Another Las Vegas Strip casino closes its poker room and the Irish Poker Open expanding its schedule for 2025 are some of the short stacks CardsChat picked up in its latest orbit of poker news.
2025 Irish Open schedule
The schedule for the 45th version of the Irish Poker Open has been released, and organizers are looking to surpass last year’s record-breaking crowds.
Last’s year’s Mini Main and its €1 million guarantee prize pool for a €250 buy-in attracted 5,320 — the largest poker tournament in Ireland’s history. Running off the momentum of last year’s series, organizers have added four additional days to the schedule.
“We are thrilled to announce that the Irish Open will be extended by an additional four days next year,” organizers Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann said in a press release. “Our goal has always been to expand the event and ensure players have an unforgettable experience in Dublin, both at the tables and beyond. We are also delighted to continue our strong partnership with PokerStars and Paddy Power as our event sponsors, whose support helps us deliver a world-class poker experience. Additionally, we are pleased to welcome back LuxonPay as both an event and payment partner. With many exciting plans in place for 2025, we’re looking forward to what will be our most exciting event to date!”
He even used an exclamation point, people.
The series takes place April 10 to 21 at the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin. The full schedule can be found here.
The Irish Poker Open is sponsored by both Paddy Power Poker and PokerStars. Satellites for the €1,000 Main Event begins on Paddy Power Nov. 1, with feeders hitting PokerStars in Europe soon after.
Say good-bye Sahara
And another one bites the dust.
Saraha Las Vegas is closing its seven-table poker room in order to put in more slots. It’s the seventh poker room to leave the Las Vegas Strip since Covid took a big dump on everything. But the Pandemic and the restrictions that came with shouldn’t be blamed in this case.
The casino simply wants to make more money.
“When it debuts in mid-December, the enhanced offerings will include dedicated slot banks where players can be some of the first in Las Vegas to play the newest test games from top gaming content providers,” Hobson said in the statement. “More details about this latest Sahara innovation will be announced soon.”
The room closes Nov. 16.
The Excalibur, the Tropicana, Mirage, Harrah’s, Planet Hollywood, and the Flamingo — all Strip casinos — closed their poker rooms since March 2020.
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board says yes
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board voted unanimously to begin the process of joining MSIGA –the Multi-State Internet Gaming Act that allows members to share online poker pools over state borders.
The board made a motion and acted at its Oct. 23, meeting after Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) sent a letter encouraging the board to pursue membership in MSIGA last month.
If the MSIGA members vote to allow Pennsylvania to join — it’s a slam-dunk they will — it will allow online poker rooms to put all their players under one virtual roof, something only WSOP Online has taken advantage of so far with its players in New Jersey, Nevada and Michigan.
Delaware and West Virginia are the two other members of MSIGA. Neither state currently has online poker rooms (Delaware lost its online room in December after its lottery commission switched online gambling vendors).
It should be at least a half-year for this process to finish, and longer than that for the sites to begin to share player liquidity. It will happen — how long it will take is the question.
