The Arena poker room at Talking Stick resort

I had a great visit and trip at the Talk Stick Resort. They had wonderful dining and entertainment options. Their poker area was very clean, well lit, and overall had a great ambiance. The other players were talkative and friendly making the environment very enjoyable. The staff was courteous and professional. I look forward to my next visit.

One of the only poker rooms in the valley, pretty nice, usually crowded, beware there are a lot of Grinders in there, and by Grinders I mean people who make a living out of playing poker. I never play with more than I can afford to lose.

The best! I’ve been a AZ resident for over 8 years and one thing I can say is, the poker room at Talking Stick is hands down the best in the state. I would put that poker room against any poker room in Vegas! It’s bigger than 95% of casinos in Vegas and has a good mixture of games. You will notice the dealers have been there along time and most of the employees are nice. They offer free beverages likes soda, and water. They have reasonable prices and you can eat at the poker table.
I usually go play cards, every so often. I like the ²⁄₃ spread games, and various limit games. They also have daily tournaments and have a lot of other types of tournaments throughout the year. Like the AZ State Championship next week! (Go Hesam A!, we believe!) I do like to play blackjack from time to time. The only drawback as I stated in a previous review is, this casino brings some of the strangest/​dirtiest/​grimiest forms of lives you’ll ever see. Also since you can smoke in the casino, smokers really enjoy that. I once sat at a blackjack table for about 30 minutes and literally witnessed a lady light up back to back to back cigarettes and it looked like her hair was on fire from all the smoke around her. It was disgusting for sure, but luckily they do have couple of blackjack tables in the poker room area so you can avoid people like that.
Overall, if you want to come and play some poker, this place is pretty awesome. They have low limit and high limit games, you’ll find something that you like.
T.

My fav place in Scottsdale. This is where I play all my poker. 47 or more tables so waiting does not take that long, TVs everywhere, fast chip and food service. Amazing dealers. Can’t say enough about this place. Splash pots!

The Arena Poker Room is probably the best card room in Arizona due in large part to the friendly competition, variety of tables, exciting splash pots, an awesome TV layout, and the newly added Poker Audio Wi-​Fi. Service can be slow sometimes, but I’m there to play poker so it doesn’t bother me. I also met Phil Helmuth one night!
I picked up NLHE my freshman year of college after a good friend of mine told us about some successes he was having on online tournies. Over the course of the summer while we were both parking cars and waiting tables at the country club, he raked in around $ 16k. I couldn’t learn the game fast enough. It’s easy to learn, but it takes a long time to master. I spent the next few years grinding and honing my skills.
The Arena Poker Room fires on all cylinders. Good luck! But don’t be too lucky…

My experience may be skewed after winning $ 300 on their free football box promotion but I think this is a solid place to go play poker.
The room is huge and they have a ton of options. 3 – 6 limit hold’em is the smallest game. They also have 2 – 3 spread ($ 300 max bet). Also Omaha and Stud are available to play. They have multiple hold’em tournaments a day.
I thought the dealers were very friendly. They’re not demanding or rude and will explain things to newbies.
The 3 – 6 games are super loose and pretty easy to grind out some winnings if you play tight-​aggressive.

Great poker room, entitled poker dealers, Meh service, Meh food that is severely overpriced,

Horrible service, dealers are rude and the floor backs the up. Dealer allowed regs to get away with infraction while recreational players instantly get the floor called on the to be berated. The supervisor, on several occasions would go up to regs and whisper in their ear then the two would bust up laughing. This was during a hand. Really low class service. Don’t eat the floor either. Matthew is probably the most power hungry rude floor man in the room.

Beautiful poker room with huge screens. Good poker and good service.

Worst poker room ever, management sucks, they don’t know how to treat people, their rules are horrible, they charge for drinks, Vegas rooms are so much better.

OK, I’m probably spoiled from playing in Vegas all the time, but I just can’t get excited about playing here.
Hits:
— Big room, easy to get into a game.
— Quality of competition is MUCH weaker than Vegas. If you can’t beat a table here, you need to go back to playing go fish or something.
Misses:
— $ 5.75 for a draft Bud Light? Are you f**king kidding me? I hate feeling like I’m being shaken down, and that’s exactly how I feel whenever I play here. Would it kill you to sell cheap beer to players who are already getting taken to the cleaners with the table rake?
— Dealers don’t seem to enjoy their job very much. I’m used to friendlier tables and dealers.
— Did I mention the drink prices?
3 stars because you can make your mortgage payment playing against the soft competition.

Best poker room! Many tables to choose from and the wait times are minimal. I sat at a table that won the $ 10,000 jackpot and got to share in the winnings! The food is great, company is well rounded and the dealers are awesome. Thanks Jackie your the best. Or should I say jack-​pot-​Jackie! The table split $ 2,500 and $ 7500 went to the 2 players in the hand. The $ ³⁄₆ or $ ⁴⁄₈ are very friendly tables. The no smoking helps make the environment much more enjoyable! Fortunately I’m an addict and I will be back! Win or lose, it’s always a good time!

the best poker room in AZ. Hands down, no one can come close to there promotions, and jack pots or spread games!

Some dealers are friendlier than others (as with any poker room), but overall the poker room offers a wide variety of games and is well run.

By far the best poker room in the state and I have played in every casino poker room in the valley. The action is always there-​lots of dead money to be picked up if you know where to look. Good promotions, amazing food served table side and all the sports games you can watch. I wish they would bring back 6 – 12 limit but 8 – 16 will have to do =) such an improvement over the tents, though they will always hold a place in my heart. It sucks cause I work right next to the casino and every night after work I have a tough decision. go home to my family or go to my favorite card room and tear it up. If you havent been there-​MUST GO.

Best poker room in Arizona. There are big screen TVs every where. Food is great and staff were friendly.

This review will be ONLY for the newly dubbed poker room at Talking Stick Resort. The new official name is, «The Arena poker room at Talking Stick» Ta da!!! They changed the name 4 days ago from the generic,(poker room), when they lifted into place a 3000 pound state of the art scoreboard with 16 big screen TVs and a 360 degree sports ticker. Very impressive, guys!
Poker began here in the spring of 1998 moving locations several times between their two properties until finally being placed in this new 4 diamond resort, Talking Stick (TSR).
From its inception, this poker room quickly developed into the première place to play in Arizona. I believe the main reason for its instant success was the foresight of management to hire many likable props and get all the high action from other rooms instantly. Sadly, most of the nicest props are now gone, leaving only four as of this writing. Some of the older ones that no longer have a badge still play there and, they are GREAT. They still make the games fun and help the dealers when they haven’t learned the rules.
The Arena poker room is sought out by visitors and locals alike and is a large, fun, well staffed place to enjoy poker. The employees are friendly, well trained, and competent (most anyway) from the managers to the bus staff.
They get most things right with the notable exception of highly touted Players Reward Club which began on April 15, 2010 but, still to this day, has players, dealers, and managers alike shaking their head in disbelief over this state of the art (???) product distributed by Amaranth Corp out of Ca. It is by far the main criticism of the otherwise well run room two years down the road in this gorgeous new facility… Every few weeks or so, there is a NEW proclamation that it is NOW working but, I for one have stopped using it as have many others.
The food can be ordered table side and ranges from steak to a very tasty Asian menu. High quality and great service but, the prices have more than doubled on many dishes. It’s still a GREAT value just not as great as it was before.
This room has too many tournaments to list but you can play from $ 60 to $ 1000 throughout the year, The players seem to love the tournament action here. Unfortunately, the tournaments now often conflict with the live games on Saturdays and Sundays resulting in mass confusion, anxious players waiting to gamble and a sometimes disgruntled floor staff who through no fault of their own have to take the brunt of the whining.
If you play poker, THIS is definitely the place you wanna come,