Sahara Poker Room Returns On Las Vegas Strip, Celebrates Grand Opening Friday

The Las Vegas Strip’s newest poker room officially opens Friday. Following a soft opening last weekend and through the week, Sahara Las Vegas is bringing back its poker room Friday afternoon with a grand opening celebration from 4-6 p.m.

Sahara’s original poker room closed in 2011, following a trend that saw many of the city’s smaller rooms shut their doors. Recently, the trend has started to slowly reverse with the Sahara’s opening of its seven-table room and the Westgate’s six-table poker room in 2017.

During the first day of its soft opening, the room started off on the right note with more than half of its tables in use.

“We got up to four games on the first day,” said Sahara’s Poker Operations Manager Steven Pique. “Now that the word is out, I anticipate a busy week. I understand that I have to keep the momentum going with new and exciting ideas, along with textbook guest service. If every day going forward mirrors the first weekend, the room will be a huge success.”

Some of those new and exciting ideas involve bringing back some of the more memorable aspects of the old poker room, including it’s wildly popular $50 midnight poker tournament.

“I have heard an immense amount of positive feedback on this particular tournament,” said Pique. “I intend to utilize the poker world’s sense of nostalgia and excitement surrounding this tournament to resurrect it into something great.”

The room is already offering daily tournaments and is starting to become a home for low-stakes mixed games. While there was both a $1-$3 no-limit hold’em and a $1-$2 pot-limit Omaha game running on the room’s first day, there have been a plethora of $4-$8 mixed games running throughout the rest of the week.

Pique believes that with the diverse offerings of small-stakes games, the room can fill a niche role in the country’s largest poker ecosystem.

“The outlook is very unique. I have had the opportunity to discuss game protection and theories on long term growth and sustainability with some dynamic room managers in Las Vegas,” said Pique. “I feel lucky to have a large pool of poker enthusiasts in which to draw from. I am a player myself. I understand what they are after and what no one is willing to provide them.”

The Sahara originally opened in October 1952 and was a staple of the Strip for several decades until closing in 2011. In 2013, the property rebranded as the SLS, opening in 2014. In 2019, the property reverted back to its original name.

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