Here at ProfessionalRakeback.com, we are primarily committed to providing the best information regarding online Poker rooms and sites. Additionally, we also enjoy visiting live poker rooms and casinos from time to time. One of our expert reviewers recently visited Wendover and decided to take this chance to write a detailed Wendover Peppermill live poker review.

Tucked in the fairly small border town of West Wendover, Nevada, The Peppermill Hotel and Casino is the last poker room to remain standing following the brutal COVID-19 pandemic.

West Wendover is on the Nevada side of the Nevada-Utah border and essentially is only half of the Wendover town and community. Wendover has been a gambling hub for many Utah residents, including those residing in Salt Lake City, for many years now.

Unfortunately for poker players, the poker activity in Wendover has experienced quite a decline over the past decade or so. 10 years ago, there were three active and bustling poker rooms at The Montego Bay Resort and Casino, The Rainbow Resort and Casino, and The Wendover Nugget Resort and Casino.

Back then, around 2010 - 2013, the Rainbow was known for spreading the larger cash games, including a daily $2/$5 no-limit Hold'em game that often played a bit larger. Montego Bay consistently ran a $1/$2 no-limit Hold'em game while The Wendover Nugget was known for offering a small-stakes $2-$10 spread limit Hold'em game in addition to no-limit Hold'em during peak weekend hours.

Wendover Peppermill Location

Wendover and West Wendover are essentially the same town located directly on the Utah-Nevada border around 120 miles west of Salt Lake City, Utah. West Wendover is the name used to identify the Nevada side of the city, which of course includes all of the casinos and gambling activities that aren't legal in Utah.

West Wendover has a population of around 5,000 people in addition to another 1,500 or so residents residing on the Utah side of Wendover. This small casino-heavy town has served as a hotbed for gambling for folks residing in Salt Lake City, Utah, and beyond.

West Wendover has five major casino properties: The Peppermill, Montego Bay, The Rainbow, The Wendover Nugget, and The Red Garter. The first three of these properties are all related to each other and share the same rewards club, dubbed Passport Rewards, and they offer almost identical resort experiences.

Montego Bay is the largest property with over 500 hotel rooms while the Peppermill is the smallest of the three with over 300 hotel rooms. The Rainbow features around 400 hotel rooms, so between the three sister properties, there are over 1,200 hotel rooms available.

The other two properties in Wendover are related to each other. The Wendover Nugget and The Red Garter are sister properties most recently operated by Maverick Gaming. You may recognize Maverick Gaming after watching high-stakes poker player Eric Persson play poker on televised events of late. Eric is one of the major owners of Maverick Gaming.

It isn't exactly clear what the current ownership and operation structure is at the Nugget and Red Garter, but it appears as though the Red Lion is somewhat involved in at least the hotel side of operations. Both properties are available to reserve rooms through the Red Lion Hotels website and appear to be owned and operated as such. The players club at the properties and the branding still reflect Maverick Gaming, so perhaps only time will tell what exactly is going on here.

Wendover Peppermill Poker Games

The Peppermill in Wendover primarily spreads cash games including $1/$3 no limit Hold'em in addition to tournaments every weekend. The room also occasionally spreads higher limit games and hosts special tournament events, but unfortunately, these are somewhat rare nowadays.

Cash Games

The main game offered at the Peppermill in Wendover is $1/$3 no-limit Texas Hold'em. The minimum buyin is $100, and it seems that there is no maximum buyin (some sources, like PokerAtlas, claim there is a $1,000 max, but we have seen larger buyins in person). Because of this and the fact that straddles are often encouraged, the game plays a bit on the larger side when there aren't any $2/$5 tables in action.

On the weekends, there tends to be a bit more action. There are often 3 - 5 tables spreading $1/$3 no-limit Hold'em and another table or two spreading $2/$5 no-limit Hold'em. The minimum buyin for the $2/$5 game is $500.

The poker room charges a 10% rake of up to $4 per pot in addition to a $1 per hand promotional drop to fund the various promos available including the Bad Beat Jackpot, High Hand bonuses, and more. This compares favorably to many cardrooms around the country, which tend to rake up to $5 per pot and an additional $2 for promos.

Tournaments

The Peppermill in Wendover offers two tournaments every week that run only on the weekends. On Saturdays, there is a 12:00 pm tournament that boasts a $10,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament requires a $235 buyin for 25,000 tournament chips. There is also a $10 add-on available for 5,000 additional chips.

On Sundays, there is a $3,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament starting at 12:00 pm. This event necessitates a $125 buyin for 10,000 chips and also features a $10 add-on for 5,000 additional chips.

There are occasionally other special tournament events as well, but these tend to be few and far between as of late. There are no tournaments available on weekdays as there simply aren't enough players to run a reasonable daily tournament.

Poker Promotions

As is the case with many live poker rooms, the Wendover Peppermill offers a solid array of promotions on a daily basis, including high hand bonuses, royal flush bonuses, straight flush bonuses, quads bonuses, and a bad beat jackpot worth $5,000.

Obviously, these promotions aren't quite as exciting as some of the largest promos in bigger areas and cardrooms, but they do add some excitement to the games by frequently adding money back into the hands of regular and recurring players.

High Hand Bonus

The Wendover Peppermill features an excellent High Hand promotion that runs hourly. The prize pool starts at $200 and for every hour that a High Hand is not hit, $100 will be added to the next payout. Both hole cards must be used, and the minimum qualified hand is aces full of jacks.

Quads, Straight Flush, and Royal Flush Bonuses

There are special promotions available for hitting quads, straight flushes, and royal flushes. If you make a four-of-a-kind using both hole cards, you'll instantly receive a $100 bonus payout.

If you hit a straight flush utilizing both of your hole cards, you'll earn $200 instantly. Making a royal flush with only one hole card will pay $100 while a royal flush using both hole cards will pay a whopping $500. All of these special bonuses are available in addition to High Hand bonus qualification.

Bad Beat Jackpot

The Peppermill also boasts a Bad Beat Jackpot of $5,000. The minimum losing hand is quad deuces and the pot must have at least $20 to qualify.

If a player has quads, they must have a pocket pair, and if they land a straight flush, both hole cards must be utilized to make the best possible hand in order to qualify the table for the Bad Beat Jackpot.

Passport Rewards Program

The Passport Rewards program offers extra value for poker players and casino gamblers. It isn't 100% clear what the rate of comps earned playing poker is, but poker players certainly earn at least $1 - $2 per hour in comps by using their Passport Rewards card. Simply hand your card to the dealer when you sit down to play, and you'll be set to earn valuable comps, tier points, free play, and free hotel stays.

Although most of the best offers are generally reserved for casino gamblers, poker players can actually benefit from generous bonuses and comps through the Passport Rewards program. By playing for at least a few hours every day, in our experience, it is pretty easy to earn free room offers for future stays. You can check your offers at WendoverFun.com at any time through the online players club portal.

Wendover Peppermill Poker Room Atmosphere

The atmosphere in the Peppermill is fairly quiet and low-key on the weekdays with significantly more noise and action on the weekends. Most weekdays will only see one or two tables running during the day. Because the room is separate from the casino floor on the mezzanine, the vibe is often pretty relaxed.

The dealers and poker staff are highly professional, and the room operates smoothly and without any significant problems. The tables utilize auto-shuffling machines to keep the action moving somewhat quickly, so you'll be able to play more hands per hour and hopefully win more money.

As far as the players are concerned, the average skill level tends to be fairly low. There are a few regular players who know what they are doing, but most of the time, there is plenty of limping and fishy play. You may encounter a bit of an attitude when raising consistently preflop, but that is often pretty standard in small-town cardrooms as players simply want to see cheap flops in the hopes of hitting promotional hands and having fun.

Food and Beverage Options

Cocktail waitresses frequently visit the poker room offering free drinks to all players on a regular and consistent basis. The selection of available free drinks is excellent and sure to please most players.

There is also food available to order from Cafe Milano, the casual restaurant at the Peppermill Resort and Casino. The food at Cafe Milano is solid, and there is a wide array of selections available, including all-day breakfast food, Asian dishes, Americana, and much more. The prices have gone up a bit over the years unfortunately with most meals here averaging $15-$20 each.

As far as other dining options are concerned, there are plenty of other choices at the three main resorts separate from the poker room. At Peppermill, Poncho and Willies is an excellent upscale Mexican cantina. Montego Bay features an Italian restaurant called Romanza, and Rainbow hosts a standard steak house.

History of Poker in Wendover and the Move to Peppermill

Up until around 2018, Peppermill was not the place to play poker in Wendover as it didn't offer any poker room or tables for many years. Instead, poker used to be played at Montego Bay, The Rainbow, and The Wendover Nugget.

The Rainbow poker room closed up shop a number of years ago while Montego Bay was the primary place to play live poker in Wendover. Around 2018, Montego Bay decided to migrate all poker activities to the Peppermill instead.

At first, the poker room at the Peppermill was located on the main casino floor, but in 2020, they decided to move the poker room upstairs to the mezzanine area that used to be reserved for events and slot tournaments. This move was mostly positive for poker players, as it separated the action quite clearly from the casino floor and pit games, although player traffic did seem to slow down a bit as people took a little time to learn about and understand the new poker room location.

Conclusion and Our Verdict

The Peppermill in Wendover offers a solid poker experience and an excellent, Vegas-like casino gaming experience. The room is comfortable and professional, and the comps and offers make the Peppermill an excellent stop for players in Salt Lake City or visiting from another area nearby.

Despite the limited action and size, The Peppermill offers a sophisticated poker room with highly experienced dealers. The promotions and earned comps make this a very fun place to play live poker anytime you'll be in or around the Salt Lake City or Wendover areas.

With weekend tournaments and daily cash games, Peppermill is certainly a decent choice for those who want to play live poker in the area although the action and limited size certainly leave a bit to be desired.

As we previously touched on, Wendover used to have a more bustling poker scene spread across three busy poker rooms. Unfortunately, there is only one live poker room that sees action these days. Despite this clear negative, The Peppermill is still an excellent live poker venue to play at, although it doesn't quite reach the top ranks of the largest poker rooms in Las Vegas and Reno.

Other Player Reviews and Opinions

As a part of our live venue reviews, we always like to look around online and see what other players have to say. Hopefully, this enables us to present a balanced and fair view of the cardroom and casino without being overly biased. Please feel free to review the three posts below to give you a better idea of what to expect at the Peppermill from other real players who have posted online:

Plenty of Poker Available Online

While The Wendover Peppermill does offer a decent live poker venue for players in the area, the game limits and types are fairly narrow and uneventful. Most days feature one table of $1/$3 no-limit Hold'em.

Online, however, there are plenty of different poker variants available, including Pot Limit Omaha, Limit Hold'em, and No Limit Hold'em across a wide variety of blind structures and buyin levels. You can play games online with blinds as low as $0.01/$0.02 all the way up to nosebleed stakes of $200/$400 if you so desire.

If you are searching for an excellent online poker room, then you are definitely in the right place. We have created a thorough and detailed online poker guide for Americans that you may wish to peruse. It is perfectly legal to play internet poker as well, and if you have any lingering questions about this topic, you may want to check out this page about the legality of online poker in the United States.

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