At long last
Next 0 poker tournaments calendar in Atlantic City - New Jersey. View March Poker Calendar. The announced Guaranteed prize pool is reduced by 4% for Tournaments that have Buy-ins of less than $100 and for Tournaments with Buy-ins of $100 or more the prize pool is reduced by 3%. These funds go to the staff/dealers that deal in these Tournaments.
More than three months after closing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlantic City casinos finally have a reopening date: July 2. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced the date on Twitter Monday afternoon.
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Murphy minced no words, saying, “If any visitor refuses to comply with our simple safeguards, they’ll be escorted out,” adding that he will not have patience for “knuckleheads” who decide they don’t need to play by the rules.
- There are five poker rooms in Atlantic City casinos, at Bally’s Atlantic City, Borgata, Golden Nugget Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City and Tropicana Atlantic City. Ocean Casino Resort had poker tables but removed them to make space for a new high-limit slot area.
- Party Poker Tournaments Affiliated with the Atlantic City casino Borgata, nj.partypoker.com offers numerous ways to participate in real money poker tournaments online. One of the site’s most.
- Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has the largest poker room in Atlantic City. Find your game fast by viewing the daily poker tournament schedule.
The safeguards mentioned will be published within the next few days. One rule we do know about right now is that casinos will only be permitted to welcome guests up to 25 percent of their maximum capacity. The same goes for restaurants, who will be allowed to reopen their indoor dining rooms. Restaurants were given the green light to open outdoor dining areas on June 15.
Hard Rock feeling confident
Joe Lupo, president of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, expressed his excitement about the announcement, telling the Press of Atlantic City: “I’m extremely excited to welcome back our guests and team members and thankful to the governor to allow us to open prior to the big July 4 holiday weekend.”
Regardless of what health and safety measures are mandated by regulators, Lupo is confident that his casino will not only meet them, but surpass them. He said that everyone in the casinos, both employees and guests, will be required to wear protective face masks. Lupo also boasted that Hard Rock’s air filtration system is better than that of most hospitals.
And while many people nowadays don’t love being tracked by loyalty programs, Lupo added that the Hard Rock’s player database should be able to assist in contact tracing if someone does contract COVID-19.
“With 85% of our customers being rated, we can provide details on when the played, for how long, which beverage servers were in the vicinity, which room they stayed in, where they ate,” he said.
State showing great improvement
New Jersey, largely because of its population numbers, population density, and proximity to New York City, has been one of the hardest-hit states by COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic. As of Monday’s reporting, the Garden State has had 172,394 confirmed cases of the virus and 13,031 deaths. The latter is the second-highest in the United States behind New York, while the former is now the third-highest, recently surpassed by California, which is experiencing a surge in cases.
The state has also been one of the best at “flattening the curve,” which is why Governor Murphy was able to announce a date for casino reopening. With some variance day-to-day, the state’s seven-day average of new cases has been steadily declining all month. Save a couple temporary rises, New Jersey’s curve has been on a precipitous decline since late April.
Atlantic County, where Atlantic City is located, is one of the counties in the state with the least number of cases, though the recent trend has been slightly upward.
Editor’s Note: The Borgata poker room reopened on Wed., Oct. 21. The 30 tables are limited to a maximum of seven players each. For more information, click here.
Live poker rooms at Atlantic City casinos are still closed. And nearly three months have passed since land-based properties reopened.
At this point, there is no timeline for when Atlantic City’s five poker rooms will reopen. Basically, the COVID-19 closure announcements made back in March still apply to poker rooms.
This makes it 159 days and counting since poker rooms in Atlantic City were open to the public.
When the Borgatareopened to the public on July 26, ropes were set up to prevent players from entering the 85-table poker room.
And when customers try to call Harrah’s Resort, they get a recording dating back to March 16. This would be the date the poker room with 40 tables closed at 6 p.m.
Golden Nugget AC’swebsite continues to use this message: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Poker Room is closed until further notice.”
For now, no AC casino has any update on a timeline for restarting poker play.
Are poker games available in Atlantic City?
Different variations of poker are still being offered at Atlantic City casinos, even if the poker rooms themselves are closed. The games include:
- Pai Gow Poker
- Let It Ride
- Three Card Poker
Of course, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) has safety protocols in place. It prevents the possibility of all the seats being filled.
Besides the 25% capacity limit on the gaming floors, Pai Gow tables are limited to three players at a time. The same rule applies to blackjack.
Other poker games can have up to four players. And plexiglass partitions must be set up at all table games, including poker.
The poker situation is similar in other jurisdictions. Pennsylvania’s poker rooms remain closed even as casinos reopen. In August, Play Pennsylvania learned that the World Series of Poker Room at Harrah’s Philadelphia is permanently closed.
In Las Vegas, some poker rooms are open but must follow Nevada’s COVID-19 protocols.
Besides impacting the players, the scenario in AC is eliminating jobs, even if it’s only temporary.
But these coronavirus restrictions regarding gameplay and number of players are likely the underlying reason Atlantic City poker rooms remain shut.
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Atlantic City poker rooms closed, but online poker is always open
New Jersey poker players do have another option, and this one doesn’t have COVID-19 restrictions.
There are seven legal NJ poker apps. They are:
- Pala Poker
And since Atlantic City casinos closed in March, the NJ online poker industry has recorded some pretty impressive numbers.
August NJ poker revenue came in at $3,035,033, which is down nearly 63% from July’s $4,818,561. Still, both numbers are a significant increase from February’s $1.8 million when land-based casinos (and live poker rooms) were fully operational.
These days, those popular WSOP tournaments are an online thing.
It doesn’t match the excitement of playing in a live poker room, but the alternative — no poker at all — would be far worse.
And with the word “temporary” being used when referencing closed AC poker rooms, there is still hope that operating hours will change.