In true Las Vegas fashion, the Venetian Poker Room pulled out all the stops for their grand opening, and it felt like everyone in the city’s poker community was in attendance. After many months of anticipation following an announcement in February, August 1st finally arrived heralding the unveiling of Las Vegas’ newest poker room. There were poker industry people, poker pros, poker influencers, celebrities, and even world-renown magicians all there to witness the grand opening ceremony. There was music, hors d’oeuvres, champagne, gifts, and all manner of entertainment all present during the big event.
Venetian Poker Room Ceremonial First Hand
The event kicked off with a ribbon cutting, marking the official opening of the poker room. Tommy LaRosa, the Venetian Poker Room’s Director of Poker Operations, cut the ribbon and then quickly invited everyone to come in to see the new poker room. Shortly after everyone had entered the room and had a chance to see what it looked like we all gathered around table 24. Sitting there was an all-star lineup ready to play the ceremonial first hand of poker in this new room. The line-up consisted of:
- Seat one: founder of ‘Solve for Why’ Matt Berkey
- Seat two: actress and poker influencer Farah Galfond
- Seat three: poker personality and podcaster Joey Ingram
- Seat four: 2017 WSOP Main Event champion Scott Blumstein
- Seat five: professional poker player and broadcaster Jame Kerstetter
- Seat six: award-winning rapper Nelly
- Seat seven: The Venetian CFO Rob Brimmer
- Seat eight: magician Shin Lim
- Seat nine: The Venetian CEO Patrick Nichols
They were playing $1/$3 No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, Berkey was the small blind and Galfond was the big blind. Ingram was under the gun, he decided to go all in. As the crowd cheered, the players seemed to all know exactly what to do as one by one they all called. Kerstetter was the only one to fold her hand. You could hear Nelly spouting catchy one-liners as the flop was dealt out. The flop was Qd8d9h.
Berkey had flopped middle pair with no draws. Both Ingram and Blumstein, each holding a Jack in their hand, flopped a gutshot straight draw. The turn card was 10s, giving both Ingram and Blumstein the Queen high straight. The river paired the board with 10h, changing nothing, and Ingram and Blumstein split the $2,400 pot.
Ceremonial first hand played
@VenetianPoker. Much better vids to come
! pic.twitter.com/Y2KMXTw8lk
— Above the Felt (@abovethefelt) August 1, 2024
Vegas Poker Community Shows Up In Support
After the hand, players began to find seats and started to play poker! There were still lots of people wandering about, saying hi to friends and talking. With all the celebrities that made an appearance there were plenty of photos being taken both by the media and fans. I did catch Shin Lim jumping into the action, as he bought in to another $1/$3 game, perhaps just to have fun or maybe to chase his loss from the ceremonial first hand of poker. When asked, he did confirm that he has always loved the game of poker and had always enjoyed playing when he can.
Ran into @Xposed favorite magician @ShinLimMagic. Great guy and loves poker. Fortunately, he wasn’t allowed to deal.
pic.twitter.com/DBIpdoQCxw
— Sean McCormack (@ThePokerBoss) August 3, 2024
The local Las Vegas poker community was present in full support of the new poker room opening. Many of the city’s preeminent poker room directors and managers were present, representing the Wynn, Resorts World, MGM, Bellagio, and Aria. There were many local poker players I recognized as well, all of whom I spoke with expressing increased interest in coming to play more often at the Venetian.
Everyone was very impressed with the room. Upon seeing the Aria Director of Poker Operations, Ryan Kirk, I took the opportunity to ask him what he thought about the Venetian opening a new poker room. Ryan shared that he thought it was great to see a new poker room opening in Las Vegas. “Seeing the new poker room brings excitement to the community and will help to continue to grow the game in Las Vegas for everyone!”
Conversation with Venetian Poker Room’s Tommy LaRosa
After cutting the ribbon, Tommy LaRosa remained extremely busy. He was constantly moving about the room making sure that players were getting seated at tables, saying hi to industry colleagues, and helping to make sure things were running smoothly. Even with everything going on, he was kindly able to take a few minutes to stop and have a quick chat with me about the Venetian Poker Room’s grand opening.
The first thing I asked him was how excited he was to see this day finally arrive. Tommy enthusiastically stated “It’s a culmination of many years and just super excited to unveil the new room. It’s so clean and modern. I think it has all the amenities that a poker player could want when they are playing day after day, week after week, month after month. We really tried to incorporate everything of comfort and everything they would want to play and have.”
I’m very impressed with the room here @VenetianPoker. Grab yourself a coffee or soda, check the chip counts, then head back to your seat. Definitely raising the bar for Vegas poker. pic.twitter.com/9qlaBgDpwz
— Justin Hammer (@TheJustinHammer) August 3, 2024
Some of the new amenities in the new 50-table room (51 if you include the streaming studio) include dedicated bathrooms located inside of the poker room, self-service beverage station, and over 300 safety deposit boxes located in the poker room cashier area. LaRosa was able to secure 200 dedicated parking spots for the poker room located in the Palazzo self-park garage near the casino elevator. He shared that it only takes about 60 seconds to walk to the poker room from there. Poker players who have a Sapphire or above Grazie Rewards card can request a parking placard from any member of the poker management team to be able to park in these dedicated parking spots.
We are excited to show you our new space August 1st. Until then, allow @VenetianTD to show you how to get to the new space from the Palazzo garage
We are creating 100+ poker parking places for our loyal players near the casino elevators. Get to our new space in 60 seconds flat pic.twitter.com/vzsCwAMJvI
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) July 6, 2024
LaRosa was also excited to share that the Venetian has made the switch to Poker Atlas. Players are now able to sign up for the waitlist via the Poker Atlas app. They are still able to come in person or call ahead to place their names on the waitlist if they want to play. LaRosa explained why he is excited to work with Poker Atlas, “There are many features that are player friendly and operator friendly that enhance the experience of playing poker.”
There were many Poker Atlas representatives in the room, including company CEO Jon Friedberg, to help and make sure the staff had immediate assistance with managing the software. All the staff members seemed to be well versed in using Poker Atlas and there were many game lists up and running.
Last night at the new @VenetianPoker Room opening we also caught up with CEO of @PokerAtlas and @WSOP bracelet winner @JonFriedberg!
The new room made the switch to Poker Atlas so we got his thoughts on the new room! pic.twitter.com/p0m9QltfVA
— PokerNews (@PokerNews) August 2, 2024
Coming sometime in October/November a streaming studio will be opened at the back of the Venetian Poker Room. LaRosa shared that they plan to stream final tables from their iconic DeepStack tournament series, cash games, and hope to find strategic partners who will podcast live.
The Venetian Poker Room has many promotions that they are running to help celebrate the grand opening. There are many meet-up games that have been planned during the first week of the poker room opening. They have partnered with Above the Felt to bring some big names from the poker world to play.
In addition, there is also a bounty tournament scheduled for the first week of August with bounties placed on poker celebrities and influencers such as Farah Galfond, Matt Berkey, and Jeremy Ausmus. Plus. there’s a ladies meet-up game, to be hosted by Jamie Kerstetter, planned in the coming days as well.
Players can earn $3 in comps while playing until the end of the year and starting August 5th the poker room will have a mystery high hand promotion.
Cash Game Promotion update and our New Room Promotion effective August 1, 2024 @VenetianPoker pic.twitter.com/QYNKiCj3U0
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) July 30, 2024
While I was in the poker room there were giveaways happening. Every half hour there was a random draw to give away tickets to shows like the Eagles at the Sphere or the new show Shin Lim Limitless at the Palazzo Theatre.
The last question I had for LaRosa was about the future of the new Venetian Poker Room. He said the goal was simple, namely “making the Venetian Poker Room a premier destination in the world for poker. Every player, whether they are local, from out of state, or out of the country to want to come visit and play here. When they visit Las Vegas, they know they must come to the Venetian Poker Room. We want everybody to see the room, to play in the room, and we want this to be their home to play poker!”
I think they are moving in the right direction. The new poker room at the Venetian is the topic of conversation all over Las Vegas and this is one poker player who wants to go back and play more poker at The Venetian!
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