Caesars Palace Las Vegas Opens Poker Room

The Emperor would be pleased.

Riding the wave of poker popularity, Caesars Palace opened the newest poker room on the Las Vegas Strip this morning. Curious tourists and players were the first to see the 30-table room in action at 10 a.m. when poker was welcomed back to Caesars Palace after a 16-year absence.

"It was a very high energy crowd and as soon as the doors opened the place was about three-quarters full," said Ken Langdon, spokesperson for Caesars Palace. "They were really impressed with the space. The place is huge."

The new venue cost $12 million. For all that money, Caesars Palace got a spacious, smoke-free room that combines the best of high-tech with art featuring the casino itself.

The walls of the 8,500-square-foot main room holds 25 high definition televisions and is decorated with 11 LeRoy Neiman paintings that were acquired over time. Through the years, Neiman chronicled 40 years of history at Caesars Palace. The paintings previously hung in the hallways of its executive offices.

Next to the new poker room is 6,000-square-feet of space that will be used whenever a tournament takes place at Caesars Palace. It will first be used for the Heads Up Poker Championship in March and a World Series of Poker circuit event in April. Harrah's Entertainment, which is the parent company to Caesars Palace, also owns the rights to the WSOP, as well as the Heads Up Poker Championship.

That means the main poker room won't have to be closed whenever a tournament is scheduled. The extra space will allow Caesars Palace to install 33 additional tables.

"The idea behind that is we can hold a poker tournament and don't have to close a poker room," Langdon said.

Poker hasn't been played at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas since 1989 when the poker room was shuttered to make room for the popular Forum Shops. The new room sits next to the sports and race books.

Weekly tournaments will be scheduled and the casino will spread high-limit as well as low-limit games of Texas hold'em, Omaha, and seven-card stud.

Most Viewed Articles