Planet Hollywood’s Poker Room to Close on July 11

Planet Hollywood is to permanently close its poker room in on July 11, according to reports from the casino’s employees. If true, Planet Hollywood joins Binion’s, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, and Mirage on the ever-growing list of closed poker rooms in Las Vegas.

PokerNews employees are on the ground in Las Vegas, providing you exclusive updates from the Wynn Millions event. It is while reporting on this massive tournament that they learned Planet Hollywood’s poker room will be no more from July 11. However, there is nothing about the potential closure on Planet Hollywood’s website, social media account, or the Casears Entertainment channels.

Located next to the so-called Pleasure Pit with no physical barrier separating the ten poker tables from the rest of the gambling action, playing cash games or tournaments at the venue is a different experience compared to the more intimate poker rooms of other casinos. Some love it, other loath it.

Planet Hollywood was gearing up to host the GOLIATH series between May 28 and July 8, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic put paid to those plans. A tweet from the poker room’s Twitter account suggested the GOLIATH would run at a later date, but that looks not to be the case based on the recent developments, and the fact the poker room has not been active on social media since mid-October 2020.

The Vital Vegas Twitter account tweeted an update on June 29 that adds credit to the rumors.

One of the many replies to the tweet came from Chris Mudd who wrote, “Yep I work there. I mean used to work there. CLOSED.

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The Last Major Poker Series’ at Planet Hollywood

The WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood in 2019 will go down in history as the last major poker festival hosted at the casino if the poker room is shutting down. The festival featured a $1,700 buy-in Main Event that 778 players bought into. Michael Trivett of Johnson City, Tennessee, was the last player standing. He received a coveted WSOPC ring and $215,943 in prize money.

British pro Ben Farrell was the last player to win a GOLIATH Main Event. The $1,700 buy-in tournament run from July 2-4, 2019, and attracted 744 entrants. Farrell came out on top and walked away with $162,400 after a three-handed deal involving Ignacio Molina ($154,700), and Remi Castaignon ($152,881).

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Planet Hollywood Closure Continues Worrying Trend

Planet Hollywood closing its poker room continues the worrying trend for poker in Las Vegas. Casinos around Sin City housed more than 1,000 poker tables during the summer of 2010, that number has dwindled to less than 300.

Coronavirus-related closures over the past 18 months have not helped the situation. Neither has the Nevada government forcing venues to operate cash games at short-handed tables.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the bottom line of casinos hard, and they are desperate to recoup some of their astronomical losses. Furthermore, they are looking for ways to maximize their revenues.

Simply put, casinos do not make enough money from poker. Poker rooms take up vast areas of the casino floor, space that could be used for far more profitable products such as table games or slot machines.

MGM Resorts closed the poker rooms at its Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, and Mirage properties last year. It ran a last-minute promotion that paid out funds accumulated for the bad beat jackpot fund.

Binion’s also no longer has a poker room; it has even removed all the poker tables from the location where Chris Moneymaker‘s famous 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event victory sparked the online poker boom.

PokerNews will bring you additional updates when more information becomes available.

_{Lead photo courtesy of Larry D. Moore/Wikimedia Commons, winner photos courtesy of WSOP}