Five-Handed Poker Approved in Las Vegas

By Jerry Smith Staff Writer Updated: 06/12/2020

Jerry Smith Staff Writer See Full Bio

Jerry’s greatest advantage is his extensive experience on the casino floor. His time as a casino manager taught him everything about what makes a player tick. Besides being a skilled poker player, he has deep knowledge of all live table games and gambling regulations in the US.

Straight Flush and Chips

For the past ten weeks, casinos across Las Vegas and the rest of the country have remained closed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. However, after the Nevada Governor, Steve Sisolak, recently gave the green light, casinos in Las Vegas are now starting to reopen their doors. However, this is with strict new measures in place.

Among the measures that casinos have had to implement are letting fewer people into the casino at any one time and having fewer players at tables. For poker games, the number of people allowed at tables was set at four.

However, two casinos in Las Vegas have gained approval to increase this to five, which could make a big difference to the number of people that participate in live poker games.

Five-Handed Poker Could be More Popular

When it was initially announced that poker games would have to reduce numbers to a maximum of four players, there were concerns over how many people would be interested. Normally, there are 9-10 players per table for poker games, but this had to be dramatically reduced to ensure social distancing was maintained once casinos reopened.

Earlier this week, the management at the South Point Casino confirmed that they had been given the go-ahead to add one extra player and offer five-handed poker. Just a day after this, The Orleans announced that they had also been given approval to have five people at poker tables rather than the four that had been initially announced.

According to reports, there were cheers from patrons at The Orleans when the manager brought over an extra chair to the poker table after receiving approval. For many players, even the addition of one extra player can help to increase the excitement of the game and make it feel a little more like the pre-lockdown days.

High Levels of Interest

Both casinos have seen healthy interest in poker gaming since they reopened earlier this week. Initially, there were concerns over whether live poker could emerge from the impact of recent events, but interest has been high at both poker rooms.

At The Orleans, 10-13 tables were running through the day on Thursday, while at the South Point there were around 15 games in play, with queues of more than 30 players waiting.

The Orleans poker room manager Garrett Okahara said:

There’s a big segment of the poker market that just likes to play cards, and they like to come out and they like to gamble and intermingle and have some fun. And that’s what we’re seeing today.

Jason Sanborn, who runs the poker room at the South Point, said that he knew the casino would be busy and that there would be high demand for poker games. He added that people had been without live gambling facilities for so long that pent-up demand was inevitable.

Both casinos opened their poker rooms on Thursday at 8am. At present, The Orleans is closing its doors at midnight, but the South Point is operating around the clock.