Per a poker news article that just dropped, it sounds like a 50 table room with modern electronic equipped tables will be opening this summer on level 2. Will also have a dedicated room for streaming and vlogging.

Glad to see a casino expanding and upgrading their poker room in Vegas, especially after the Venetian has kept shrinking theirs every few years.

Article here:
https://www.pokernews.com/news/2024/...room-45465.htm

One of the reasons they probably shrunk it was it just had a bunch of empty space before. It wasn’t popular enough to get filled up. Why 50 tables when the current room has 35?

Venetian is mostly just a room for 1-3 players that like want to chase high hands, freerolls and other promotions.

Feels like a lifetime ago but for a while they had the biggest/busiest poker room in Vegas.

Not sure about the move to the second floor though. The article calls it "a "strategic move" that puts the poker room closer to the popular Grand Canal Shoppes and The Palazzo self-parking garage". The latter might be a viable argument but why would you want to have your poker room next to retail stores compared to the old location which was centrally located and right next to the entrance from the Strip?

I thought it was a strange move myself. And they want to add 15 tables?

This is a good point, and why pH used to have such great games. People can't accidentally stumble to the poker room walking around the casino if it's no longer anywhere the casino.

$9 rake incoming

A strategic move for the casino, not the poker room. It opens up all that prime casino real estate for more gaming.

Also LOL at touting the self serve fountain drink station as an amenity. Yes those are the poker players you want to cater to.

What are the chances they one up Caesars and go to $7+$2 on the rake? Someone has to pay for the new sparkly room.

Heh beat me to it. For sure it's coming.

Right before the shutdowns in 2020 the rake was $6+$3 and the room was packed because they were offering bigger promotions to attract the players with the extra jackpot money.

Good move to add in the coffee machine so the local OMC can play 1-3, chase high hands and freeroll hours and drink coffee while doing it (not that being an OMC is bad, I prefer the freeroll chasers play there anyway).

I wonder if that is a reason for this. If anyone is thinking about staying there, or if they are likely to spend money there, they do offer a room for those people.

But if a random person wanders around the casino, they will get tempted by the machines and the pit, and their money will go there instead of a poker room.

Moving it upstairs is a horrible idea

I guess the question is, if its in the shops, will people in the shops be likely to stumble across it and wander in?

i wonder what the drink service will be like.

I guess they're confident.

I wandered around the Venetian for over 10 years before I found out they have a second food court upstairs.

Second floor?

It's gonna be an even more depressing atmosphere than it already is.

At least at current location you can hear the slot machines and people talking so it's a little less boring.

Anyway, I don't really care, I stopped playing there years ago.

I wonder how real the concept of the "gee that looks fun, I'll try it" walk up players really is. I guess I can see that happening at certain rooms like Aria or MGM where the poker space is conspicuously located next to major pedestrian walkways. With the way things are presently set up at Venetian though, I actually think the poker room feels very contained and cloistered despite ostensibly being in a good location. There are walls on all sides, so you're effectively hidden from passersby. There's no sense that you're an animal in the zoo ala Caesars, Aria, Bellagio.

I play a reasonable amount of tournaments there and tend to see the same people again and again. If the casino knows their clientele is primarily a small group of repeat customers then maybe they don't think there will be any real loss in traffic by putting the room even further away from the masses. People who play poker there are probably going to the casino specifically to play poker and not just randomly stumbling into a game.

Horrible decision, I predict a shutdown in coming years. Which to be honest would be a good thing, their rake + jackpot drop is absolutely ridiculous.

Not to mention some of the dealers. Last time I was there I had an argument with the most obnoxious dealer I’ve ever seen. He sits down, first second literally yells at me NO DRINKS ON THE TABLE! I put away my water bottle which has a cap on. Two seconds later NO PHONE ON THE TABLE!! At this point everyone is like wtf is going on. I removed my phone and asked him if I can still keep my chips on the table or if I should remove them too? He got exactly $0.00 in tips from the table while he dealt.

This is a room that has shown over the years that it will not die easily. And one thing it has going for it today is there are fewer rooms, so anyone who might be looking to play 1-3 in a smaller room might settle for Venetian.

I wonder what this will do to the 2-4 and 3-5 games. The 1-3 should still be going strong because players love the high hand promos (even with the high rake); some even think it’s profitable for them.

I remember messing around briefly in the 1-3 game a few years ago and it felt like it was rude to raise PF because players wanted to chase the promotions.

This is part of the fun! I love to see the annoyed looks from the promo chasing nits who just wants to limp in every hand. Although in my (limited) experience of the room, I think the games were more limp-happy like 5 years ago compared to how it has been on my more recent trips.

In general it's great to see a casino trying to actually expand and commit to poker, but I too have my concerns about the move to second floor. It's never a good thing when casual players have to go chase for the poker room, instead of finding it right on the casino floor.

Venetian is the Suck...

They're competing with the Wynn for season midstakes MTT series. It probably has something to do with that. Their cash games are drying up, but DSA is a brand they likely wanna salvage.

What's the current rake structure?

Those new quad zero roulette tables gotta go somewhere! It's a bit surprising it took them so long to remove the poker room from the main floor. They can obviously yield a lot more cash simply by just putting machines out there.

Not having the room ready by Memorial Day seems like a miss but it's possible they needed leases to expire at the EOY before starting with construction.

Does anyone have photos of the general area where it's going? Like what many have mentioned, I kinda forgot the Venetian even had a second floor.

I love the Venetian for tournies. Their cash games seem kinda bunk- I find it odd that the poker room supervisor could play in her off time which seems like a massive conflict of interest kinda. I played 1/3 a few years back and the lady running the tourny was at my table which just was odd to me. (I know the rules allow it but still just odd).

Idk I hope good move for tournies. Idk about cash- it never really seems packed and only kinda full on Friday + Saturday nights. Venetian is still on of my favorite rooms to play at (at least for tournaments). I’m that odd guy that likes Venetian more than the Wynn- probably bc I’ve had a little success at Venetian tournies.