3655 Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV 89019

Phone: (702) 946-7000

Official Paris Poker Room Website

8 Tables

Review 10/7/2006:

Nice Casino, Nice Room. It’s hard to say anything about this place other than “nice”.

The sky-painted ceiling is kind of cool, the action in the casino is buzzing, the Eiffel tower struts are interesting, and the whole vibe is kind of theme-park cool … almost like you are in France (if that is a good thing).

The dealers are very courteous and competent, the tables are nice and standard, and the staff is pleasant.

The waitresses are decent and bring your drinks with a smile. The costumes are interesting. Not terribly revealing, but tastefully suggestive.

The room is smack in the middle of the casino with all kinds of action going on around you.

I have a hard time coming up with a description beyond “nice and pleasant”. It really is a fine poker room - even though it’s not really a room, but rather a paneled-in area of the main casino. You are literally smack in the middle of all the casino action, and can see all (and people will line the rail and stare at you).

The action, though … well, that’s another story. This is quite possibly the loosest game in town. I think the crown has been stolen from Mandalay. 90% tourists with money to burn, and burn it they do. I have poor luck in this room. Unless I can coax a laydown with a big bet (rare), my big pocket pairs have ALWAYS been cracked here. You might as well throw away AA at Paris. You will get 8 callers and someone is going to get trips, two pair, a flush, or an inside straight. They just will. Trust me on this one. Poker chips are assigned a $0 value by the players here. It’s funny money.

This is a gamblers room, pure and simple. Take every textbook you read about poker, and throw it out the window. Sure you may have the best hand on the flop, but will you have the best hand with 5 callers to the river? 20% chance says you do, the other 80% chance you can kiss your cash goodbye.

And everyone here has one hand in their pocket ready to pull out a couple of C-notes for the 5th bust out in two hours.

I once saw a $600 pot build with a pair of 7’s challenging a pair of 6’s ON THE RIVER with paint all over the board. You figure that one out. Neither guy put the other on a painted pair? Sure they did, they just didn’t care.

I’ve seen guys go through $1,000 in re-buys, and still get exited when they eventually win a hand. It’s a little like the lotto.

There is just a little too much action in here for my taste. It’s flat out gambling. It would be nice to sit back and wait out 110 hands to only play AA or KK (the ONLY two hands you should even think about playing at Paris), but it can get boring.

This room is looser than Madonna’s twat, and if you want to survive, you are going to need to tighten WAY up and play only premium hands … and even then, those hands are going to have to stand up to raising stations.

You will need as much luck here as you will need skill. The players are not hard to read. They are going to raise with anything better than 7-2o. There is no point in looking for tells or other subtle signs. There is no hesitation. Raise … re-raise … all-in. Sometimes it all happens before you can count to 2. There are no fish here. Fish at least try. At Paris, nobody cares about losing. They have a reload stack in their pocket. Hey it’s only money.

Yes, if you are VERY patient, and VERY lucky, you could go on a streak here and pay off your house, but you are going to HAVE TO HAVE CARDS. There is no skill here. Play the cards, not the players. 5 guys are going to raise you, and it doesn’t matter that you are the odds-on favorite. Don’t even bother looking at the other players. They aren’t looking at you (or even their cards as far as I can tell).

Not my personal favorite type of action, but for those who like it fast and loose, look no further, this is your room.