3000 Paradise Rd.
Las Vegas, Nevada 89109
Phone: (888) 732-7117 or (702) 732-5111
Official Las Vegas Hilton Poker Room Website
11 Tables
I have only seen 1/2 NL, 2/6 & 4/8 Limit games in progress when I have played here.
This is another room that I feel is underrated. The Las Vegas Hilton is an institution in it’s own right. When it opened, it was the largest hotel on planet earth. Back then it was called the “International”. The Penthouse Suite because Elvis Presley’s Las Vegas home. Elvis’ longest performance run was at the Hilton. It was the first “Mega” Sports Books in the nation. Now it is Barry Manilow’s joint. Not that I am a huge Barry fan, but still … the dude is a major superstar.
And the entire hotel is still in very fine shape. It does not look it’s age at all.
And to top it off, it is one of the easiest properties to get to in all of Las Vegas. The Monorail drops you off right at the front door of the Casino. It doesn’t get any faster or more convenient than that. The Strip Trolley also stops here. It is a straight shot up Swenson/Paradise from the Airport. No strip traffic to deal with. Again … fast and convenient.
It is also next door to the Convention Center. You can easily slip into the Hilton for a couple of hands during lunch if you are attending a convention.
Also, during certain Conventions, the Poker Room can become a veritable fish-bowl as people from all over the country who have no idea how to play poker … come to the Hilton to play poker.
During the week when there are no conventions, you will usually find mostly hotel guests and locals playing the room. After the Luxor, this property probably has one of the largest local followings on the Las Vegas Strip (I count anything on the Monorail as being on the Strip). The monthly 40 hour tournament reflects this loyalty.
It is quickly accessible by car, cab, bike, walk, or bus from the densely populated near-east side, parking is a breeze, the Convention Center is next door, and it’s on the Monorail. This unique combination makes the room highly variable in the type of competition you will face. From the outright horrible tourist, to the local grinder. It’s two different rooms on two different days.
I have started playing this room more in recent months, because I am starting to appreciate it more. The obvious convenience notwithstanding, I find the staff at the Hilton to be a bit more cool than other rooms. They run the room cordially, professionally, and the dealers have all been friendly and competent. They give you coffee and doughnuts in the morning, and they don’t overreact like third grade teachers is you accidentally let out a “Shit!” when you get a bad beat. Common sense tends to rule, and if there is a table full of 35+ year old men, you can speak like you probably speak in real life. I find this a MAJOR benefit, as I like a more casual vibe where you can tell a joke and just relax without “rules” this and “rules” that constantly being cited to you.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not anarchy by any means. The overwhelming majority of people are having a good time and behaving. Most of the regulars know where the line is drawn, and are more guarded when a young woman sits down to play, etc. It’s a somewhat self-policing room, and this actually works much better than the gestapo “Hey, did that guy mumble ‘fuck’ under his breath? Call the floor over now!” that tends to get blown out of proportion, kill the vibe, and make the room as a whole very tense. Why make a bigger deal of something than it needs to be made of? They generally don’t at the Big H. People play cards here, and drama is very infrequent.
Lynda runs the room during the day, and for a chick, she is a really cool manager. Sometimes women room managers have chips on their shoulders, or remind me of Nurse Ratchet, but Lynda is real smooth.
All the other managers are guys, and are very good as well.
I’ve never gotten a bad dealer here, or a bad floorperson.
They also will put your name on the list by phone which is a big, big plus for most players.
While the restroom is a 30 second hike, there is a “Vegas Sub” shop adjacent to the room in case you get hungry. The waitresses come pretty often, and are always pleasant. Of course, being pretty much in the Sports Book, you can place bets between hands and can almost always see the game of your choice running on at least one screen.
They do have an electronic list-management system, and they announce openings via a very loud speaker systems, that can be heard throughout the sports book, so you don’t have to stand there and wait at the podium like an idiot (Bellagio, take notes).
If you haven’t given this room a try, I highly recommend that you do so. But do remember, it is highly variable.
If you have one or two bad experiences, don’t write it off. It basically comes down to getting a feel for when the best action typically goes down. This room is a little like surfing. During off days, it can be disappointing. But on big wave days (likely during conventions), it can be one of your best sessions.
Catch the Hilton on the right day, and you’ll probably come back. It doesn’t look like much at first glance, but this room grows on you.
And check out this tournament. I think it’s pretty decent:
Farewell to the Hilton Poker Room - October 16, 2007
Today the Hilton Poker Room closed for good, and I stopped by to pay my final respects.
The above photo was the crowd at 3pm on closing day.
This room will eventually be filled with slot machines, and according to one staff member there … there will never again be a Poker Room in the Hilton.
Of course that has been said before. Truth be told, this was the 5th Hilton Poker Room since 1979. But they seemed pretty adamant. I thought it had just been my perception, but poker enthusiasm actually is on the decline. It peaked about 2 years ago, and seems to have run its course.
The hardcore players, and people who come to Vegas anyway will still play, but it seems that gone are the days when online players honed their skills in basements across the world in order to make special trips here to play. There isn’t much online poker anymore, and this seems to have correlated with an overall decline in brick and mortar play.
Instead of a yearly increase, this year’s World Series of Poker was smaller than the year prior.
The days of poker celebrities as rock stars is also probably coming to an end, outside of the circle that existed before the online boom really put the game in the mainstream.
I’m not implying that the game is dead by any means, but there just aren’t as many people playing as there used to be. The big rooms will still survive, but the smaller rooms may be on borrowed time.
The closing of the Hilton room was actually quite depressing for me. The day shift manager, Lynda, was my favorite in all of Las Vegas. Rich was my favorite “podium guy/fill in dealer”. Always asked about the kids. Always asked where I had been if a week had passed between visits.
My all-time favorite dealer in town was a girl named “Rachael” who learned to become a dealer from the ground up in this room. She never brought me luck, but we became friends over the year or so that she worked here. I watched her start out as a shaky handed dealer who was easily intimidated by table assholes, to a confident dealer who knew how to handle any situation.
I once had the split ends imperceptibly trimmed off of my ratty hair, and the next day she screamed “You got a haircut!” when I walked in the room. Nobody else had noticed.
Come to think of it, every dealer was nice.
This room really did try. It wasn’t the Venetian or the Wynn, but they tried to accommodate everyone.
I knew many people here. There was a bit of a “Breakfast Club” on Saturday and Sunday mornings as fellow locals tried to get double hours for the monthly free-roll, and it was almost like a small, dysfunctional family.
Some of us outright hated each other, some of us became good friends, but we all knew each other by name … and it was always mentioned when someone didn’t show up on any given weekend. Sure, sometimes it was hoped that certain people had been hit by a truck … but it was mentioned nonetheless.
From the straw-hat wearing Asian lady who wouldn’t call $2 unless she had the nuts, to the Persian limo driver who raised with everything, to the guy who placed sports bets for the mob and went to the bathroom stall to relay lines, to the old fat guy who told us that he taught poker as a full time job during the week even as I beat him consistently. The cast of regular characters was probably the most interesting in town.
We got free donuts and coffee in the morning, and even though there was no stated comp rate, it was rare that locals like myself paid for a meal after an 8 hour grind. The buffet was directly across from the Poker Room, and on an given day would have several local poker players snarfing down their meal after tripling up or busting out.
We would run out between hands to make sports bets, and brag to everyone when we had a winning ticket (something that I rarely got to do as none of my tickets ever won).
I placed in the money in the freeroll only once, but I always enjoyed playing it.
I used to always grab a sub from the adjacent Las Vegas subs after my session was over, and even that has been replaced.
Now it’s all over.
Rich is working in the Hilton cashier cage, and Lynda and Rachael don’t know what they are going to do. Many of the dealers don’t know. Apparently, not many of the rooms are hiring.
I’m really going to miss this room, and the people in it. As soon as I know where my favorite staff members have found jobs, I will play in those rooms.
Most people probably don’t care that this room has closed, but for a certain group of Vegas locals, it really is a big loss.
“It just isn’t bringing in the money the Hilton wants”, said the 35 year veteran employee. Weekday crowds just never materialized on a consistent basis. It often sat empty at noon on Wednesday.
It still hasn’t hit me. I played there just last Friday and everything seemed perfectly normal. When I walk in and see the room gone, it’s going to be a very sad thing.
Anyway, these are the final pictures, taken mere hours before the room was closed forever.
