Venetian Poker Room Booming Despite Tough Economic TimesTwo-Year-Old Room Enjoying Success |
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Bellagio will always be Bellagio. The Wynn will always be the Wynn. But it appears as if The Strip has another poker Goliath.
The Venetian, a Las Vegas Sands Corporation casino that opened in 1999, has not exactly been known for its poker room for most of its first decade in Las Vegas. The casino did not always feature a card room, and even when it did, it was sparsely populated.
But all of that has changed.
Today, the Venetian has one of the most popular poker rooms in town. Its Deep Stack Extravaganza tournament series consistently attracts hundreds of players a day. In November, even in the midst of a global recession that has crippled the Sands Corp, the Venetian poker room reports that its revenue is up more than 100 percent from last November, thanks in large part to its successful Extravaganza series.
The relaxed and laid-back environment attracts a variety of players, from the everyday $2-$4 limit player to the big-name no-limit superstar. Even members of the World Series of Poker November Nine — Dennis Phillips, Ylon Schwartz, and Darus Suharto — were seen in the room in the days after their historic main event final table.
It’s a pretty impressive résumé for any poker room, much less one that didn’t even exist a few years ago.
Two and a half years ago, the unveiling of the Venetian poker room instantly raised eyebrows. With nearly 11,000 square feet of space and 39 tables, it immediately became one of the biggest rooms in Vegas. Its luxurious décor and spacious seating created a level of comfort that few rooms could match. One patron proudly described the tables as “so comfortable, even Shaquille O’Neal would have room to stretch out his legs.” The placement of the room, opened up to the middle of the casino, makes it impossible to miss.
To complete the final piece of the puzzle, the Venetian brought in the highly respected Kathy Raymond, who was the director of poker operations of the immense Foxwoods poker room in Connecticut, to take over the same position in Las Vegas. Raymond remembers that it wasn’t easy in the beginning.
“We were the last big kid on the block,” said Raymond. “It’s difficult for any new business to break through.”
She gave herself a deadline of two years to establish the room, because according to her, “If you haven’t started to succeed in two years, you might as well hang it up.”
Her first order of business was to find the right staff and personnel, which she described as “a long process.” She admits that she made a lot of changes to the staff, looking for personality and customer service qualities in her employees first. Poker knowledge is something that can be taught later, she explained.
“We have a very unique, supremely customer-supportive staff,” said Raymond. “The dealers have pride in this room. They’re not here for the almighty buck. It’s more important that their place of employment is No. 1.”
Once they were in place, she instituted her business philosophy of “taking small steps forward without having to take any steps back.” She tried to develop relationships with players, and rewarded customers when she could.
For every day of this month’s Extravaganza, the Venetian has offered a free buffet for all of its players, something Raymond admits was “a huge cost,” considering the tournament series lasted 25 days.
“But I’m a firm believer that you need to show appreciation for loyalty,” she said.
Raymond grew up in Manhattan in New York and has been playing poker since the age of 8. An only child, her parents taught her the game. On rainy days, the three of them would sit around the table and play cards. She remembers how she was such a sore loser back then.
“As someone who has played the game for a long time, I know what it feels like to get that bad beat. I know how it feels to lose to a runner-runner flush,” said Raymond. “But I also know how you don’t need to lose control of your emotions.”
In a time and age when poker “explosions” have become the norm, when it is typical to see players make a scene after a bad beat with profanity and derogatory behavior, the Venetian tends to be pretty serene. Raymond says that it is not by accident.
“We don’t give you a warning [for unacceptable behavior]. If you don’t know what you did is wrong, we don’t want you in our poker room,” said Raymond. “Nobody is above the standards that we have here. Players know that and they respect that.”
Raymond says it’s been getting easier to get players to control their tempers. With the room getting so popular, there is so much action that no player wants to get banned.
Raymond has come a long way since she quit her job as a certified public accountant to become a poker dealer, a move she admitted her husband “sweated” for a while. But the Venetian has come a long way, as well. Eighteen months ago, there might be five tables playing on an early Thursday afternoon. Now, even when the casino isn’t in the midst of one of their big tournament series, there are about 20 games going on.
While Raymond is pleased with the room’s progress and acknowledges that they’re “in the middle of a very strong momentum,” she is not idle. She is already ironing out the details of their next promotion, which she says will take probably take place in December, and is preparing for the room's next Extravaganza series, which will start Feb. 1.
“More tables are being built as we speak,” said a smiling Raymond. Slot machines have already been replaced with additional tables for the current Extravaganza series, and it appears very likely that more are on their way out. That’s because poker is so highly valued at the Venetian, she said.
“Poker is not just an amenity here,” Raymond said. “It’s a part of the complete offering.”
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