Once there, I was taken in by the warm wood tones and the elegant décor. The walls emblazoned with tasteful card suits and paintings on the wall, and the understated, but not too dim, lighting. I got put on a list for a $4/8 game and took a seat in an open $1/2 game while I waited. The $1/2 players were much like I've come to expect $1/2 players the world over to be, loose and aggressive.
Six callers to a $10 preflop raise was the norm, so I was thrilled to pick up A-Ko in one of my first hands. I flopped a flush draw with the Ace of spades and hit on the river to double through a flopped set of treys, so I got lucky there. Then my Kings held up, and I had doubled up in the first dealer's down I played in AC. Not a bad way to start the trip.
When I moved to the $4/8 game I had a better position to study the room, as the limit games were in the main room while the no limit games were off to the side. They were spreading multiple tables of limit hold em up to the pink chip game of $7.50/$15, with higher limits available later on in the evening, and several stud games were also going midday on a Friday. There are poker room rates available with four hours of play, and there's table-side food service in the poker room, in case you needed yet another reason to stay close and play more.
The casino advertises the room has 48 tables, and they are well-spaced, allowing for ease in moving through them. Cocktail service is prompt and pleasant, and most of the dealers were perfectly happy. A couple could use a lesson in smiling, though. The players were a wide range of locals and tourists, with the locals being almost stereotypically rockish and quiet. The tourists were stereotypical tourists, having fun, calling bets and generally being good for the game.
The Tropicana runs sit n go tournaments whenever they can fill them, and there are a variety of daily tournaments available as well. A comfortable room with plenty of space to breathe, the Trop was a good place to start my visit and I'll definitely head back for another session the next time I'm through town. And I never did get a seat in the pink chip game.