Howdy,

I didn't know you were a watcher of this board and a member of CCGTCC until Andy Hughes brought it to my attention!

As for the dealer's name...well I can't really say ;)

I will certainly visit when we come back down this fall(?). Having been the only casino I've gone to within the first 24 hours of opening I have decided to collect all of their chips within monetary reason :)

Below is a Chapter of my last trip to LV concerning The Palms. Thought you might want to see it (unedited).

Chapter 9: The Palms – A First for Me

I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and have a wake up
call for 3 PM. I get up, shower, pack and catch a cab to The Four
Queens for the same reason I left NY, NY. I drop my bag in the hotel
and catch another taxi to COMDEX. From there I ride the bus back to
the Rio along with about 6 other people. I guess the Rio doesn't host
many COMDEX people. I walk over to The Palms and check it out. I
walk the entire floor in about 5 minutes and assume I've missed some
part of the casino. Kind of like Caesar's. If you don't realize
there are several casinos separated from each other, then you won't
see it all. This is not the case at The Palms.

I put my name on the list for 2 – 4 and head off in search of food. I
grab a meal at Panda Express as I'm not a real McDonald's fan and Ben
& Jerry's ice cream for dinner was not a good choice. They were
calling for players to the poker room over the intercom, which I
liked, and they got to my name ½ way through my meal, which I didn't
like. I finished dinner and went back to get on the list again. It
was only a few minutes before I was called again, but I had time to
fill out a slot club card and get one.

I sit down at 6 PM in seat 6 at table 4 with $200. There are 2 $1
blinds in this 2 – 4 game. The room is cramped and smoky, but I like
the architectural work. The East wall isn't really a wall but more a
series of square wooden columns that go up about 15 feet with one that
runs horizontal through them. The back wall has 3 electronic reader
boards flashing how much is being paid for certain hands. All of them
are at $20.

About 20 minutes after I sit down I notice a poster on the wall that
says for 8 hours of play you get a hat and for 15 hours you get a
T-shirt. All you need to do is sign up, so I do as do 3 or 4 other
players when they find out. I don't even wear hats, but I want one.
I wonder how many hours you'd have to play to get a jacket?

Play goes on and around 8 PM Jody deals the woman to my left a 10 high
straight flush. We call Donny, the shift supervisor, over and he
informs us they aren't paying the hands because of a problem with
security. That is why they aren't raking the pot for what we call
Play Supported Jackpots in Washington. We tell Donny that Jody has
been raking the pot since she sat down and she raked the pot for this
hand. Donny tells Jody not to and asks why she is. Jody says no one
told her she shouldn't. We are all upset and can't figure out why
Maloof's new Palms refuses to pay out $20 to a player when it's being
advertised and the pot is being raked. The table talks about it for
some time and can't believe they won't pay out. The lady who won said
she was going to write a letter and I told her I'd write one too.

The reason they were not
raking for the high hands is someone not only drilled the drop holes
too small they are off center from the drop boxes.

And then at 9:10 PM it happens. The nightclub directly above the
poker room opens and the music starts. BOOM…BOOM…BOOM. It isn't
until we start asking and looking around that we find out the
nightclub isn't above us but down the way by the bar. I measure it
off and it is 34 yards East of us. For the next 4 hours we hear this.
Add on top of this the happy and slightly inebriated people going
back and forth to the bathrooms located just outside of the poker room
down the hall with the same wall that is made of columns. There is
also a bank of phones there as well. I finally figure out there are
no structural walls between the nightclub, and us so the noise/music
is able to travel above the false ceiling and come down on top of us.

Dealer change and Lynn comes in. She starts dealing just fine until
we figure out she's dealing stud and we're playing Hold ‘em. She
makes 2 more Stud moves on the next hand, but none of them cause any
harm and we laugh.

Our friend who was dealt the straight flush calls it a night and
leaves. She comes back to the table a few minutes later to tell me
Donny gave her a $50 food comp. She is satisfied and says she won't
write the letter. I tell her if she's happy then I won't write mine
either.

A few hours later another player is dealt a paying hand and he isn't
paid off either even though the signs are still flashing the paying
hands and their values. The biggest problem about this is they lost
much more than $20. Many of the players who were sitting there when
she was dealt the hand had left and will go on to tell about how they
didn't pay.

The wait staff there was very nice including Brook, Kathleen and I
believe her name was Diana. One of the wait staff went home sick, so
the room wasn't getting drinks for a bit and they weren't happy, but
these ladies pulled it together and Kathleen has a good sense of
humor.

At 2 am I had the honor of receiving the first thing given away for
time played as Marcia gets me a hat. At 240 am I cash out at $272
with $12 having gone to the dealers for pots won, another $8 going for
7 Roy Rogers and one hot coco and $7 in 2 $1 chips and one $5 chip for
the collection. I ask Marcia if I can get a food comp and she gives
me one for $5. I head for Ben and Jerry's but it is closed, so I go
and get a sundae from the café that takes 10 minutes to get, is
smaller than I think it should be for $4.75, but it is loaded with
nuts.