The Las Vegas Strip is Losing Another Poker Room
Planet Hollywood's poker room in Las Vegas reopened just before the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP). But it won't make it until this summer's poker extravaganza.
The Caesars Entertainment-owned casino has decided to pull the plug on the 23-table card room at the end of the month. PokerNews has learned that despite the upcoming closure, jobs won't be lost, as all employees will be transferred to Caesars Palace or Horseshoe. But the decision leaves Las Vegas with just 18 poker rooms in operation, significantly down from the pre-COVID era.
Didn't Last Long
Planet Hollywood reopened last year for the first time since prior to COVID, but the location isn't ideal for attracting foot traffic. The room is in an unconventional location, above the casino floor and out of sight to most patrons.
The card room never took off, and didn't have a large enough player base to continue operating. Competition from major card rooms in the area (i.e. Bellagio andAria) likely played a role in Planet Hollywood's poker room struggling. Other factors include the room's location within the casino and declining Las Vegas tourism.
Poker on the Strip has condensed to just nine resorts (Aria, Bellagio, Caesars, Horseshoe, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Resorts World, Venetian, and Wynn). There were as many as 10 additional poker rooms on the Strip at times during the early 2010s, with Mirage, Monte Carlo (now Park MGM), Luxor, and Harrah's being among the most popular former rooms.
The Strip isn't the only place in town that has seen a decline in card rooms. Fremont Street, the popular downtown tourist district, has just one open room — Golden Nugget — but had a handful of rooms pre-COVID.
There was, however, a major poker room reopening for the suburban Henderson poker community. Station Casinos reopened the poker room at Green Valley Ranch last month for the first time since the pandemic. GVR was a favorite poker spot for many low-stakes Henderson locals before the room closed in 2020, and it came as a surprise to many when the reopening was announced last year.
Planet Hollywood's abrupt closure will likely come as a surprise to some, given that the property hosted a successful World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) series earlier this month. The series featured 17 gold ring events, and all hit the prize pool guarantee except one event that had minimal overlay.
That included the $500,000 guaranteed Main Event, which attracted 616 entrants and had $976,360 in the pot. Darren Rabinowitz won it for $175,430. But there wasn't much cash game action running during parts of the series. The casino also played host to the Chainsaw Mixed Series of Poker (CMSOP), run by poker veteran Allen Kessler.
Planet Hollywood's original poker room, in the pre-COVID era, was located in the heart of the casino floor, easier for tourists and recreational players to find. The casino hosted an annual Phamous Poker Series each summer, and it was always one of the top non-WSOP poker festivals.
