Well Read Ted's Poker-Only Casino and Hotel Emporium.

fun dayn moyl in gots oyern

Nice summary, I was always terribly unlucky at the Mirage but it was a mandatory one session per trip location. I like the property, it has stood the test of time gracefully -
speaking of nostalgia, most fun poker sessions in Vegas, 2009 Imperial Palace all nighters, those were the days, it's rare for me to play after midnight these days lol

Busted out 18th (based on the board anyways) in tonight's tourney. 88 < AJo oh well what can you do.

Hope everyone here who got a seat ran better!

Outside of during the WSOP most rooms don't really have much going on in my experience. I have played at Mandalay Bay, Harrahs, Ballys, Mirage, and Excalibur when they had only 1 or 2 games going. If anything it will help some of the smaller rooms that are still open like PH, Ballys, or Flamingo by consolidating the player pools that prefer not to play in the larger rooms.

Most days Bellagio, Aria, Venetian, etc... have empty tables. I would assume you will just see more casinos follow the Bellagio during the summer and add tables to their sportsbooks or gaming floors.

I actually think less rooms would help most days. The better rooms will just be busier, and games will be better in each of the rooms that are left. Now if it gets to the point when there's not enough tables and wait lists are ridiculous, then we have a problem

Do you mean like this? I was just quoted 4-5hr wait for a seat

Loved the MB poker room for its proximity to the sports book when I'd be in town for March Madness. Won their tournaments a couple times, but the last time I was there they couldn't seat enough players to get one going. Sorry to see it go but not surprised considering.

The mirage was one of my favorite rooms. I destroyed their games in 2018 when I would leave work at Harrah's and walk across the street.

nope... 2018? the mirage room was a shell of its former pre-BF self.

I think there are plenty of rooms that have more than 10 tables.

This is fantastic if this is true. That room is one of the best on the weekends

Trooper said there was a rumor of Mirage returning too. Guess someone noticed the long waitlists around town.

Well-....it IS possible that MGM did a purposeful circular firing squad to the three poker rooms in order to:
+get rid of long term, high paid staff
+repurpose exisiting floor space to see what fits where and why
+get a newer sense of real demand for poker in these general areas where each casino is.

Thoughts-
I've seen some of the daily Old Guard Mirage 3-6 limit players at Flamingo and South Point......
Once you lose a customer, you'll go even more broke trying to get him back. (AT+T, CNN, Cadillac and a host of other marketing mistakes in history)...
Has the traffic from those 3 closed rooms gone over to MGM and Aria as anticipated? Prolly Not....
Look at the rooms that MGM has closed in the last decade- Monte Carlo, Luxor, Excal, Mirage, MB. They jerked around the MGM locus like a travelling sideshow.....why would they then even think they can open another room profitably?

I believe what the casino business, in general, and the Virus situ in particular has shown is that in the poker business, you have to go big, or you go away. A six or eight table room is not going to generate enough to justify its existence. Sure, a casino may keep trying, like Sahara. Good luck there. But in terms of regular staffing, overhead, promos and perks to players- if you don't have 15-20 tables going it is difficult to cover your key-in-the-door operating nut.

Will be fun to watch. I think they are really starting to miss Bobby Baldwin.

It will be interesting to see how the rooms reopen, whether they have a poker staff and poker room floor/manager or if they just train some blackjack dealers to go deal as part of their rotation. I have seen that happen at several casinos and is always a disaster, but as you said, having 2-3 tables running does not pay for the room to operate. Of course there is always the residual effects of getting a poker player into your casino that would not normally go there and them losing a little money playing blackjack or video poker and spending some money at the gift shop or in a restaurant. The additional foot traffic that a poker room creates in a casino is hard to capture in actual $$$$ though.

Your last sentence. Completely.
Which is why I do think the "destination" poker room is more "in the cards". The trickle down economic effect of having a poker room , versus putting some 0.25 cent to 5.00 a line slot machines in the same space just can't compete. Which is what they've done at Mirage. (not sure about the coin-in amounts)
Lets not forget the reality that those $1.00+ an hour comps to our cards, the "free" drinks, the food comps and vouchers- all that **** has to be paid directly to the casino from the drop that goes down the hole. As well as hourly salaries to dealers and floors/desk jockeys, etc. And that $1.00 promo drop- it all has to come back to us, in theory. (Unsure what kind of management fee Nevada allows, CA allows 25% or so) A big room, say 20+ tables, they got this.
Quite a headache compared to a slot machine.

I hear ya but casinos have loaaads of slot machines everywhere. many of them empty. having a poker room offering provides a more comprehensive entertainment package.

having said that. I don't know much about the economics of rake versus expenses in Vegas poker rooms. if the room is not generating any real profit I can see how it'd become more and more difficult to justify in today's corporate environment.

Sure- but- What costs more per hour? an empty poker table with a dealer, or an empty slot machine? Not stranded costs, depreciation, resale value, original outlay. Just cost per hour. I know you know.
MGM seems to keep shooting themselves in the foot, time and again. I stopped playing at any of their rooms, unless we were actually staying at the property. It used to be a treat to go over to Bellagio or Aria and play, any of the MTTs or cash. And my wife used to love the 3-6 at Mirage, so I was a reg in the evening MTT if we were in town.
I got sour on their management when they decided to let their poker comps expire after six months. There are times when we wouldn't get to LV in a six month timeframe. It was great to add up the hours, and get a ticket at Mirage to use at STACK, or over at Bellagio for a number of places. Then one day they told me- you don't seem to have any comps in the system, sir. WOw. pretty crappy of them. This was their operational answer to the issue of the Comps Steal at Aria; some of the floors were pocketing cash from regs who would get lavish comped meals on some of the unused tourist comp money that never got used.
It seems they've had myriad issues since that debacle.

They don’t always put in more slot machines when they close the rooms. They have plenty of those already.

It makes sense they will open up again when life is back to normal. When us European players can travel again, maybe 2022 or 23.

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Yeah, Vegas will be set on fire once the world opens up and its safe to travel again.

Really looking forward to the first WSOP once the pandemic is over, gonna be a hell of a ride.

An empty slot machine isn't free. It isn't amortizing its cost and yet it's still consuming electricity, and generating heat that the air conditioning has to fight. And obviously when they kill a poker room, more than one slot it put in its place.