The MGM Grand poker room is located towards the front of the casino, near the exit to the Tropicana Avenue walkway. It hosts 13 tables.

According to a report from CardsChat, MGM properties Excalibur, Mandalay Bay and The Mirage have shuttered their poker rooms for good. They'd all been shut down since March due to the COVID-19.

The poker room at MGM Grand is not as popular as it once was. A forced move to the new location from an area with more foot traffic may have contributed to this.

Lower volume caused MGM Grand to introduce jackpot promotions and a drop for it that was unpopular among some regulars. It later raised the max rake to $5.

The new location, higher rake, and new jackpot drop further deteriorated MGM Grand’s poker room traffic. It went from one of the busiest in the city to one that few cared about visiting on Las Vegas trips. It was never able to turn this around.

Best and Worst MGM Grand Poker Room Features

The MGM Grand poker room is comfortable in terms of size and space between tables and is managed professionally. It usually has a game 24 hours a day.

There are far fewer games than there were in the old room. Having to pay to park is another downside. The $5 rake plus $2 jackpot did not help retain poker players. This caused traffic to drop considerably from its peak years.

Poker players will find 1/2 no-limit Hold’em games 24 hours a day. The buy-in range is $100 to $300. A 2/5 no-limit Hold’em game is often found during peak hours. Buy-ins from $200 to $1,000 are accepted.

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The fixed-limit Hold’em games have virtually dried up at MGM Grand. There is an occasional low-limit mixed game.

MGM Grand rakes 10% up to $5. The jackpot drop is $2. Players earn $1 per hour when clocked in with an MLife card at a cash game. This rate applies to fixed-limit and 1/2 no-limit games. Higher-limit cash games earn $2 an hour.

Comps may be used at food outlets on the property. They may not be transferred to other casinos owned by MGM Resorts.

MGM Grand offers four daily tournaments. All are no-limit Hold’em.

The buy-in at 11 am and 7 pm is $71+$29. The 11 am tournament has a $2,000 guaranteed prize pool. The 7 pm one has a $1,000 guarantee. Players start with 10,000 chips. The first level is 25/50. Levels go up every 15 minutes for the first nine and every 20 minutes after that.

The 2 pm and 10 pm tournaments have a $44+$21 buy-in and $500 guarantee. Players start with 10,000 chips at the 25/50 level. Blinds go up every 10 minutes. This is a super turbo tournament when compared to the 11 am and 7 pm structures.

MGM Grand’s poker room offers several promotions. Players that flop four of a kind with a pocket pair receive an instant cash prize. It is $599 for quad twos through nines. All other four of a kind hands win $299. This promotion runs Monday through Friday nights from 8 pm to 4 am.

Players that make any full house or better when using both cards from 4:30 to 6:30 in the morning or afternoon receive a ticket to a drawing. Each shift has a $200 winner.

The Grand Pyramid promotion picks three special pocket pairs each week. If you make a full house with it, you win anywhere from $100 to $3,000. Players at 2/5 no-limit tables win double the amount for most prizes.

The MGM Grand poker room offers hourly point payouts to players. Cash game players can earn up to $599 by placing in the top ten for a shift. The hours for each separate promotion are 10 am to 6 pm, 6 pm to 2 am, and 2 am to 10 am.

There are many sports promotions available, depending on the time of year. Football season has drawings for hot seats every time there is a score on a national game.

The MGM Grand sportsbook is across from the poker room. This sportsbook is on the smaller side for a Las Vegas Strip resort. It accepts deposits and withdrawals for the MGM Resorts sports betting app. You can hang out there and watch a game, enjoying food and drink service from your seat.

Other gaming options include table games and slots. Blackjack players will find $25 tables that pay 3:2 on a natural. Double down before and after splitting, as well as re-split aces and surrender, are offered at these tables. This game hits soft 17. For $50 or $100, depending on the time and day, you can get this game where the dealer stands on all 17s.

There are several shows at MGM Grand. Cirque du Soleil’s Ka is performed here. Jabbawockeez and Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club are also on the property. The Level Up Lounge has many arcade-style games and dozens of televisions.

There are many restaurants on the property. Upscale options include Craftsteak, Morimoto Las Vegas, Joel Robuchon, and Crush. There is also a food court and buffet at MGM Grand.

If you need a break from MGM Grand’s poker room, there are several other options in the area. Excalibur is diagonally across the Las Vegas Strip from MGM Grand. It spreads 1/2 no-limit Hold’em and 2-6 spread-limit Hold’em. Mandalay Bay is accessible by the tram in front of Excalibur. It spreads 1/2 no-limit Hold’em. Excalibur and Mandalay Bay spread several daily no-limit Hold’em tournaments.

Mgm Grand Poker Room Promotions 2020

If you are looking for higher-limit action, Aria is about a 10-minute walk through Park MGM. That poker room offers 1/3, 2/5, and 5/10 no-limit Hold’em. It also spreads pot-limit Omaha and mixed games. There are two daily no-limit Hold’em tournaments at Aria.

Bellagio is home to high-limit poker action in Las Vegas. You will find no-limit games up to 10/20 on a regular basis there. Fixed-limit Hold’em runs from 4/8 up to nosebleed levels. There is also high-limit Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo. Bellagio spreads a daily no-limit Hold’em tournament and seasonal poker series.

Table Of Contents

Three more Las Vegas poker rooms are no more.

Mgm Grand Poker Room Promotions Schedule

According to a report from CardsChat, MGM properties Excalibur, Mandalay Bay and The Mirage have shuttered their poker rooms for good. They'd all been shut down since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic but company officials had called them 'temporary' and said they'd be 'continually re-evaluated.'

Evidently, the evaluations have determined that the properties would be better off moving forward without spreading poker. While that will be sad news for many, there's some silver lining in that six figures worth of bad beat jackpot must still be distributed back to the players, and it'll happen in a series of freerolls.

Continuing Trend of Nevada Consolidation

None were particularly robust rooms, each having between seven and 12 tables, and their closures continue an industry-wide trend of shrinkage in the Las Vegas market and Nevada in general.

In February, the last full month of pre-pandemic operations, there were 34 rooms in Clark County with 430 poker tables running, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Today, those numbers are 21 and 285.

Statewide, it's much the same. Where today one can find poker at 29 locations with the possibility of being seated at 338 tables, there were 57 venues hosting poker at 540 tables in February.

Even that number of 57 was lowest the industry has seen in Nevada since 2002, according to the UNLV Center for Gaming Research.

Good News for Freeroll Hunters

The good news to come out of the closures is that the bad beat jackpot money must be distributed back to the players, per gaming regulations, as it's money that belongs to them and not the venues. That means more than $100,000 will be given away in a series of three upcoming freerolls, CardsChat reported.

The poker room at MGM Grand, which opened back in July, will host the freerolls. The first is tomorrow but has already 'sold out,' while the others will take place Nov. 17 and Dec. 1.

Mgm Grand Poker Room Promotions 2019

Date	Venue	Registration Date	Bad Beat Jackpot
Nov. 3	MGM Grand	Sold out	$24,022 (Mandalay Bay)
Nov. 17	MGM Grand	Nov. 11	$69,804 (Mirage)
Dec. 1	MGM Grand	Nov. 25	$27,837 (Excalibur)
$121,663 (Total)

Players who want to get their hands on some of the free dough can head to the official MGM website on the appointed sign-up day at 5 p.m. local time to try to secure a seat. Alternately, the official ticketing page states that, 'If spots are available on the day of the tournament in person registration will be accept on a first come, first serve basis.'

According to PokerAtlas, MGM Grand has 13 tables, which represents the likely full capacity for the tournaments.

Sad News for Many in Industry

For many in the industry, though, the closures of these three rooms will be seen as sad news, especially for the employees who will now have to find new work if they hadn't already.

Particularly given its storied history, the Mirage will be missed. The room was remodeled and downsized in 2015 to its smaller size of 12 tables. However, it was formerly one of the top poker destinations in the city.

Mgm Grand Poker Room

Many players who came up in the late 1990s and early 2000s cut their teeth in the limit games there, something they discussed fondly a few months back on Twitter. There, Daniel Negreanu took part in a trend by posting a photo of a chip stack from the Mirage:

I grew up here https://t.co/UPpFSAxxP1

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker)

Eli Elezra, David 'ODB' Baker, Layne Flack, Bruno Fitoussi and Gavin Griffin were among those who recalled building their bankrolls at the property's $20/$40 limit.

Of course, it also played a small but memorable role in the film 'Rounders', representing the ultimate destination for an aspiring poker pro who wished to find fortune in Las Vegas.

'I want him to think I'm pondering a call,' Mike McDermott says. 'But all I'm really thinkin' about is Vegas and the f*****' Mirage.'

Aspiring poker players can no longer identify with that particular dream, and the live poker capital of the world is down three more rooms in this time of industry upheaval.

Mgm Grand Poker Room Promotions Today

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