Thursday May 25, 2017 at 1:15 am
Breaking News

Add another Las Vegas casino name to the list of properties that closed their poker rooms. The Luxor Casino and its iconic pyramid on the Las Vegas Strip will be shutting down its poker room in mid-June. The MGM-owned property decided the low-stakes room was not profitable enough to keep running.

LuxorClose

Say goodbye to the poker room at the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas. The Luxor, one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, housed a casino and hotel inside a giant black pyramid with light beaming from the top into outer space. Luxor's ancient Egyptian theme is playing itself out in the cutthroat gaming world. It's poker room becomes a part of ancient Vegas history as of June 18.

MGM mega corp has now shut down two rooms on the Las Vegas Strip this year. Monte Carlo's poker room shut down in April and the Luxor's closing is slated for June. In March, the Hard Rock Casino pulled the plug on their poker room. The closing of the Luxor will become the seventh poker room to close since March 2016.

A decade after the boom, Vegas is suffering for the lingering hangover effect of the bust with another poker room closure. Simply put, bottom-line-efficiency suits running Vegas these days would rather utilize the precious floor space for slot machines, then to run a couple of tables and low-stakes donkaments. Since early 2012, at least 20 poker rooms shut down. Among the notable closures... Palms, Hooters, Tropicana, M Resort. O'Sheas, Silverton, The Linq (formerly Imperial Palace), and the Plaza in downtown Vegas. Supposedly Circus Circus shut down their room... and I never even knew they had one! The wave of closures also hit the locals scene with the closings of... Sunset Station, Aliante Casino, Texas Station, and Ellis Island.

The Luxor poker room, a low-stakes tourist trap, catered to beginners and deranged locals. The daily tournament, a crapshoot for $30, was a rite of passage for Vegas tournament noobs like the Running of the Bulls, but with a shitty blind structure. If you played in one... you know the weird structure of being limit the first hour and then NL afterwards. It was something you played when your friends came to town and you've been up for a couple of days amidst a Keith Ricards-esque bender and you didn't mind if you saw three different colored suits and the sixes looked like nines and the nines looked like snakes.

The southern corner of the Strip featured three casinos -- Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur -- all three with distinct and varying personalities. All three featured a poker room. With the closure of the Luxor's room, there are still two options for poker in that neck of the woods.

I played at all three of those casinos as both a local and as a tourist. The Excalibur, notorious for their unique $2-6 Spread Limit game, was a favorite among noobs and locals. Mandalay Bay became one of the first stops when I lived in Vegas and kept vampire hours and headed out around Midnight to fleece drunken locals. MB was the closest Strip casino when driving in from Henderson, plus it spread a juicy $4-$8 limit hold'em with a half-kill that tourists had no clue how to play. Their $1-2 NL tables attracted scores of loose tourists… particularly materialistic, deep-pocketed, TV-poker-influenced donk-a-fish from Southern California and Los Angeles.

And the Luxor... well the Luxor was weird, but not in a good way. The pyramid legit conjured up dark forces, which is why the entire place felt creepy. The property became a vortex for dark energy in a nefarious city that was flooded with the dark side of the force. Just ask anyone who stayed in one of their hotel rooms, where guests got haunted by spooky dreams and chaotic nightmares. The cramped poker room at the Luxor sat smack in the middle of the main thoroughfare of the casino. Tourists riding the escalators between Excalibur and Luxor entered the casino steps away from the poker room. As a result, the poker room had a steady stream of gawkers and random railbirds. The room attracted beginners, who in turn issued bad beats left and right. You knew what you were getting yourself into, but why play at the Luxor when there were so many better options? The Luxor locals were nitty-ass curmudgeons. And their tournaments were notoriously filled with some of the most horrendous that ever played the game. I'm sure everyone who got into poker had stumbled into the Luxor to play in their daily tournaments -- either as a beginner, or as someone completely shitfaced on booze, pills, drugs, self-loathing, or any combo . The first time I played in a tournament on the Strip, I final tabled the Luxor tourney and cashed in third place. Beginners luck, they say.

Alas, goodbye Luxor poker room. Thanks for haunting me for eternity with bad beats and those iconic dirty chips with hieroglyphics.

Latest news
Wednesday March 29, 2023 at 10:28 pm
Joey Weissman, Ren Lin, Sam Soverel, Allan Le winners at 2023 US Poker Open

The 2023 US Poker Open is underway at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. Through four events, Ren Lin is in first place on the US Poker Open leaderboard with one win and three cashes. Joey Weissman shipped the first event with a victory in Event #1 $10,000 NL. Ren Lin took down Event #2 $10,000 NL, Sam Soverel binked Event #3 $10,000 NL, and Allen Le was the last player staring in Event #4 $10,000 PLO.

Friday March 24, 2023 at 3:37 pm
Telex
Reminder: PokerStars Sunday Million Anniversary Special this weekend

PokerStars hosts their 17th Anniversary Sunday Million Special this weekend, and you still have a chance to qualify for a seat through various satellites. PokerStars is giving away over 3,000 seats to the $215 buy-in tournament that has a $7.5 million guaranteed prize pool. There's $11 Mega and $22 Mega Turbo satellites, plus Turbo Phase events for as little as $2.20. There's also the Sunday Million Anniversary Fast Track which allows you snag a seat for as little as $0.50 via Spin&Gos. Head over to PokerStars Blog for more details.

Tuesday March 7, 2023 at 9:52 pm
2023 SCOOP returns to US at PokerStars on March 17

PokerStars announced that the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) returns to American players in three states. The 2023 SCOOP has 42 events and the popular online tournament series will be available to PokerStars players on in Pennsylvania (PASCOOP) and a shared player pool in New Jersey and Michigan (MI/NJSCOOP) beginning March 17 and running through April 3. There's a total of $5 million in guanarteed prize pools.

Monday February 27, 2023 at 9:33 pm
Romana's Razvan Belea ships EPT Paris for €1.1 million

The European Poker Tour hosted the inaugural EPT Paris at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile. The €5,300 buy-in Main Event at the EPT Paris attracted 1,606 entrants with 447 re-entries. Razvan Belea from Romania parlayed a €530 satellite seat into a €1.1 million payday when he was the last player standing to become the first Romanian champion in EPT history.

Saturday February 4, 2023 at 7:35 pm
Aliaksandr Shylko wins 2023 PokerStars Players Championship for $3.1 million

Aliaksandr Shylko from Belarus shipped the second-ever PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) for a $3.1 million score after he worked out a three-way money chop with Germany's Max Menzel and Philipe Pizzari from Brazil. Nacho Barbero went deep in the 2023 PSPC with a fourth-place finish at Baha Mar in the Bahamas. Shylko outlasted 1,014 runners who generated a prize pool worth over $24.8 million

Wednesday January 25, 2023 at 6:21 pm
LAPT Returns: PokerStars brings back Latin American Poker Tour

After a seven-year layoff, PokerStars will relaunch the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). The LAPT returns to Brazil with a stop in Rio de Janeiro on March 2, 2023. There will be an event in Montevideo, Uruguay in April, plus two more events planned in Sao Paolo, Brazil in July and November. And there's other LAPT dates and locations that will be announced soon.

Thursday January 19, 2023 at 7:03 pm
PokerStars to Host Sunday Million 17th Anniversary on March 26

PokerStars wants you to save a special date on Sunday March 26, 2023. PokerStars s celebrating the 17th Anniversary of the Sunday Million. Yes, the Sunday Milly turns 17 in March! The buy-in is only $215, and this year's celebration will have a $7.5 million guaranteed prize pool. This year's winner will bank at least $1 million. Germany's Blackbeaty won the Sunday Million's 16th anniversary special.

Tuesday January 10, 2023 at 11:11 pm
PokerStars Launches PSPC Online starting Jan 13

PokerStars will launch a special virtual version of the PokerStars Players Championship for American online poker players in New Jersey and Michigan with the PSPC Online. The special series runs from January 13 through Jan 30 on PokerStars for a combined player pool in New Jersey and Michigan. The PSPC Online has 85 events and a guaranteed prize pool worth $2.5 million. Oh, and there's a special PSPC Online for online grinders in the state of Pennsylvania as well with 72 events.

Friday December 2, 2022 at 10:06 pm
PokerStars announces new EPT Season with stops in Paris and Cyprus

PokerStars announced their 2023 live tournament events schedule for the European Poker Tour which includes five stops including two first-time destinations. The EPT kicks off in February 2023 with their EPT Paris debut. In the fall, the EPT heads to the EPT Cyprus for the first time. There's also usual stops at the EPT Monte-Carlo, EPT Barcelona, and the EPT Prague.

Monday November 28, 2022 at 11:17 pm
Win PokerStars Platinum Passes at Gotaga Poker Night or at Resorts World La Vegas

The Road to the PSPC continues. Here's your chance to snag a Platinum Pass to get a free trip to the Bahamas to play in the PokerStars Players Championship at Baha Mar Resort during the return of the PCA in January 2023. You can win a pass through a freeroll hosted by Gotaga, aka France's #1 Twitch streamer. Americans have a chance to win a Platinum Pass at a $400 buy-in tournament at Resorts World Las Vegas.

Thursday November 17, 2022 at 11:07 pm
2022 WSOP Europe: Sweden's Omar Eljach wins Main Event for €1.38 million

The 2022 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event at the King's Casino in Rozvadov has come to an end with Sweden's Omar Eljach edging out France's Jonathan Pastore to win the bracelet and €1.38 million in cash. The €10,350 buy-in affair attracted 763 runners. The final table also included Shaun Deeb, Barny Boatman, Alexandre Read, and Tim Adams.

Tuesday November 15, 2022 at 2:12 am
2022 WSOPE: Turkey's Orpen Kisacikoglu wins €50K Diamond High Roller

Orpen Kisacikoglu from Turkey won his first bracelet with a victory in the World Series of Poker Europe Event #11 €50,000 Diamond High Roller at the King's Casino in Rozvadov. Kisacikoglu won €748K and outlasted a stacked final table that included Sam Grafton, Shaun Deeb, Nick Petrangelo, Timothy Adams, Daniel Pidin, and Daniel Dvoress. Last week, Paul Phua secured his first bracelet with a victory in WSOPE Event #8 €25,000 Platinum High Roller for a €482,433 score.

Friday November 4, 2022 at 8:12 pm
2022 WSOP Europe: Anson Tsang Ships Event #4 €2,000 PLO

The 2022 World Series of Poker Europe is underway at the King's Casino in Rozvadov, and Yan Shing 'Anson' Tsang was the last player standing in 2022 WSOP Europe Event #4 €2,000 PLO to win €95,461 and his third-career bracelet. Tsang outlasted a final table that included Tomasz Gluszko, Shawn Stroke, Dario Alioto, Oswin Ziegelbecker, Vivian Saliba, Farid Jattin, Pavel Izotov, and Jorryt van Hoof.

Free tournaments and added prizes

The Club Poker organizes freerolls and special tournaments with added prizes.
To qualify for free, register on our poker partners websites: