The Las Vegas poker scene is continuing to grow and rebound from COVID-19. Next month, two additional card rooms in town will return to action for the first time since mid-March.
Silver Sevens and Westgate are the two poker rooms in question. They aren't among the most popular places in town to play poker. Nor are they two of the larger rooms. But it's still a positive sign that the live poker scene is continuing to bounce back from the global health pandemic.
Westgate, formerly the Las Vegas Hilton, has just six poker tables. The mega resort is located just off the north end of the Strip, a 15-minute walk from Sahara, which also has a small card room, which will reopen September 10.
Silver Sevens is also close to the Strip, about a mile east of the south end, a short drive from McCarran International Airport. This small, and often smoky casino only has a couple of poker tables, and will reopen on September 1.
Westgate's poker room will spread eight-handed games and have plexiglass dividers at the table. The casino is taking every precaution possible to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) recently began allowing certain card rooms to spread eight-handed poker games, so long as plexiglass dividers are in place. Silver Sevens hasn't yet anounced their plans for reopening other than setting a tentative date.
Las Vegas poker back in action
Although Westgate certainly isn't one of the top places to play poker in Las Vegas, the card room has played host to numerous meet-up games put on by popular poker vloggers such as Andrew Neeme and Tim "TheTrooper97" Watts.
When Westgate and Silver Sevens' card rooms reopen, Las Vegas will be back up to 16 places to play. That means 15 poker rooms in town that were opened pre-coronavirus still remain closed. None of them have yet announced a target reopen date.
One of those casinos is Wynn, which reopened on June 4 but without its luxurious and spacious poker room. Wynn is one of the largest card rooms in town with 28 tables. Another popular poker room, at Mirage, also will stay closed for the time being, and possible permanently. Mirage, an MGM Resorts property on the Strip, just reopened its casino but transformed its poker room into a smoke-free slot machine area.
