A few days ago I received an Email from Kim, a supervisor at Bally's poker room. Kim suggested that I revisit the poker room at Bally's for a follow-up review. I thought this was a great idea.

I had visited the poker room at Bally's on a few occasions over the past year, but I had not taken the time to draft a thorough updated review until now. Tonight I spent a few hours at Bally's poker room playing some low limit Hold'em, making observations, and forming my opinion. You can read the highlights in this article, and you can read the complete review with updated pictures at the editor review page for Bally's.

What's New:

Poker Tournaments – Bally's is offering daily No Limit Hold'em poker tournaments. The buy-in is $55.00, and the house returns 90% of that buy-in to players. That is very low juice by Vegas standards. This places Bally's poker tournaments among the best tourneys in Vegas in terms of the percentage returned to players. You can get complete details on the new Bally's poker tournaments by viewing the All Vegas Poker tournament schedule.

Computer List Management – Bally's poker room joined the more technologically sophisticated poker rooms in Las Vegas by installing a computerized list management system. I am a huge fan of these systems. There are two plasma screen televisions at the entrance of the poker room that allow waiting players to view their position on the queue. Overall, the list management at Bally's seems good, and I'm sure the computerized list management system contributes to this.

Televisions – Bally's added a few new televisions around the perimeter of the poker room. This brings the total number of televisions in the poker room to six, which is decent for a poker room of its size. The televisions are not big screens, and they are not high definition, but they are still an improvement.

Poker Rate for Hotel Guests – Bally's does now offer a poker room rate for hotel guests. However, at the time of writing I do not know the exact rate. I do know that poker players have recently been known to book hotel rooms at Bally's, for two weekend nights, at a total cost of around $100. This is a fantastic value. If you are interested in obtaining a poker rate at Bally's I suggest contacting the poker room.

What's Old:

Bally's poker room is still in the same location, so it is not an actual “room.” However, its location attracts a lot of novice poker players. It is also situated less than three feet from a bar, so drinks come blazingly fast.

Competition is as soft as ever. The players are just as terrible as I remember them. There are regularly six to a flop. Prepare for a few bad beats, but stay patient.

Cocktail waitresses are still quick as lightning and very pleasant.

Dealers are competent, and make very few mistakes.

Management has it together. No major problems.

There are still no comps of any kind. This is a major blemish in Bally's rating at All Vegas Poker. Kim mentioned that Bally's will be tied into Harrah's global comp system after the new year. I will evaluate this factor again in January, but until then do not expect any freebies.

Overall, Bally's poker room has improved. The new televisions and computerized list management system are enough to justify raising Bally's overall room quality rating from a two to a three. I am also raising the competition rating from four to five to reflect the extraordinarily soft competition. Ratings for all the other factors remain the same, at least until January when hopefully some type of comp system is introduced.

Special thanks to Kim at Bally's poker room for sending the updated information and also for suggesting that I draft an updated review.

Ideally, I would like to visit every poker room in Vegas for a complete updated review at least once per year. This is not an easy task, but it is a terrific goal. If you believe that I should revisit a particular poker room for an updated review, please send me an email at info@allvegaspoker.com.