In the early evening of Saturday, October 24, I completed my thirty-ninth survey of the poker rooms on the Las Vegas Strip.
2+2 poster ‘John Mehaffey’, who contributes to vegasadvantage.com, did an off-Strip survey.
Here’s the data for poker rooms on the Strip.
Where we Were
One year ago, in the Autumn, 2019 survey, I registered a big drop in poker action on the Strip compared to the previous year.
…the Strip suffered a 17.2% drop compared to the Autumn, 2018 survey. This could be an early warning sign for a third major drop in action over the 10+ years these surveys have been done. It also represents a 35.2% drop over the past decade.
In the Winter, 2020 survey, the damage didn’t look as bad.
The tables surveyed for this article are a new Winter low. But, it’s only a 5.5% drop over the previous year’s survey and a 27.3% crop over the last decade.
Then, COVID-19 arrived.
What we’ve been Through
I didn’t perform a Spring survey this year. If I had, the table count would have been precisely zero. Everything on the Strip was shut down in mid-March and poker rooms didn’t reopen until mid-June.
Las Vegas tourism has been hit hard with a 50% decline in visitors during September of this year compared to September, 2019. However, the numbers have been improving since the reopening.
As a result, the Nevada unemployment rate is the second worst in the U.S. at 12.6% in September. That’s up from 3.7% a year earlier. Only Hawaii is worse.
Additionally, the reopening came with conditions including plexiglass barriers at tables, a face covering mandate, and other restrictions which can make the poker playing experience less enjoyable.
Most games are playing at eight-handed tables. Though, five- and six-handed games were the norm at reopening and some of those plexiglass structures can still be used.
Some poker rooms on the Strip still haven’t reopened. The Mirage, Harrah’s, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay poker rooms have been empty for over half a year.
Where we Are
Given all the problems of the past seven months, I was pleasantly surprised by the table count in this survey. Though the numbers are down, it’s not by much at a time when a catastrophic collapse in poker action was very believable.
88 tables were surveyed on the Strip, down from 92 a year ago (-4.3%).
The only notable change is the shift from 1-2 no-limit hold ‘em to 1-3.
Autumn, 2017: forty-three 1-2 games, twenty-three 1-3 games
Autumn, 2018: forty-six 1-2 games, nineteen 1-3 games
Autumn, 2019: twenty-nine 1-2 games, twenty-eight 1-3 games
Autumn, 2020: sixteen 1-2 games, thirty-five 1-3 games
In 2018 (and previous years), 1-2 games were spread about twice as often as 1-3. Then, it evened out in 2019. In this years survey, 1-3 enjoys a 2:1 advantage.
Caesars Palace has switched from 1-2 to 1-3. And, all the closed rooms are 1-2 rooms. So, half of the open Strip poker rooms now offer 1-3 and those are the five biggest and most popular rooms.
Bellagio
The Bellagio seemed kind of normal, except about half the tables had big plexiglass structures on them and the other half didn’t even have chairs around them.
A physically large room like the Bellagio has an appealing advantage of spreading out its players. That may be the critical reason why the Bellagio and other big rooms were especially dominant in this survey.
During the past four months, I’ve notice the 20-40 and 40-80 fixed limit hold ‘em games doing very well in the afternoons when populated by locals. However, the games slow down in the evenings when there aren’t enough tourists to keep the games going late into the night.
The 30-60 mixed game was playing with the six-handed plexiglass, presumably because the game-starters preferred it that way with many triple draw games in the mix.
Venetian
The Venetian was tied with Caesars Palace for the most 1-3 no-limit hold ‘em games with nine. This is a decline from more dominant performances in the past three years.
The Venetian’s previous dominance had been fueled by promotions to draw in locals. However, those were curtailed during the pandemic and are only recently running again.
Aria
Aria’s pot-limit action appears to be back strong. Very briefly, I was seeing PLO games at the Bellagio but those have disappeared.
Wynn
The Wynn poker room is back. Though, I suspect all the players would prefer to be at the spectacular Encore poker room. The Encore resort recently changed its hours of operation and is only open Thursdays through Sundays. As a result, poker tables were placed on the floor at Wynn.
Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace switched from 1-2 no-limit hold ‘em to 1-3. It doesn’t seem to have had any impact on the room’s popularity.
Sahara
The Sahara poker room is very active on social media trying to promote the room, especially a 4-8 mixed game. However, it will be very hard to overcome its poor far-north location.
Closed Rooms
The Mirage and Harrah’s poker rooms were not only closed but they were also converted to non-smoking slot rooms. However, it would be easy to convert the rooms back if the casino wants to.
The Excalibur and Mandalay Bay also remained closed.
Off-Strip Rooms
Here’s the data for some poker rooms off the Strip.
Off-Strip Decline
Poker action off the Strip was down about the same amount compared to a year ago as the Strip poker rooms were. Like the Strip, the largest and most popular rooms have reopened and players are converging there. Several rooms actually have more action than a year ago.
Orleans
All the small stakes limit hold ‘em and Omaha 8 or better you could want is found here.
Closed Rooms
Binion’s and Cannery’s closed rooms no longer have tables and Green Valley Ranch’s room is now a sports viewing area. The rooms at Palace Station, Rio, and Sam’s Town are also closed.
However, no rooms have announced permanent closures.
The Non Hold ‘em Games
Aria (3): two 1-2 pot-limit Omaha, one 5-5 PLO w/rock
Bellagio (2): one 30-60 mix, one 300-600 mix
Wynn (1): one 80-160 mix
Orleans (6): three 4-8 Omaha 8 or better, three 8-16 O/8
Boulder Station (6): six 4-8 Omaha high
Previous Surveys
The thirty-eight previous surveys were done on 6/28/08, 10/25/08, 7/25/09, 10/17/09, 1/23/10, 4/24/10, 7/24/10, 10/23/10, 01/22/11, 4/23/11, 7/23/11, 10/22/11, 1/21/12, 4/21/12, 7/21/12, 10/20/12, 1/26/13, 4/20/13, 10/19/13, 1/18/14, 4/19/14., 10/18/14, 1/17/15, 4/18/15, 10/17/15, 1/23/16, 4/23/16, 10/22/16, 01/21/17, 4/22/17, 10/21/17, 1/20/18, 04/21/18, 10/20/18, 01/19/19, 04/20/19, 10/19/19, and 01/18/20
