One of the top poker rooms in Las Vegas is gone, but only because it moved to another, more convenient location at Venetian.
Poker pros, recreational players, casino executives, and even rapper Nelly were in attendance Thursday afternoon for the card room’s grand opening. Matt Berkey, Jamie Kerstetter, Maria Konnikova, and 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Scott Blumstein stopped by to catch a glimpse of the new location.
The festivities began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a speech from Venetian’s poker room boss Tommy LaRosa, who mentioned that the new poker room spot is more convenient for players and will help enhance their gaming experience.
Venetian’s card room had long been situated across from the Venetian sportsbook, just around the corner from the exit door to Las Vegas Boulevard. It is now in between the Venetian and Palazzo casino floors in the Grand Canal Shoppes on the second level (go up the escalator past the Louis Vuitton store and you can’t miss it).
Shuffle Up and Deal
At around 4:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, it was time to deal the ceremonial first hand. A few casino execs joined Nelly, Kerstetter, Berkey, Farah Galfond, Blumstein, and Joey Ingram for the first hand ever at the brand-new Venetian poker rom. PokerNews captured the hand, which turned into an eight-way all in preflop. Only Kerstetter folded her hand, but as Berkey wrote on X, nit shaming is not allowed, so we won’t do it.
After the ceremonial first hand was dealt, hundreds of players began filing in, taking their seats at the dozens of cash games running. Berkey, Galfond, Kerstetter, and Jeremy Ausmus co-hosted a meet-up to break in the new poker room, and they were joined by a star-studded cast of pros such as vlogger Jaman Burton and Landon Tice.
Free hors d’oeuvres were served to the grand opening guests.
Much of the Same, But Plenty of New
At first glance, the revamped Venetian poker room seemed quite similar to the nearby Wynn poker room, one of the best places to play poker in Las Vegas, with the nearly identical blue felt, white rail poker table color scheme. But there are also some differences, including the carpeting, and one staple of the Venetian poker room is back — the self-serve soda machine and coffee station, and that should make Allen Kessler happy.
Venetian announced plans for a new poker room back in February. The casino didn’t offer too many details other than the room would be bigger — the biggest in Las Vegas. On the first day of action, the 49-table card room had low and mid-stakes no-limit hold’em games going ($1/$3 on up), along with some mixed and pot-limit Omaha games.
Venetian has always been one of the top tournament poker spots in the United States, with regular major events such as the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) and the casino’s trademark DeepStack Series.
Speaking of which, the DeepStack Showdown Poker Series kicks off Friday and runs until Sept. 15 with $2.4 million in total guaranteed prize money to be awarded. The series includes a $500,000 guaranteed MSPT event Sept. 5-8, an $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament.
Venetian’s poker room is open 24/7 and offers free drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) to all guests. Players earn $3 per hour in comps while playing cash games. One new addition to the poker room that many players will enjoy is a livestreaming room. PokerNews was informed by a staff member that the livestream should be up by the end of the year.
What Do The Players Think of the New Poker Room?
One thing was clear from the start and that is the hundreds of players on Opening Day had positive first impressions of the Venetian poker room. We caught up with some familiar pros to get their takes on the change of scenery.
“The room is absolutely beautiful,” Konnikova said. “My first impression was the bathroom. I think I was the first poker player to use it, and it was pretty awesome, if I may say so.”
The PokerStars ambassador also said that she loves the location of the room away from the casino floor as she is “sensitive to smoke.” Smoking is prohibited in the Grand Canal Shoppes and every poker room in the United States.
“I’m excited, a lot of people are here, and they’re all fired up,” says Joey Ingram. “And I think it’s a good sign to come, poker in Las Vegas, so I think everyone’s excited living in Vegas. They want something new, they want to keep things hyped up, new rooms, new events, people investing in the poker world.”
Ingram said that time will tell if the unique location of Venetian’s card room is appealing to the masses. But he referred to the area as “underrated” and acknowledged that the Grand Canal Shoppes is often packed.
Jon Friedberg, CEO of PokerAtlas, is also stoked about the new Las Vegas poker room. And he’s impressed with what he’s seen from it thus far.
“I think they did a great job on this room. It’s got all the bells and whistles that a poker room can have — bathrooms in here, the drink station, self-serve drinks, beautiful room, livestream studio. I’m impressed,” according to Friedberg.
Blumstein, the 2017 poker world champion had this to say about the Venetian poker room: “It’s hard to argue that it gets any better than this.”
The above poker pros spoke praise of the brand-new Las Vegas card room, and their comments about the facility are hard to dispute.