Oct 20, 2019 Santa Fe Station is located in northwest Las Vegas, minutes away by car from the Strip, from Red Rock Canyon and Mount Charleston. The hotel offers one of the best values with 200 rooms. In contrast to many Station properties, this venue also regularly hosts Omaha eight-or-better cash games when enough interest is demonstrated to poker room staff. The poker offering is easy to locate within Santa Fe Station, as a large white sign beckons casino visitors under the arch to the tables.
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Santa Fe Station is in the far northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley. It is a locals casino that is owned and operated by Station Casinos. It is the only casino in the area and draws players from that entire portion of the Las Vegas area. The poker room at Santa Fe Station is the only one for more than 10 miles. Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino Poker Room. Play Limit Hold’em and No-Limit Hold’em cash games 24 hours a day 7 days a week in the brand new smoke-free 14-table Poker Room at the Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino. The poker room also hosts daily and weekly low-stakes tournaments. Las Vegas poker tournament info on the daily $50 buy-in Limit Omaha 8/OB tournament at Santa Fe Station, including buy-in, starting chips, blind structure, and more.
Perhaps my article on 'winnable' poker tournaments in Las Vegas intrigued you. Perhaps you've toyed with the idea of getting off the beaten poker room path and seeking out other rooms where those visiting Sin City don't usually tread.
In any event, with this article I'd like to shine a light on some good places to play poker in Vegas that you might not know about — some lesser-known rooms those out for the World Series of Poker might find worth their while.
Club Fortune is my favorite room in Las Vegas for small action. It's about six miles off the strip on Boulder Highway in Henderson. It's on the site of what once was the only dog track in Las Vegas, but the heat got to the dogs and they had to close up the track. The little casino remained, and within is a great little poker room.
The five-table room opens at 12 noon and lasts as long as there are players, typically until at least 1-2 a.m., but often much later. Their steady games are $0.50/$1.00 no-limit hold'em with a $20 minimum and $200 maximum buy-in. They also often have $1-$6 spread-limit hold'em.
To get the games going before the 2 p.m. tournament, Club Fortune has what I believe is the best comp rate in the nation — $5 an hour from 12 to 2 p.m. The room is also extremely generous with free food, bringing it out in the evening for all seated players. Their rake is extremely competitive, too — $3 plus a $2 promo drop for high hands, pot splashing, and the like.
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But as good as the comps, cash games, and tournaments are, the best part of the room is the friendly, helpful, 'everybody knows your name' management who keep the games fun and the players happy. Happy players make good games, hence, my recommendation.
Where should you go in Las Vegas for some of the softest competition in a limit poker game? There is only one place, and few if any tourists know of it. It's the Silver Sevens over on the East Side of the strip near the Sheraton Four Points, formerly known as the 'Terribles' Casino.
They typically spread only one game — $2/$4 limit hold'em, played with white $1 chips and the reckless abandon of a bunch of teenagers having fun in their basement. Don't expect a carefully run game with a lot of oversight. Count on a lot of drinking, dirty chips, and a whole lot of ambient noise from the slot machines that surround these worn out tables.
As far as the play goes, don't expect too much in the way of solid play, but you will certainly meet some interesting people, not to mention have a chance at some profit. Oh, and they still comp players the old-fashioned way — no hourly amount, just a free buffet dinner after playing for a couple of hours. But before you eat, make sure to wash your hands!
At Sante Fe Station you'll find a surprising large, brightly-lit, fairly busy room on the north side of Las Vegas, north of downtown. They always have a $2/$4 or $3/$6 limit game, and they get a no-limit game going by 3 p.m. daily (sometimes it runs earlier).
The games are reasonably raked at 10 percent up to a maximum of $4, with an additional $1 drop to fund a whole host of promotions like flopped quads, hourly high hands, and the like. Players also earn $1 an hour comps.
There's a nice mix of young and old, and male and female regulars who fill up the tables, and a friendly atmosphere pervades the place. Maybe it's because they start things off right in the morning with a couple of boxes of donuts and the self-serve coffee machine. Few tourists make it up there, though I've played there several times and enjoyed it.
Sam's Town, located on Boulder Highway at the southern border of Las Vegas, caters to the older, local, low-roller crowd, and as a result tends to appeal to folks who like things a little slower, a little friendlier, and a little less glitzy than what appears on the Strip these days.
Accordingly, the poker room at Sam's Town, in addition to spreading limit hold'em, also spreads a regular limit Omaha high-low 8-or-better game as well as a weekly $2-$10 spread-limit seven-card stud game on Saturday mornings.
The rake is still very low, with a $3 maximum, although they take $2 out for many different promotions like high hands bonuses. Players earn $1 or $1.25 an hour in comps, depending on the time of day. The food is extremely inexpensive, and the buffet pretty good.
The locals who live in and around the southern part of Las Vegas and in Henderson know the Green Valley Ranch to be the major poker room in the area, although few tourists visit unless their convention happens to be on site.
It's a large room, comfortably accommodating 22 tables. Unlike the other rooms mentioned in this article, Green Valley Ranch consistently spreads a wide variety of games — that is, not just $1/2 no-limit and $2/$4 limit, but also a $4/$8 limit game and a $5/$10 no-limit game. As the poker room manager stated to me, they provide 'Strip action off the Strip,' with a very strong local base that creates consistently great games.
Like Santa Fe Station, Green Valley Ranch is part of the network of Station Casinos with frequent, well funded promotions. They rake 10 percent up to $4 with an additional $1 taken to fund those promotions. They have a daily tournament at 10:00 a.m., plus a 6:30 p.m. tournament on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Players earn 1,000 points for each hour of live play, which translates to about $1 an hour. As an off-strip property, parking is free, and there's a really terrific and very modestly-priced buffet.
Don't get me wrong. There's nothing keeping you from the constant poker action at the Rio, the Bellagio, the Wynn, the Venetian, the Aria, the Orleans, the Golden Nugget or any of the other poker rooms you've heard of in Las Vegas.
But if variety is the spice of life, these rooms should add some flavor to your trip.
Ashley Adams has been playing poker for 50 years and writing about it since 2000. He is the author of hundreds of articles and two books, Winning 7-Card Stud (Kensington 2003) and Winning No-Limit Hold'em (Lighthouse 2012). He is also the host of poker radio show House of Cards. See www.houseofcardsradio.com for broadcast times, stations, and podcasts.
Photo: Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino.
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Santa Fe Station is in the far northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley. It is a locals casino that is owned and operated by Station Casinos. It is the only casino in the area and draws players from that entire portion of the Las Vegas area.
The poker room at Santa Fe Station is the only one for more than 10 miles. This gives it enough players to spread many games on its 14 tables. This includes fixed-limit and no-limit hold’em, as well as Omaha Hi/Lo. There are also at least two tournaments every day.
Santa Fe Station is a full-service locals resort. It has all the amenities of a typical casino of its size.
The games at Santa Fe Station are full of friendly locals. The staff is helpful and professional. The games play loose for a locals’ joint. Parking, including valet, is always free at Santa Fe Station.
Most of the action at Santa Fe Station is low limit. Its location is not convenient, except for those that live in the far northwest corner of the Las Vegas Valley. It is not worth the drive for most residents and tourists.
Santa Fe Station’s poker room spreads three levels of fixed-limit hold’em. Those are 2/4, 3/6, and 4/8.
There is a 1/2 no-limit game that runs most hours of the day. It allows buy-ins from $100 to $500. Busier hours see a 3/6 or 4/8 fixed-limit Omaha Hi/Lo table.
The poker room at Santa Fe Station rakes 10% up to $4 from all games. This is $1 lower than many other poker rooms in Las Vegas. It is $1 more than The Orleans and Sam’s Town, which rake $3 and put $2 in the jackpot drop.
Poker players at Santa Fe Station earn $1 an hour in points when clocked in with their Boarding Pass card. That is Station Casinos’ loyalty club. Players earn 1,000 tier points for every hour at cash game tables.
Players that give 40 hours of live action receive VIP parking access and priority valet service. Comps may be used at any food or retail outlet at any Station Casinos property.

Santa Fe Station hosts two poker tournaments every day. The start times are noon and 7 pm. Both are no-limit hold’em with a $45 buy-in. Of that, $34 goes to the prize pool. The house takes $8 as an admin fee. The other $3 goes towards a tournament bad beat jackpot. There is a $20 re-buy that is not juiced.
Players start with 4,000 chips. There is a 500-chip bonus for registering at least one hour before the tournament starts. Blinds start at 25/50 and go up every 20 minutes. The re-buy is 4,000 chips. Players may re-buy anytime their stack is at or below the starting amount of 4,000 chips.
There is a weekly fixed-limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament on Thursdays at 10 am. The buy-in is $50 with $34 going to the prize pool. There is a $20 re-buy. Players start with 6,000 chips. Re-buys are 4,000 chips. Blinds go up every 20 minutes.
Tournament players have some promotions that are funded with a $3 drop from buy-in.
A player that makes four of a kind with a pair in the hole wins $50. A straight flush wins $100, while a royal flush pays $200, when using both hole cards. A player that loses aces full of tens or better to four of a kind or better triggers the progressive bad beat jackpot.
There are cash game high hand promotions daily. A player that makes a royal flush in a cash game using both hole cards wins $250. Flopping four of a kind wins $500.
The Santa Fe Station poker room picks other promotions that often include specific full houses. There are $400 drawings during Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night football games.
Santa Fe Station is a large gaming resort. The newly remodeled sportsbook is in sight of the poker room. You can visit the sportsbook bar and have a drink while betting on a game and sit in the comfortable sportsbook seating.
Santa Fe Station has some of the best video poker in Las Vegas. More than a dozen video poker machines spread full-pay Deuces Wild, Loose Deuces, Joker Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and Double Double Bonus Poker. There are many other machines that return more than 99%, including 8/5 Bonus Poker, which is available at every bar.
Santa Fe Station has a large table games pit. Little creek casino entertainment schedule. The best game is double deck blackjack. It has a $5 minimum bet. Double down before and after splitting is permitted. The dealer hits soft 17.
Craps has a $5 minimum with ten times odds. Other $5 table games include double-zero roulette, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Four Card Frenzy, Three Card Poker, Pai Gow Poker, and baccarat.
There are several things to do besides gambling at Santa Fe Station. There is a bowling alley and movie theater at Santa Fe Station. There are several restaurants, including the Broiler Room and an oyster bar that is the sister establishment to the famous one at Palace Station. There is also a food court.
Santa Fe Station has a poker monopoly for its part of Las Vegas. Poker rooms closed in recent years at Aliante Casino and Texas Station.
The closest poker room to Santa Fe Station is at Red Rock Resort. It spreads 1/2 and 2/5 no-limit hold’em. It also has 2/4 and 4/8 fixed-limit hold’em. Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo runs a few days a week in 4/8 limit and 2-10 spread limit. Red Rock Resort has two daily tournaments.
The only other poker room within any reasonable driving range is at the Cannery on Craig Road in North Las Vegas. This poker room only has a 2-6 spread limit hold’em game. It does not spread any fixed-limit or no-limit games. No tournaments are offered by the Cannery.