The Las Vegas poker scene is adding a couple of more places to play next month. Westgate and Silver Sevens, both located within a 15-minute walk of the Strip, will soon reopen their small card rooms.
Vegas insider John Mehaffey, owner of the VegasAdvantage.com blog, reported the reopening’s on Twitter. Westgate will reopen on Sep. 10. Silver Sevens should begin dealing again on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
Neither card room is considered a hot poker destination. Both casinos only have a small area in which poker is played. At Westgate, just eight poker tables are available, and with the exception of weekends, the room is rarely packed. Silver Sevens, a small casino just east of the south end of the Strip, only has a couple of tables, and games don’t always run.
But the reopening’s give Las Vegas poker players a couple of more options. And it gets the city closer to rebuilding a live poker scene that was decimated in mid-March due to COVID-19.
More than Half of All Las Vegas Poker Rooms Will Soon Be Open
Before the global health pandemic, there were 31 Las Vegas poker rooms in action. From mid-March until June 4, there were exactly zero card rooms in business. During the reopening weekend nearly three months ago, only four poker rooms initially reopened — South Point, Orleans, Golden Nugget, and Venetian.
Since then, a different room has reopened seemingly every week or two. And once Westgate and Silver Sevens’ poker rooms get back in business, the city will be up to 16 open poker rooms. That still leaves 15 casinos that previously spread the game currently without poker. But there’s no doubt, live poker is back in Nevada.
Westgate, when the casino resumes poker, will offer eight-handed games. Per the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s restrictions, eight-handed play is only permitted if plexiglass dividers are in place at the poker tables, which Westgate has planned.
Eight-handed poker is starting to become the norm in Las Vegas, which is a breath of fresh air to poker players who were turned off by the four- and five-handed games permitted shortly after the casinos reopened in June. The Orleans, South Point, Venetian, Santa Fe Station, Boulder Station, and Red Rock Resort already have eight-handed games. Sahara is currently playing seven-handed, while the other open Las Vegas poker rooms now offer six-handed games.
A few of the most popular Las Vegas poker rooms still remain closed, along with an iconic room such as Binion’s, which removed its poker tables a few months ago and appears disinterested in bringing its poker room back. Mirage, which reopens Friday, won’t have an active poker room yet, as the old room has become a smoke-free slot machine area. And Wynn, one of the most popular poker rooms in town, is still without poker.
