Planet Hollywood will shutter its poker room on January 31, closing less than a year after it reopened ahead of the 2025 World Series of Poker.
The 23-table venue reemerged in May of last year after COVID closed the casino's previous poker room on the casino floor. A new space on the second floor allowed for a quieter atmosphere and expanded room for tournaments like the World Series of Poker Circuit. It was a double-edged sword, however, as the room was away from the casino action and difficult to find.
Disappointed, not shocked
YouTube vlogger Vegas Poker Nomad, otherwise known as 'El Diesel', dropped the news on in a video on Saturday. He's a regular player throughout Las Vegas and was a dealer at the new Planet Hollywood venue.
"I don't think anyone loved working at Planet Hollywood as much as I did," 'El Diesel' said.. "It was cool to be on the second floor. Traffic wasn't crazy up there. A lot of people had trouble finding it. But we had that massive break room."
"I looked forward to the days I had shifts at Planet Hollywood. That's how much I liked it."
The general consensus from the fallout is that players enjoyed the remodeled venue, but it couldn't draw the crowds to stay open. Poker players reacted to a subsequent announcement from Kevin Mathers with a mix of disappointment, but very little shock.
John Mehaffey, who regularly surveys casinos throughout town for his Vegas Advantage website, noted a small crowd on a recent visit.
"When we surveyed Planet Hollywood last week, the casino floor was very busy," Mehaffey said on X. "The poker room had one shorthanded game running. The room is very nice, but I don't think many tourists knew it was there."
While the room's demise may have been easy to foresee, there is still some shock to the timing. The Caesars-owned property just hosted a well-received WSOP Circuit event at the beginning of January with 616 entries turning out for the $1,700 Main Event. That was still short of the 774 entries for the WSOPC Horseshoe Main Event last March, but with plenty of room to grow in a large, comfortable space. It's already January and the prospect of a profitable WSOP season isn't out of the question.
Regardless, the WSOP Circuit will continue at Horseshoe with its next visit scheduled for the end of March. The Caesars poker room, which recently moved back to its old digs by the sportsbook, also remains open for business.
The closure now leaves 18 poker rooms left in the Las Vegas Valley, with the recently closed Poker Palace now off the list and the newly-reopened Green Valley Ranch back on. The next big movement may come in 2027, when Hard Rock unveils its remodel of Mirage and a brand new giant Guitar Hotel. It remains to be seen if they will find any space in 175,000 feet of casino floor for a poker room, but we're optimistic.
