Aria at City Center – The Newest Poker Room in Las Vegas

For years, Las Vegas has buzzed about the City Center Project. In mid December, the long-awaited Aria casino of this booming metropolis opened its doors to the public. One of the most anticipated poker rooms in the city, according to Las Vegas Poker Source, is now open for business. Located on the outer edge of the casino, the poker room is conveniently accessible from the parking garage. As you approach the poker room, you'll notice that the décor is eye-catching and thoughtful – the outer edges of the room are a cascade of brass fashioned playing cards beginning at the ceiling and trailing down to the floor.  (Click here for photos)

This 24 table poker room has comfortable chairs, spacious seating at each table and quality lighting. The tables are spread carefully throughout the room to avoid cramped space. They also have multiple high definition televisions throughout the room. The Aria Poker Room caters to low and high stakes players alike. Off the main room, there is a slightly elevated salon area for higher stake games and also a private room enclosed in glass, for invited guests and extremely high stakes games. It could best be compared to the famous “Bobby’s Room” at its sister property, Bellagio (both owned by MGM Mirage). This room has direct and private access to safety deposit boxes and the poker room cashier cage.

Within steps of the poker room are conveniently located restrooms, ATM machines, a coffee shop, and a SkyBox To Go Café. Just a bit farther past that is the sports book, full service bar and the SkyBox Bar and Grill.

The poker room typically spreads live action cash games as follows: $1/$3, $2/5 and $5/10 No Limit Holdem, $3/$6 Limit Holdem, $4/$8 Mixed Game, $9/$18 Omaha Hi/Lo. The Aria Poker Room will generate interest lists for other games and stakes as well upon request. The Aria poker room has a player paging system that allows staff to send players who are on the waiting list a text message when their cash game seat is available. They also employ a notification system that allows a dealer to send out a mass notification of a specific game being started.

The Aria Poker Room also holds a daily No Limit Texas Holdem poker tournament at 1pm. Players receive 8,000 in chips and play 30 minute blind levels for a $120 buy-in. There are no re-buys, add-ons, or re-entry; however, registration stays open until 3pm. The tournament has been getting between 30 and 70 players participating daily, depending on the day of the week.

Managers at the Aria say that the poker room has gotten off to a bit of a slow start due to opening near the holidays combined with the current economic situation in our country, which has slowed down Las Vegas in general over the past year. They do feel it was partly an advantage to them though, as there was plenty of poker room staff to choose from in the hiring process due to the job downswing in Las Vegas. Time will tell how the Aria Poker Room will fare, but it is apparent that great time and effort went into the design and operation of this new facility. Poker players seem to contend that the dealers, card room managers and wait staff really are the cream of the crop in Vegas, helping make the Aria Poker Room already quite popular as the word passes through the Las Vegas poker community.

Poker Players can use their MGM Mirage Player’s Card to earn $1/hour in comps for playing live action cash games. For more on Aria, plus the latest information about poker rooms and daily poker tournaments in Las Vegas, visit Las Vegas Poker Source.