One of many prime poker rooms in Las Vegas is gone, however solely as a result of it moved to a different, extra handy location at Venetian.
Poker execs, leisure gamers, on line casino executives, and even rapper Nelly had been in attendance Thursday afternoon for the cardboard room’s grand opening. Matt Berkey, Jamie Kerstetter, Maria Konnikova, and 2017 World Sequence of Poker (WSOP) Fundamental Occasion champion Scott Blumstein stopped by to catch a glimpse of the brand new location.
The festivities started with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a speech from Venetian’s poker site boss Tommy LaRosa, who talked about that the brand new poker site spot is extra handy for gamers and can assist improve their gaming expertise.
Venetian’s card room had lengthy been located throughout from the Venetian sportsbook, simply across the nook from the exit door to Las Vegas Boulevard. It’s now in between the Venetian and Palazzo on line casino flooring within the Grand Canal Shoppes on the second degree (go up the escalator previous the Louis Vuitton retailer and you’ll’t miss it).
Shuffle Up and Deal
At round 4:30 p.m. native time on Thursday, it was time to deal the ceremonial first hand. Just a few on line casino execs joined Nelly, Kerstetter, Berkey, Farah Galfond, Blumstein, and Joey Ingram for the primary hand ever on the brand-new Venetian poker rom. PokerNews captured the hand, which became an eight-way all in preflop. Solely Kerstetter folded her hand, however as Berkey wrote on X, nit shaming shouldn’t be allowed, so we cannot do it.
After the ceremonial first hand was dealt, a whole lot of gamers started submitting in, taking their seats on the dozens of money video games working. Berkey, Galfond, Kerstetter, and Jeremy Ausmus co-hosted a meet-up to interrupt within the new poker site, they usually had been joined by a star-studded solid of execs resembling vlogger Jaman Burton and Landon Tice.
Free hors d’oeuvres had been served to the grand opening visitors.
A lot of the Identical, However Loads of New
At first look, the revamped Venetian poker site appeared fairly just like the close by Wynn poker site, among the best locations to play poker in Las Vegas, with the almost similar blue felt, white rail poker desk coloration scheme. However there are additionally some variations, together with the carpeting, and one staple of the Venetian poker site is again — the self-serve soda machine and low station, and that ought to make Allen Kessler comfortable.
Venetian introduced plans for a brand new poker site again in February. The on line casino did not provide too many particulars apart from the room can be greater — the most important in Las Vegas. On the primary day of motion, the 49-table card room had low and mid-stakes no-limit maintain’em video games going ($1/$3 on up), together with some combined and pot-limit Omaha video games.
Venetian has all the time been one of many prime match poker spots in the USA, with common main occasions such because the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) and the on line casino’s trademark DeepStack Sequence.
Talking of which, the DeepStack Showdown Poker Sequence kicks off Friday and runs till Sept. 15 with $2.4 million in complete assured prize cash to be awarded. The sequence features a $500,000 assured MSPT occasion Sept. 5-8, an $1,100 buy-in no-limit maintain’em match.
Venetian’s poker site is open 24/7 and provides free drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) to all visitors. Gamers earn $3 per hour in comps whereas enjoying money video games. One new addition to the poker site that many gamers will get pleasure from is a livestreaming room. PokerNews was knowledgeable by a workers member that the livestream ought to be up by the tip of the yr.
What Do The Gamers Consider the New Poker Room?
One factor was clear from the beginning and that’s the a whole lot of gamers on Opening Day had constructive first impressions of the Venetian poker site. We caught up with some acquainted execs to get their takes on the change of surroundings.
“The room is completely stunning,” Konnikova stated. “My first impression was the lavatory. I believe I used to be the primary poker participant to make use of it, and it was fairly superior, if I’ll say so.”
The PokerStars ambassador additionally stated that she loves the situation of the room away from the on line casino flooring as she is “delicate to smoke.” Smoking is prohibited within the Grand Canal Shoppes and each poker site in the USA.
“I am excited, lots of people are right here, they usually’re all fired up,” says Joey Ingram. “And I believe it is a good signal to come back, poker in Las Vegas, so I believe everybody’s excited residing in Vegas. They need one thing new, they wish to maintain issues overestimated, new rooms, new occasions, folks investing within the poker world.”
Ingram stated that point will inform if the distinctive location of Venetian’s card room is interesting to the plenty. However he referred to the realm as “underrated” and acknowledged that the Grand Canal Shoppes is commonly packed.
Jon Friedberg, CEO of PokerAtlas, can be stoked concerning the new Las Vegas poker site. And he is impressed with what he is seen from it up to now.
“I believe they did an incredible job on this room. It is bought all of the bells and whistles {that a} poker site can have — bogs in right here, the drink station, self-serve drinks, stunning room, livestream studio. I am impressed,” in accordance with Friedberg.
Blumstein, the 2017 poker world champion had this to say concerning the Venetian poker site: “It is arduous to argue that it will get any higher than this.”
The above poker execs spoke reward of the brand-new Las Vegas card room, and their feedback concerning the facility are arduous to dispute.
