The poker room at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino was reopened ahead of the 2025 World Series of Poker. However, just nine months after debuting their 23-table poker room, the property has called it a day and will shut down operations on January 31. Planet Hollywood had shut down their previous poker room in July 2021, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent WSOP Circuit success
The closure of the Planet Hollywood poker room is a bit of a surprise, given that it just held a 17-ring WSOP Circuit stop earlier this month. The WSOP Circuit events all met their guarantees with one small exception, where there was a minimal overlay involved.
The 616-entry, $500,000 guarateed WSOP Circuit Main Event was won by well-known pro and WSOP bracelet winner Darren Rabinowitz, who took home $175,430 for first. The Main Event nearly doubled its guarantee, accumulating a prize pool of $976,360.
Planet Hollywood has been the host for a number of circuits, especially in the world of mixed games. They hosted the 2025 Chainsaw Mixed Series of Poker and the Planet Hollywood Holiday Hold’em Festival. They also held small, recurring tournaments held daily with buy-ins of $75 and $100, though they were extremely small, hyper-turbo events.
Potential flaws
Unfortunately for Planet Hollywood, its vision never really took off. Their previous poker room was right in the center of the casino floor and was extremely easy to find, which allowed tourists and recreational players to participate with ease. The new room was on the second floor, very far away from the casino floor. The room was very hard to find and required previous knowledge of an escalator in the back of the casino.
Without being able to attract a new customer base, it became a room just for regulars, which was far from ideal for a casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Most nights, fewer than five of the 23 poker tables were in action, which naturally led to plenty of instability for both players and employees. Even after the WSOP Circuit, they failed to experience a boom in traffic.
Las Vegas is also going through a period of declining tourism. International tourism to the United States has plunged in recent years, while Americans have been experiencing a lack of disposable income.
As a result, the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip are attempting to attract players back in from afar. For example, the Circa Resort and Casino, the D Las Vegas, and the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino are all accepting Canadian dollars at par with the US dollar, up to $500 per person per visit. The current exchange rate at the time of this article is C$1.37 per $1 USD.
The decline of Las Vegas poker rooms
Back in 2010, in the years following the Chris Moneymaker poker boom, there were over 70 poker rooms to choose from in Las Vegas. In fact, according to the UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research, there were well over 400 poker tables on the Las Vegas Strip alone during that time.
With the upcoming closure of Planet Hollywood, there will be only 18 operating poker rooms in Las Vegas, with just nine on the Las Vegas Strip (Aria, Bellagio, Caesars, Horseshoe, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Resorts World, Venetian, and Wynn). Nearly every single Las Vegas Strip poker room hosts major championships, such as the 2025 PGT Championship.
What’s next?
Fortunately, Planet Hollywood employees will all keep their jobs and relocate further down the Strip, moving to other Caesars Entertainment properties. It’s believed that they will all transfer to Caesars Palace or Horseshoe.
In addition, another poker room has reopened after closing during the pandemic, as Station Casinos brought back the poker room at Green Valley Ranch in December 2025.
