Harrah's Atlantic City Poker Wsop
WSOP Regional Championship - Harrah's Atlantic City Chris Bell $358,295 Chris Klodnicki January 24, 2011 Choctaw Casino Resort Huy Nguyen $232,706 Traci Brown February 15, 2011 Harrah's Tunica Sam Barnhart $148,612 Jesse White March 1, 2011 Palm Beach Kennel Club John Riordan $210,180 Mike Morton March 13, 2011 Caesars Atlantic City Brian Ali. World Series of Poker will run the 2020 WSOP Circuit Poker Tournament at the Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City from 5 th till 16 th of March. This tournament features over 15 events including events such as the NLH MonsterStack, No Limit Hold’em and the Main Event. 13 March 2020 (Atlantic City) - The 2019/2020 World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Harrah’s Atlantic City was scheduled as a twelve-day series. However, in the interest of protecting the health of players and staff, the decision was made to postpone Events 10 to 13 of the stop.
Editor’s Note: The Borgata poker room reopened on Wed., Oct. 21. The 30 tables are limited to a maximum of seven players each. For more information, click here.
Live poker rooms at Atlantic City casinos are still closed. And nearly three months have passed since land-based properties reopened.
At this point, there is no timeline for when Atlantic City’s five poker rooms will reopen. Basically, the COVID-19 closure announcements made back in March still apply to poker rooms.
This makes it 159 days and counting since poker rooms in Atlantic City were open to the public.
When the Borgatareopened to the public on July 26, ropes were set up to prevent players from entering the 85-table poker room.
And when customers try to call Harrah’s Resort, they get a recording dating back to March 16. This would be the date the poker room with 40 tables closed at 6 p.m.
Golden Nugget AC’swebsite continues to use this message: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Poker Room is closed until further notice.”
For now, no AC casino has any update on a timeline for restarting poker play.
Are poker games available in Atlantic City?
Different variations of poker are still being offered at Atlantic City casinos, even if the poker rooms themselves are closed. The games include:
- Pai Gow Poker
- Let It Ride
- Three Card Poker
Of course, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) has safety protocols in place. It prevents the possibility of all the seats being filled.
Besides the 25% capacity limit on the gaming floors, Pai Gow tables are limited to three players at a time. The same rule applies to blackjack.
Other poker games can have up to four players. And plexiglass partitions must be set up at all table games, including poker.
The poker situation is similar in other jurisdictions. Pennsylvania’s poker rooms remain closed even as casinos reopen. In August, Play Pennsylvania learned that the World Series of Poker Room at Harrah’s Philadelphia is permanently closed.
In Las Vegas, some poker rooms are open but must follow Nevada’s COVID-19 protocols.
Besides impacting the players, the scenario in AC is eliminating jobs, even if it’s only temporary.
But these coronavirus restrictions regarding gameplay and number of players are likely the underlying reason Atlantic City poker rooms remain shut.
Atlantic City poker rooms closed, but online poker is always open
New Jersey poker players do have another option, and this one doesn’t have COVID-19 restrictions.
There are seven legal NJ poker apps. They are:
- Pala Poker
And since Atlantic City casinos closed in March, the NJ online poker industry has recorded some pretty impressive numbers.
August NJ poker revenue came in at $3,035,033, which is down nearly 63% from July’s $4,818,561. Still, both numbers are a significant increase from February’s $1.8 million when land-based casinos (and live poker rooms) were fully operational.
These days, those popular WSOP tournaments are an online thing.
It doesn’t match the excitement of playing in a live poker room, but the alternative — no poker at all — would be far worse.
And with the word “temporary” being used when referencing closed AC poker rooms, there is still hope that operating hours will change.
Atlantic City will have two operational poker rooms before the end of the year as casino operator Caesars Entertainment Inc. is gearing up preparations to reopen the poker area at its Harrah’s Atlantic City property.
Harrah's Atlantic City Poker Wsop Tournament
Harrah’s poker room, which is branded World Series of Poker, will welcome back fans of live poker on December 26, a spokesperson for Caesars announced Monday.
The space will be open daily from noon to 4 am local time. The poker room will operate with certain restrictions and measures in place to ensure that players are protected from being exposed to the coronavirus.
Seating will be limited to eight people per table and there will be plexiglass dividers installed at each poker table to separate players. Masks and other face coverings will be mandatory at Harrah’s poker room just as anywhere inside any Atlantic City casino.
The World Series of Poker room is set to resume operations nine months after New Jersey’s gambling venues were ordered to close as part of the state’s efforts to abort the spread of the coronavirus. Atlantic City’s nine casinos gradually started reopening in early July but have operated at limited capacity since then.
The Destination for Poker in AC
Commenting on the planned reopening of the Harrah’s poker room, Harrah’s and Caesars Atlantic City Senior Vice President and General Manager Ron Baumann said that they are thrilled to reopen the space in time for the new year and that the poker facility will “serve as the destination for poker in Atlantic City at our Caesars Entertainment resorts.”
Mr. Baumann also said that their team has worked diligently in the last several months to ensure that they have “enhanced health and safety measures in place, so both our players and team members can feel confident when they play at Harrah’s.”
A spokesperson for Caesars said that the casino giant does not have plans to reopen its poker room at Tropicana Atlantic City at this time. Caesars became the owner of Tropicana this summer when a $17.3 billion combination between the property’s former owner, Eldorado Resorts, and the old Caesars was finalized.
Atlantic City’s highest grossing casino, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, was the first of the city’s gambling venues to reopen its poker room. It resumed operations October 21. With 77 tables, the poker room at the Borgata is the largest in the city and one of the largest in the United States. It was reopened in October with just 30 spaced-out tables.
The city has five poker rooms, the ones at Harrah’s and the Borgata as well as at Bally’s Atlantic City, Golden Nugget Atlantic City, and Tropicana. It is unknown when the other three will resume live play.
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