Aliante Station opens

I drove way up north to see the opening of the Aliante Station casino tonight. It wasn't quite the madhouse that Eastside Cannery was on its opening night (probably because the gimmicky 11:11 p.m. opening was less convenient for many people), but it was still bad. Traffic horrible, parking horrible. I ended up in the parking lot of a golf course across the street. By the time I left, however, there were spots open everywhere, so I don't anticipate it being bad on typical days.

I arrived at the poker room at about 11:45, roughly 30 minutes after the doors opened, and all 12 tables were full! They wasted no time, obviously. I snapped a few photos (some with the flash, some without) before they politely asked me to stop.

If you know and like the Red Rock poker room, you'll like Aliante. They feel very similar. They are both more elegant than most places in town (excepting rooms like Wynn and Hard Rock), extremely tasteful in decor.

Random collection of observations: One of the four walls is mostly open to the main casino floor; one is glass. Smoke and noise were not problematic. I didn't see any magazine racks, but that's probably just because they hadn't yet had time to get any magazines delivered. Restrooms are very close, about 20 steps outside the poker room. Chairs were what is becoming standard: 5-wheeled office chairs, adjustable for height and back angle. There's way more room around the tables than one usually sees in poker rooms--a great bit of luxury for both players and staff. Autoshufflers are at every table. I loved the nice pumpkin-colored felt. They spread games 10-handed, which I slightly prefer over 9-handed, and there were 10 cupholders built into the rail of each table. Dealers were all good and obviously experienced; I recognized several from their previous jobs at other places in town (e.g., Gina, one of my favorite Binion's dealers). I oberved only one dealer error in my time there (just under two hours); the dealer allowed a reraise after an all-in in a situation where the original bettor should have been allowed only to call or fold, because the all-in was not a full raise--an easy mistake to make. I counted 9 big-screen televisions, maybe a little skimpy for some players' taste. There is certainly room for more of them on the back wall. Personally, I don't care much, since I pay them little attention. Beverage service was fast and friendly, though I wish they would add a water cooler to save on the number of those stupid plastic bottles we're sending to the landfills. Food service is available; I saw one guy eating a burger from Johnny Rockets. Johnny Rockets is one of my favorite burger places, and I didn't even know there was one in Aliante. Cards and chips were all new, which is a rare tactile pleasure. Massages are available; I think I overheard them quote a price of $25 for 15 minutes, which, if correct, is a little below the standard rate of $2/minute. They use "all in" and "call" plaques to help make sure everybody knows the action. They share in the linked Station Casinos bad-beat jackpot. There is also a high-hand jackpot, which I was told is for royal flushes only. There is a temporary promotion (apparently at all Station poker rooms in town): $2500 bonus for quad 8s. Stations also has a freeroll tournament promotion running for November-December. Tables have what appears to be a betting line, and the dealer told me that it is, in fact, just that. They have the same player-management system as all of the other Station properties.

There were some glitches, not surprising for opening day. My name got put on the $1-$3 NLHE waiting list, then mysteriously disappeared without having been called. One player got sent to our table when there were no seats open. The chip runner seemed unsure of how to do fills. As I recently witnessed at Binion's, some dealers used the $2 chips only for the drop, while others put them into circulation among the players.

Overall, it's definitely one of the nicer rooms in Vegas. But the entire casino is targeted to locals, not tourists. It's also fairly difficult to get to. Not only is it a long drive for me, but there are no fast, direct routes from either downtown (where I live) or the Strip. You can either take highways with a lot of extra mileage zig-zagging to get there, or take surface streets that are more direct but slower. For those reasons, I probably won't visit the place more than a couple of times a year. If the thing were magically plopped down near the Strip, though, it could easily zoom to near the top of my list of favorite places.

Enjoy the photos. I set my dear old camera on its maximum resolution, so you can click on them for larger versions.