You have probably heard that Las Vegas is dead. Gone for good. The endless money faucet has finally dried up and we all have to move back to the Midwest now.
Whether you’re looking at a photo of a empty hotel lobby or reading a bad beat visitation report, the evidence of the End Times is everywhere. And you may actually think it’s true if you haven’t been here to see that everything is mostly normal. Las Vegas isn’t going anywhere. It’s more expensive now but you’ll learn a few tricks. Everything ebbs and flows in the great Adult Tourist Capital and the only constant is change. Don’t get attached to anything around here.
For its part, poker in Las Vegas helped itself to an extra helping of revision. We had new poker rooms open up, old poker rooms close down, and a few favorites return to the game. On the tournament scene, the WSOP saw no break in momentum for its annual mega festival and the WPT Worlds stood firm in the headwinds of the Winter Poker War with nearly 10,000 players for its Prime Championship.
Meanwhile, as the biggest brands in poker fought for precious market share, smaller local rooms like The Orleans enjoyed record-breaking numbers all summer long with budget-friendly counter-programming and free parking just 10 minutes away from The Strip. Elsewhere, Green Valley Ranch reopened its poker room earlier this month after an extended post-COVID closure that made room for a non-smoking slots room.
Caesars gets back in the game
Caesars sold the WSOP to GGPoker late last year but they are sticking around for the recognizable future as the home of the summer series. They’ve given up some say in how the tournament is run and promoted, but they’re still free to enjoy all of the summer foot traffic and the big money that comes with it.
The team at Caesars took steps to get ahead of the game by reopening two of its poker rooms this year at Planet Hollywood and its flagship casino Caesars Palace. Planet Hollywood’s poker room moved from its old home on the very loud casino floor to a newer, more spacious area upstairs that overlooks the property. The new room will host its first WSOP Circuit stop in early January, taking advantage of the large open space just outside to fit in dozens of extra tables.
Down the street at Caesars, the poker room reopened near the retail mall area in May after closing in 2024 to make space for high limit slots. The original plan called for a three-phase expansion into another store to create a state-of-the-art new poker venue, but those plans seem to now be on hold as Caesars has moved the poker room back to its original space near the sports book. It remains to be seen if they can start to chip away at interest in rooms like Bellagio, Aria, and Wynn, but they'll always enjoy the WSOP advantage.
The last $20 tournament in town?
On the north side of the Las Vegas Valley, poker players said goodbye to the last $20 poker room in town this year. We visited Poker Palace in May, where the outlook was bright after the schedule expanded to seven days for the WSOP. The small, intimate casino was known for its “home game feel” and it stood out in North Las Vegas with its bright white castle-like structure. Poker Palace closed in October, but ownership changed hands and a remodel is underway. The fate of its poker room has yet to be determined, but it’s in the name of the casino so we are hopeful.
What's next?
Looking ahead to 2026, it’s impossible to prognosticate on which rooms will close, or who will open what. We just know that those things will happen and rumors are cheap in Las Vegas. One fact we know for sure? Netflix, Martin Scorsese, and the writers from Rounders are making a TV show about Las Vegas.
The 2026 WSOP is all set for its regular programming in the summer and WSOP Paradise will once again draw players for a giant prize pool in The Bahamas, leaving the WPT to decide if December at Wynn is right for them. Crowds were healthy at Wynn throughout the series, but they were still competing for attention all month long.
A very large thing to keep an eye on is the expanding guitar down the street in front of the old Mirage. Hard Rock is moving along on its Guitar Hotel at a steady clip and they’re expected to open in 2027. Poker is a focal point of their strategy in Hollywood, Florida, where big series draw in players throughout the year. We will keep a sharp eye on their plans as the casino starts to share them next year, but there’s a hopeful expectation that poker will be a big part of their plan to take over the center of The Strip.
