Sahara Bucks The Trend By Opening A New Poker Room

The Las Vegas Sahara Casino reopened its poker room last week. There’s nothing unusual about a Vegas casino staging poker but this property had originally done away with poker nine years ago and, remarkably, this is only the second new poker room to open in Vegas during the past decade.

According to Vegas Slots Online (VSO), the Westgate was the most recent casino to open a poker room in Las Vegas – its six table poker area began life in 2017.

With just seven tables, the new poker room in the Sahara is only marginally bigger but it is reportedly a “luxurious room, with a 16-foot by 9-foot LED video wall, multiple television screens and table food and beverage service”.

Every table has charging ports for mobile devices and the nine-handed cash tables have a maximum rake of just $4.

VSO also listed casino which had done away with dedicated poker rooms since 2011, naming Ellis Island, Fitzgeralds (now The D), Jokers Wild, O’Sheas, Silverton, Tropicana, Aliante Casino, The Linq, Luxor, Monte Carlo, The Plaza and, since 2018, Suncoast, Treasure Island and Stratosphere as venues where live poker is a thing of the past.

'Amateur' Black in the Black

Meanwhile, for a seventh consecutive year, Dublin’s Bonnington Hotel Conference Centre is currently playing host to the 2020 Dublin Poker Festival.

The event features three headline competitions, the ongoing 14th European Deepstack, a seventh rendition of the Amateur Championship of Poker and the popular Irish Seniors Championship – both of which have already concluded.

It was Pat Fox who took the 50’s+ competition netting €7,710 ahead of Paul Murnin who walked away with €5,230 for their respective €230 entry.

But the most amusing result came in the ‘Amateur Championship’ where WSOP final table veteran Andy Black proved best of 617 rival entries.

Black is one of very few active players who can boast of playing against the legendary Stu Ungar at the World Series of Poker and he’s barely stopped playing since.

His ‘full time’ playing habits did not stop him claiming amateur status and his reward for winning this €230 tournament was a €18,150 prize.