Oct 27, 2019 It will be interesting to hear how Palms Casino Resort is doing when Red Rock Resorts. The Strat poker room recently moved to the second floor but closed just a month after moving. It’s the latest poker room in Las Vegas to close. Evidently 27 poker rooms in Nevada have closed since 2011.
- Red Rock Casino Poker Room
- Hard Rock Poker Room Tampa
- Red Rock Hotel And Casino Poker Room
- The Rock Room Red Rocks
- Red Rock Casino Poker
The Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas notified players this week that the poker room would cease operations. The exact closing date is unknown. It is contingent upon when the poker jackpot pool is exhausted.
The jackpot pool has $30,000 in it when the closure announcement was made on February 28, according to regular players at the room. An announcement was quickly placed on the Hard Rock Casino’s Bravo Poker Live page.
Red Rock Casino Poker Room
The Hard Rock Casino’s poker room will give away $200 per hour to the high hand with a flush minimum. The promotion runs 24 hours a day until the $30,000 is completely exhausted. If a qualifying hand is hit every hour, the poker room will close around March 7.
The rake for the current games is 10% up to $4. No additional jackpot money is taken from pots.
The poker room at Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas has struggled. It often hosted just one game when it was not dark. Special hotel events might help the poker room spread a second table. The poker room held a special event earlier this year that expanded the poker room to 12 table but those crowds are the exception and not the rule. Most games at the room are 1/3 No Limit Texas Hold’em.
The jackpot giveaway has not drastically increased poker room traffic. There are two 1/3 No Limit Texas Hold’em games running on Friday afternoon with five players on the wait list, according to Bravo Poker Live.
The closest poker room to Hard Rock Casino is at Silver Sevens. That is located at Flamingo and Paradise Roads. That is one block north of Hard Rock casino, located at Harmon Avenue and Paradise Road. The main game at Silver Sevens is 2/4 Fixed Limit Hold’em with an occasional 1/2 No Limit Hold’em game.
The news of the Hard Rock Casino’s poker room closure came one week after MGM’s announcement that the one at Monte Carlo would close. The scheduled date for that closure is April 24, 2017.
More than 15 poker rooms have closed in Las Vegas in the past five years. These include Circus Circus, Riviera, Westgate (twice), El Cortez, Texas Station, M Resort and Sunset Station.
In a surprising move that has become all too rare in recent years, the Sahara Las Vegas casino announced that it will re-open its poker room. The proclamation came last week via Twitter, a couple days after New Year’s.
Tiny, but welcome
Hard Rock Poker Room Tampa
As can be seen in the tweet, the new Sahara poker room will only have seven tables. Thus, do not expect large tournaments. The old Sahara poker room did have daily tournaments, though, and was famous for giving players free sandwiches, so it wouldn’t be a shock to see that tradition resurrected. A high roller area is also extremely unlikely. It will be nice to have something on the north end of the Strip, though, as there is not a whole lot of poker over there.
Though some people have read way too much into the artist’s rendering of the poker room (standing dealers, six-handed), the Sahara confirmed that tables will be nine-handed with a $4 max rake. This also implies that the cash game stakes are likely quite low. The Red Rock’s poker room, for instance, runs $1/$2 games with a 10 percent rake up to $4. The lower stakes games at the Bellagio have a 10 percent rake up to $5.
Past decade saw Las Vegas poker rooms disappear
Black Friday was a killer for live poker in the United States, as when people were unable to play online poker, they lost interest in playing live, unless they had a local casino they could frequent. Even then, though, many poker players preferred to just stay home and get into other things rather than sit in a casino for hours.
Sahara closed its poker room in 2011, just a few months before the casino itself shut its doors. The property re-opened in 2014 as the SLS Las Vegas, which stood for “style, luxury, and service.” The Meruelo Group bought SLS Las Vegas in 2018 and brought back the Sahara name last year.
Red Rock Hotel And Casino Poker Room
In the year or so following Black Friday, loads of poker rooms closed in Las Vegas. Among the casualties were Ellis Island, Fitzgeralds, Jokers Wild, O’Sheas, Silverton, and Tropicana.
Other closures since 2011 include Aliante Casino, The Linq, Luxor, Monte Carlo, and the Plaza. More recently, Suncoast, Treasure Island, and Arizona Charlie’s Decatur closed their poker rooms in 2018. The Stratosphere shut its poker room down this past October.
Second new Las Vegas poker room since 2017
The Rock Room Red Rocks
The Westgate was the most recent Las Vegas casino to open a new poker room, unveiling a small, six-table room in 2017. It was the fourth go at poker for the property, which had its poker room go under in the early 2000’s, 2007, and 2014. It is located behind the casino’s legendary sportsbook.
Red Rock Casino Poker
The biggest reason why more poker rooms haven’t cropped up in Las Vegas is simply because it’s not a very profitable part of the casino. This is also why the newest poker rooms are very small. They can be a way, though, to draw customers to the property who might not otherwise think to visit. And once someone is in the door, they may start spending money on other games, in the shops, or at the casino’s restaurants.
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