and cheap tournaments that start at $30, is the best place to be (3900 Las Vegas Blvd. S., [702] 730-5510, luxor.com).
MGM GRAND
The new MGM Grand poker room, which opened in March near the casino's famous lion habitat, has become a quick success. The 23-table room is spacious, offering players more room to stretch out than most - and offering spectators more room to walk around than most. The combination of morning tournaments and a TV screen that displays the waiting list for the available games is what you'd expect from the new place to play (3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S., [702] 891-7434, mgmgrand.com)
