Anyone can put together a list of great poker rooms in Las Vegas. But what are the best poker rooms in Vegas to make money at in 2023? Much of what makes a good poker room depends on your skills and what you’re looking for. I’ll get into these things in this post.
Here are the 10 best poker rooms in Las Vegas:
Wynn Encore
Orleans
Aria
Bellagio
Venetian
Golden Nugget
MGM
Caesars Palace
South Point
Binion’s
If you’re good enough to make money in almost any poker situation, the poker rooms at the top of the list have the most tables and plenty of good games. But if you’re looking for a smaller experience, Las Vegas offers plenty of profitable opportunities also.
Here are the 10 best poker rooms in Las Vegas in 2023, including information about the games available in each:
1 – The Poker Room at Wynn Encore
When you play poker at the Wynn Encore poker room in Las Vegas, you might see some of the professional poker players you see on television. But that’s not why this poker room lands on the top of this list.
The Wynn Encore poker room runs some of the biggest poker tournaments in Las Vegas but also offers regular poker tournaments with $100,000 or more in prizes every week. If you want to play poker tournaments, the Wynn Encore poker room has to be your first stop.
In addition to the best poker tournament action in Las Vegas, Wynn Encore spreads plenty of cash games, has 28 poker tables, and attracts plenty of tourists offering easy competition.
While most gamblers think of the name Wynn when they hear poker, the poker room doesn’t sit in the Wynn part of the resort. The poker room actually sits on the Encore side of the resort. To avoid confusion, that’s why I call it the Wynn Encore poker room.
2 – The Orleans Poker Room
I was tempted to put The Orleans poker room at the top of the list. If this list was 100% based on my favorite poker rooms in Las Vegas, The Orleans would be number one. But this post covers the best Las Vegas poker rooms where you can make money, not my favorite poker rooms.
The Orleans poker room operates 24 hours a day and has 35 poker tables. They offer cash games and poker tournaments.
Like every other poker room in Las Vegas, you can play Texas holdem. But the holdem games aren’t why I like The Orleans.
If you like to play Omaha hi-lo or seven card stud hi-lo, The Orleans will be your favorite poker room in Las Vegas. A lot of poker rooms offer Omaha high only, but it can be hard to find good hi-lo games.
Located just off the Strip in Las Vegas, I recommend The Orleans for every poker player visiting Las Vegas in 2023.
3 – Aria Resort Poker Room
I mentioned that you might see some famous poker pros when you pay at Wynn Encore. The only poker room in Las Vegas where you might see more pros is Aria. Aria even has a special section, called Ivey’s Room, named after poker pro Phil Ivey, where high limit games often run.
With 24 poker tables, Aria Resort and Casino doesn’t have the highest number of tables in Las Vegas. But Aria offers the best mixed games in the city as well as draw games, Omaha, seven card stud, and of course, Texas holdem in limit and no limit.
You won’t find many draw poker games and mixed poker games in Las Vegas or anywhere else. While these games aren’t as popular as Texas holdem if you want to play you have to visit Aria on your next trip to Las Vegas.
And Aria doesn’t just cater to high limit poker players. They spread a 1-3 no limit Texas holdem game and 2-4 limit Texas holdem games for low rollers.
4 – Bellagio Casino Poker Room
If you’ve played poker in Las Vegas, you might be surprised that the Bellagio poker room doesn’t rank higher on this list. But if you want to rank the Bellagio poker room higher I won’t argue. I just like the other three poker rooms a little better. But I don’t have anything against the Bellagio poker room.
Bellagio has 40 poker tables, runs cash games 24 hours a day, and runs regularly scheduled poker tournaments. The poker room also has two high limit poker areas.
Cash games spread at the Bellagio poker room include limit Texas holdem, no limit Texas holdem, pot limit Omaha, seven card stud, and mixed games. No limit and pot limit tables start at 1-3 and limit game start at 4-8.
The highest published limits for pot limit and no limit games are 10-20 and 40-80 for limit games. But higher limit games run when enough players want to play for higher stakes.
5 – Venetian Poker Room
If you’re looking for the biggest poker room or the best looking poker room in Las Vegas, the Venetian poker room needs to be your first stop. I’ve never been in a better looking poker room, and I’ve been in a lot of poker rooms.
The Venetian poker room has 59 tables and runs cash games and tournaments. The Venetian poker room closes from 5 AM to 9 AM every day.
They offer limit Texas holdem, no limit Texas holdem, Omaha eight or better, and pot limit Omaha. And every seat in the poker room has a charging outlet for your phone or tablet.
You might ask why the Venetian poker room ranks fifth if it has the most poker tables and looks great. It might have just been the times I played there, but I found it easier to find profitable tables at other poker rooms than at Venetian. Your experience might be different.
6 – Poker at the Golden Nugget
The poker room at the Golden Nugget might not be as big or fancy as some of the other rooms on this list. But you might recognize it from television series including High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, and Face the Ace.
Golden Nugget has 13 poker tables and a high roller poker suite. The Golden Nugget might be one of the smaller poker rooms on this list, but many pros play here from time to time. So if you’re star hunting you should check out the Golden Nugget poker room.
Common games spread include no limit Texas holdem, limit Texas holdem, Omaha, seven card stud, and occasionally a mixed game.
7 – MGM Grand Poker Room
Many people list the MGM Grand poker room higher than I do. I’ll tell you why they don’t rank higher on my list. I hate the MGM Grand poker room. Every time I play at MGM Grand I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t know why, but I’ve pretty much quit playing poker there.
But this doesn’t mean the MGM Grand poker room doesn’t belong on the list. It belongs on this list because good poker players can always find profitable games there.
The MGM Grand poker room has 45 poker tables, a platform with high limit games, and a high limit salon for truly high limit games. And if you’re looking for the best low limit no limit Texas holdem games, MGM Grand spreads a 1-2 no limit game that’s extremely popular.
They also run at least three Texas holdem tournaments every day.
8 – Poker at Caesars Palace Casino
A list of the best poker rooms in Las Vegas to make money in can’t be complete without Caesars Palace. If you want to play Texas holdem poker tournaments, Caesars Palace poker room lands at the top of the list.
Caesars Palace poker room runs five poker tournaments every day. Three of the poker tournaments have a buy-in of $100 and the other two cost $150.
With 18 poker tables and constant tournaments running, cash games aren’t the main raw at Caesars Palace. But they do spread no limit Texas holdem games at 1-3 and 2-5. Other games and higher limits are spread when enough layers want to play, but most of the time they just have the low limit no limit Texas holdem games and tournament tables running.
9 – South Point Las Vegas Poker Room
South Point poker room is where many Las Vegas locals come to play. Located south of the Las Vegas Strip, it’s not far from the other poker rooms on this list.
With 30 poker tables, South Point poker room runs four poker tournaments every day and 24 hour cash game options. They run at least two tournaments every day with a $60 buy-in and at least one with a $150 buy-in most days. A $60 tournament starts every day at 10:05 AM and 10:05 PM.
Cash games are available in limit Texas holdem starting at 3-6, no limit Texas holdem starting at 1-2, and Omaha, seven card stud, and mixed games with enough interest.
If you’re looking for the best poker room in Las Vegas that doesn’t attract a ton of tourists, the South Point poker room might be your best choice. I prefer The Orleans, but the South Point comes in a close second.
10 – Binion’s Poker Room – Where It All Started
Binion’s poker room doesn’t have the best table, dealers, or atmosphere in Las Vegas. In fact, if it weren’t for the history of Binion’s and poker, I wouldn’t include them on this list of the best poker rooms in Las Vegas.
Benny Binion opened Binion’s in 1951, making it one of the oldest casinos in Las Vegas. The World Series of Poker started at Binion’s Horseshoe in 1970. And Binion’s has been home to some of the biggest poker games in history. But all of that happened a long time ago.
Binion’s no longer hosts the World Series of Poker and no longer uses the Horseshoe name. However, many older gamblers still call it Binion’s Horseshoe.
The main poker room at Binion’s now only has six tables. But I’ve heard that they operate up to 10 tables at times. The last time I visited they only had six tables.
I don’t recommend spending too much time playing poker at Binion’s. But I do recommend visiting the Binion’s poker room at least once for the history. Every other poker room on this list offers a better poker experience than Binion’s.
Can You Make Money Playing Poker in Vegas?
Here’s the most important question in this post. Can you make money playing poker in Vegas? While I don’t know anything about your poker skills, I have some good news.
Good poker players can make money in Las Vegas. In fact, there might not be a better place in the world to make money if you’re a good poker player.
You can find just about any poker game and level you want in and around Las Vegas. And you can find some of the toughest and easiest games within a short distance from each other.
If your ego tells you that you need to play against the best poker players in the world, you can do this in Las Vegas. But if you’re smart, you want to find games with bad poker players. When you play against bad poker players, you make more money than playing against good poker players.
The best poker players in the world can struggle against other top players. And a bad poker player can make money playing against worse poker players. So making money playing poker has as much to do with who you play against as your skill.
Of course, you want to improve your poker skills as much as you can. But you also need to learn how to identify the best games with the worst players. And Las Vegas has some of the worst poker players in the world.
I’ve played in many poker games in Las Vegas filled with drunk tourists that were quite profitable. And if you’re a good poker player, profitable poker games are easy to find in Las Vegas.
How Tipping Poker Dealers in Las Vegas Hurts Your Profit
Before I continue, I want to clarify that I’m not against tipping good poker dealers. But you do need to understand how tipping poker dealers in Las Vegas hurts your profits.
Every dollar you tip a poker dealer in Las Vegas comes directly out of your profit. So if you win five hands in an hour and tip the dealer $1 on each hand, you lose $5 from your profit. And if you tip $2 per win, you lose $10.
You need to know how much you make when you play poker. And you only know how much you make when you track all of your results. You have to include tips when tracking your results.
A good level to shoot for in limit poker games lands somewhere around the upper betting limit. So if you play $10/$20 Texas holdem you shoot for $20 an hour profit on average.
If you make $20 an hour from play but tip $10 an hour, you only make $10 an hour. And if you tip $5 an hour, you make $15 an hour.
I tip poker dealers as long as they do a decent job running the game. And when I run across a truly great poker dealer I occasionally tip them a bit more. But I closely track my tips, and if a dealer doesn’t do a good job or mistreats players I don’t tip them.
Usually, I tip $1 on every hand I win. I don’t play many hands usually, so I rarely tip more than $3 n hour on average. When a great dealer leaves the table, I often tip him an additional dollar or two. But there are so few great dealers that I don’t do this often.
How Do Vegas Poker Rooms Make Money?
Poker players don’t compete against a house edge like most casino gamblers. So, how do Vegas poker rooms make money? Las Vegas poker rooms make money the same way that poker rooms around the world make a profit.
Las Vegas poker rooms make money by collecting rake on cash game hands and by collecting tournament entry fees.
When you play cash or ring games in Las Vegas poker rooms, or poker rooms located elsewhere, the dealer collects a percentage of the pot on every hand. The dealer places the money collected, called the rake, in a collection box at the table.
In most poker rooms in Las Vegas, the dealer collects 10% of the pot up to the maximum rake. Common maximum rake amounts in Las Vegas are $3 to $5 per hand.
At the highest levels of cash and ring game poker, you can find games that don’t charge rake. Instead, they make money using a seat charge. Most poker games using a seat charge collect a fee every hour.
When you find poker tournaments in Las Vegas, the entry fee usually has two fees listed. The first fee shows how much goes into the prize pool and the second fee shows what the casino takes as profit.
Here’s an example:
You see a list of upcoming tournaments and a no limit Texas holdem tournament showing $100 + $15. In this example, you pay $115 to enter the tournament. The casino makes $15 in profit and the other $100 goes directly into the prize pool.
Where Do the Pros Play Poker in Las Vegas?
Do you want to play against pro poker players or avoid pro poker players? In either case, you need to find out where the poker pros play in Las Vegas. I can give you a few specific places in Las Vegas where you’re likely to find pro poker players.
Pro poker players in Las Vegas play where they can make the most money. This means you might find a poker pro in just about any poker room in Las Vegas.
The most common places you find professional poker players in Las Vegas are the Aria and Wynn Encore poker rooms.
How do you define a professional poker player? Most of the poker players you see on television can be classified as pros, but there are plenty of pro players you never see on television. And Las Vegas might be the best location in the world for poker pros.
Some poker pros grind out a living playing low and middle limit cash games. Others grind out a living playing in low and medium cost tournaments. You might be sitting at a poker table with a pro or two and never know it.
Professional poker players go where they can make the most money in Las Vegas and other areas. But winning money at the table isn’t the only way a pro can make money. Pro poker players can make money by being paid to play at certain locations, from comps, and from advertising deals.
If you want to avoid the poker pros in Vegas, play off the strip. And if you want to play against the pros, start with the Wynn Encore poker room and the Aria poker room.
Where Do the Locals Play Poker in Vegas?
I just covered where you’re likely to see pro poker players in Vegas. But where do the locals play in Vegas?
Other than the local professional poker players, local poker players tend to play in different poker rooms than tourists. Locals usually play poker off the strip.
Many Las Vegas local poker players play at South Point. And The Orleans poker room also attracts many local poker players.
I covered South Point poker and The Orleans poker room above, so I’ll cover a couple of other poker rooms for Las Vegas locals here.
Station Poker Rooms
You can play poker at Station Casinos in and around Las Vegas offers three different locations.
Santa Fe Station Poker
Boulder Station Poker
Red Rock Casino Poker
Santa Fe Station poker room has 14 tables with eight seats per table. Most games are Texas holdem, but Omaha games are offered as well.
The Boulder Station poker room also runs Texas holdem and Omaha games. Boulder Station has 10 poker tables, each seating up to eight players.
Red Rock poker room has 20 tables, with eight seats per table. You can always find Texas holdem games running at Red Rock poker room, and Omaha games are also usually available.
Where Are the Worst Poker Rooms in Vegas?
I hesitate to answer when asked about bad poker rooms. A friend was planning a trip to play poker and asked me where are the worst poker rooms in Las Vegas. I gave him an answer, which I’ll share with you. But I’m also going to explain why I don’t like making a worst poker rooms list.
The worst poker rooms in Las Vegas are the ones Downtown not listed above.
I don’t like to make a worst poker rooms in Las Vegas list because the reasons why I like or don’t like a poker room are probably different than the reasons why you like or don’t like a poker room.
Here’s an example:
The Excalibur poker room used to be my favorite place to play when I was in Las Vegas. But many of the other poker players I knew at the time didn’t like the Excalibur poker room. The poker room in Excalibur Casino closed, so you can’t compare it to others now.
Another issue with ranking poker rooms comes with how things change over time. While it’s not in Las Vegas, I play poker at the Mardi Gras Casino in West Virginia. I play at the Mardi Gras Casino poker room because it’s the closest poker room to where I live.
I used to dislike where the poker room was located in the casino. The games were profitable, but the location wasn’t great. But they eventually moved the poker room and I love the newer location.
Poker rooms change over time. Sometimes they grow or shrink, and sometimes they move. And sometimes the poker room management changes.
Conclusion
Las Vegas has been called the poker capital of the world. But how do you choose which poker rooms are the best in Sin City? A lot depends on your definition of what makes a good poker room. But I’m writing this post so I’m going with what I know.
Every poker player visiting Las Vegas needs to check out the poker room at Wynn Encore. But my favorite poker room in Las Vegas has been The Orleans for a long time.
Other good poker rooms in Vegas include Aria, Bellagio, and Venetian. In fact, any of the Vegas poker rooms listed in this post offers good poker options.
If you like a smaller poker room, check out the rooms at South Point, Binion’s, or one of the Station Casinos.
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