Fitzgerald's

A scrappy little casino next to the Golden Nugget, in the midst of the Fremont Street Experience. Unusual, in that due to its limited real estate, its casino floor has been spread onto two separate floors of the building. The poker room is on the second floor: take the escalator up.

Although they claim to be open 24/7, they're not really -- if you drop by after midnight on weekdays, or after 2am on weekends, there is generally no one in the poker area, not even a manager. Asking the pit bosses downstairs yields a "Well, after the night tourney, most folks go home" type of response. It picks back up again in the mornings.

Games
Limit hold 'em: 3/6. Other limits upon request (not common). Blinds for 3/6 are 1/3, unless there are five players or less in which case it's a single $3 blind.



No-limit hold 'em: Only spread occasionally.

Game Character: Mainly populated by gamblers tired of playing blackjack or roulette who stop by to play some poker. Good players can make money here, but it can be tiring.

Rake: Standard Vegas rake: 10% rake, max $4. Plus $1 for jackpot rake.

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: All tables shuffled by hand.

Wait Time: Can be anywhere from 0 to 60 minutes or more for a seat. Due to the rarity of games outside tournament times, if the (only) game is full, it can be quite a while before a seat opens.

Tournaments

 * every day, 12noon NLHE $30, 1x$15 rebuy, 1x$15 add-on.
 * every day, 9pm NLHE $30, 1x$15 rebuy, 1x$15 add-on.
 * Thu-Sun, 1am NLHE unknown buyin.

Tournaments seem to be the main thing that attracts gamblers here; cash games often don't even run in the middle of the day.

Jackpots and Promotions
Standard fixed high hand jackpots. Bad beat jackpot (AAAJJ beaten) was about $8700 in Nov 2006.

Atmosphere
You've got to give Fitzgerald's points for trying. They've set aside an entire 6-table area on their second floor and staffed it with dealers and a floorman, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot going on here yet. When the lone 3/6 cash game dissolves at 2pm on a weekday because there aren't enough players even when the offduty dealer and floorman join in, you know you've got a poker population problem.

The ambience is OK - even above average for a typical casino. It's not a separate room, but it is a separate railed-off area next to the keno area, which is also a generally mellow area. The soft rock music in the background doesn't intrude, and the fact that you're on the second floor does reduce the ambient noise somewhat, though there are banks of slot machines right next to the area, and they do clang quite a bit. Cell phones are (at least officially) prohibited in the poker room. The lack of walls does mean that significant smoke from the rest of the smoking casino drifts into the officially-non-smoking poker area.

Three big TV's help players take their minds off the bad beats, and some decent wall decor show some attention to detail. There's a nice wall sculpture with water flowing down over rocks that tries to spread a peaceful feeling into the room.

Neighborhood: In the well-lit portion of Fremont Street, before it gets seedy to the east.

Parking: Unknown.

Tables and Chairs: 10-player tables that are unusually large. Cards are unusually small-printed, which makes the board hard to see if you are on one of the ends of a table. Felt is worn, patterned, textured blue felt (weird!), and slippery and faded in spots. Worn black vinyl armrests with inset cup holders. Chairs are OK, fixed metal leg chairs with weak padding.

Smoking: Not allowed in the railed area, but significant drift from nearby slots and keno makes it somewhat smoky.

Service and Comps
Only OK service from occasional waitresses. Standard casino cocktails, only.

Notes and Links

 * Visited by MarkT in Nov 2006.