Room Quality: The prevailing opinion of the rooms is that they are both clean and neat, and fine if that's all you want. Really, if there is a text book somewhere with a standard hotel room in it, this is where they got the photo. The decor is neutrals like brown and a little red, room size is average. The bathrooms are standard hotel/motel with a tub/shower combo. The furnishings are dark and standard--a bed or beds, a dresser and a table with a couple chairs. CAUTION: Beware of outrageous mandatory "amenity fees" that will be tacked on to your room rate.

Service Quality: For the most part, the staff at Boulder Station is professional. Check-in is quick and we've dealt with nothing but friendly people at the Slot Club counter.

What You Get Bottles of in the Bathroom: Shampoo/conditioner and lotion.

Clientele: Locals locals and more locals, mostly blue collar and retirees. The tourists who do show up at this far-flung property have visited Vegas a number of times before and come more to get away from the action of the Strip or downtown.

How's the Pool? Nothing special. It's a big square that goes to seven feet deep. It's wet and right out there in the sun, so it serves its purpose.

Table Games: Play blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, Let It Ride, Pai Gow or Three Card Poker under the big, ugly stained-glass murals. It's standard stuff at around 40-50 tables, and it's generally got lower minimums than the other Station Casinos, but the single-deck blackjack has the lousy 6:5 payout--avoid.

Bet Minimums: $3 will be about as low as they go for table games around these parts, and you may be find one table at that during slow times. Roulette has 50-cent chips, and they may have $3 craps with 10x odds.

Machines: The locals like to keep up on the hot new slot machines, so they tend to show up out here pretty quick. If TV-show themes, Monopoly, the bastard children of "Wheel of Fortune" and those kind of machines are your cup of tea, you'll be in heaven.

Cocktails? Give the waitress a tip and you can bet your sweet bippy she'll be back right quick. Like the rest of the service here, the cocktail machine is well-oiled.

Who Gets Comps? We've never gotten more than a free drink. The slot club is the Boarding Pass, linked with the other Staion Casinos, and you rack up points to redeem at any of them. Table players should dole out $10 hands for a few hours to get anything more than a buffet. Station is good to locals with mailing to lure them back in. for out-of-towners, not so good.

The Broiler: Steaks, lobster and chops and so forth. The Broiler isn't known as one of the best steak places for visitors, just a stand-by for people who want a steak but don't want to go far to get it. The advantages are that it's relatively inexpensive (for a steak house). Only open for dinner (except Sunday brunch).

Coco's: Coco's! The typical American coffee shop with mediocre hash browns and a menu that could clog the arteries of an Olympian. Nothing bad about Coco's, just that as long as you're getting greasy food, why do it at the same coffee shop you could at home?

The Feast Buffet: This buffet can be relatively cheap, especially at breakfast and with a slot club card. The problems are it is mediocre, although, the room is nice to look at. Definitely not worth going out of your way for.

Guadalajara: Everyday Mexican food. It's pretty good and fairly cheap, so we recommend it to those wanting to go South of the Border. Our trick is to slip in, eat the good chips and salsa from the salsa bar for free, load up on cheap margaritas, then order the cheapest thing on the menu. The room is pretty wide open, and is directly off the casino floor, so it's not real romantic. It has a salsa bar, which is a nice touch.

Pasta Palace: This dinner-only Italian joint will make you feel comfortable if you're familiar with the Americanized Italian of the Olive Garden. Spaghetti, Lasagna, Ravioli, Fettucini all are on the menu. The prices? Why they are just right.

Kids Quest: Dump your kids in this supervised play area. You can drop them off while you do sinnerly adult things, but you have to pick them up in less than four hours, not when they are eighteen. For permanent dropoffs, you need an orphanage.

Railhead: Traveling national acts, many smooth jazz and nostalgic, hit the Railhead. You won't find anything that's currently on top 40, but maybe a few things that were years ago.

Regal Cinemas: Eleven screens of Hollywood magic! Personally, we'd rather lose a grand than spend a sawbuck for two hours of a dreadful Adam Sandler comedy.

Number of TVs: There are about 18 decent-sized screens and four big ones in the joint. 150 seats in the race book have individual TVs.

Number of Seats: About 300 seats are in total with only a few for the butts of sports fans, and the majority for race tushies. Right, like race fans need to sit around more than sports fans. They are all pretty average in comfort.

How Many Betting Windows? About eight for sports and 11 for racing, all backed by slate boards for scores and odds.

Free Drinks? Yes, the cocktail waitress will travel through here and deliver magical elixirs that make losing bets seem less important, but ex-girlfriends more so.

Snack Bar? No, but there's a Burger King nearby and we heard that place has food, or some sort of facsimile.

Minimum Wager: $5 sports, $2 for racing.

Other Notes: The race book is in the room next to the sports book, but they are open to each other. So, if you love sports and your spouse loves racing, you will be separate but can keep blowing each other kisses. This is an enormous race and sports book, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's worth a visit. The place can be kind of depressing when it's empty.

Number of Tables: Nine. We can't think of anything to add since there is nothing funny about the number nine.

Comfort of Chairs: Average chairs with cloth backs and only marginal amounts of stains, a few of which are ours. It's all remodeled so it's a bit nicer than it once was.

Closed Room or Open to Casino? The room has a glass window but it's too low to keep out noise. But, the glass check out the bright lights and people walking by on those occasions when you decide to fold early in the hand.

Game Spreads and Limits: Omaha Hi at $4-$8 with a half-kill, $2-$4 Hold 'Em $2-$4, $4-$8 Hold Em with a half-kill. And a no-limit game at $1-$2.

Beginner Games or Classes? Class at two p.m., followed by a feeding frenzy by the locals.

How Crowded is the Room? The room is popular and gets crowded on weekends, expect to wait up to an hour on weekend nights.

Comps? Every hour of play equals $1 in comps, with a maximum of $12 for any 24 hours. That seems pretty stingy to us. Maybe if you play for 24 hours straight they'll let you have a $12 meal then crash under one of the poker tables.

How Good Are the Players? Like most locals joints, the crowd here tends to be good at poker, but not good enough to go hunting dimwits on the Strip. Expect some silly loose play on weekends, but tighter on weekdays.

What Else Do I Need to Know? They offer some jumbo progressive jackpots.