The Borgata’s Poker Room is the largest live poker facility in Atlantic City. And according to data from New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, The Poker Room is the market leader out of the city’s all five poker rooms. Last year, it alone generated nearly $18 million in poker revenue of the $27.2 million reported by all five rooms. Masks must be worn by anyone inside an Atlantic City casino. Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which has Atlantic City's largest poker room, resumed live play on October 21. There are five poker rooms in Atlantic City casinos, at Bally’s Atlantic City, Borgata, Golden Nugget Atlantic City, Harrah’s and Tropicana Atlantic City. Poker Room at Ocean Resort Casino Overview - CLOSED Part of Ocean Resort Casino. Conveniently located on the casino floor by Zhen Bang Noodle & Sushi and the Ovation Hall Box Office, the poker area at Ocean Resort Casino features 8 tables with all of your favorite games, including No Limit Texas Hold’em, Limit Texas Hold’em, 7-Card Stud, Omaha High Low, Pot Limit Omaha and more. 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.

Even though it has been a bit tough for casinos in Atlantic City NJ with many closing down due to several reasons. There are still some casinos that have learnt to survive and thrive by raising the bar in terms of what they have to offer potentially casino gamblers. The casino gambling scene in Atlantic City NJ has had its fair share of negativity in the past, but there seems to be a resurgence of sorts particularly in the world of poker.

While the number of poker rooms previously in Atlantic City has dropped significantly, what is important to note is that those poker rooms that are currently in operation are about the best in the New Jersey region and indeed in the whole of the U.S. Today Atlantic City has five vibrant land-based casinos with poker rooms and a combined number of poker tables of well over 200.

What’s more, these poker rooms are popular for their organized tournaments which attracts professional poker players not just from the New Jersey area, but from other states in the U.S and even from abroad. These poker tournaments run daily and brings together both low and high rollers alike. To further highlight the significance of poker in Atlantic City, every year around March the World Series of Poker organizes a poker event at a popular casino in the Marina area known as Harrah’s.

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During the circuit, Atlantic City becomes a bee hive of activity as high rollers and professional poker players make the city their home for the duration of the tournament. Whether these poker players lodge in luxurious hotels near Atlantic City NJ or they make do in cheap hotels in AC, one thing is for sure, the city comes to life during this period. There is a lot of cash prizes to be won during these poker tournaments held in the five Atlantic City poker rooms currently in operation.

If you are a poker player looking for the best places for poker in Atlantic City, you can check out the 5 land-based casinos with poker rooms highlighted below;

1. Harrah’s Casino

Caesar’s are the owners of Harrah’s casino which is located in the Marina region of Atlantic City. Harrah’s casino has more than 175,000 square feet of casino gaming space and offers several casino gambling games with more than 2,000 slot machines as well as a keno game that rewards a maximum payout of more than $200,000. The poker room of this casino is equipped with as many as 40 poker tables and there are several tournaments that poker players can participate in, these include;

  • The $2,500 star prize poker tournament held every Wednesday.
  • The $2,500 reward poker tournament held on Saturday.
  • The $2,500 poker competition that takes place every Sunday.

If you want to participate in these poker tournaments, you can visit Harrah’s casino today at 777 Harrah’s Blvd, Atlantic City, NJ 08401. For more information you can also call their phone number: 609-441-5000.

2. The Borgata Hotel Casino

One of the most famous casinos in Atlantic City NJ also located in the Marina district and owned by MGM is Borgata Hotel Casino. The Borgata Hotel Casino comes with a casino gambling space of about 161,000 square feet. There are over 170 table games, 3,500 slot machines and a poker room reputed to be the largest in the city with more than 80 poker tables. The poker room of the Borgata Hotel Casino is home to a number of highly rewarding poker tournaments particularly for high rollers. The poker tournaments featured in Borgata Hotel Casino are as follows;

  • Every Monday: $3,000 star prize poker tournament.
  • Every Wednesday: $15,000 cash reward poker tournament.
  • Every Friday: $13,000 cash prize poker tournament.
  • You also have the “Almighty Stack” which guarantees a $250,000 reward.
  • There is the “Deep Stacks” Challenge where a $270,000 reward is up for grabs.
  • “Saturday Series” guarantees a $100,000 star prize.

Poker players can also take part in single poker table tournaments. The buy-in for these single poker table tournaments range from just $40 right up to $1,060. Visit Borgata Hotel Casino today at 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, NJ 08401 or call the phone number: 609-317-1000 for more information.

3. The Tropicana Casino

For one of the best Atlantic City Boardwalk casinos where you can get to play competitive poker, you can visit the Tropicana Casino. This casino has over 150 table games, 2,500 slot machines and about 22 poker tables. In 2015 and 2016, Tropicana Casino was voted as the “Casino Player Best of Atlantic City”.

You can participate in daily poker tournaments with a minimum buy-in of $50, re-buys are also allowed. Tropicana Casino is located at 2831 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ 08401 and you can reach them on 609-340-4000. If you are visiting from outside NJ you can check out the several hotels near Atlantic City Boardwalk and lodge in one of the Atlantic City rooms that meets your needs.

4. The Golden Nugget Poker Room

The Golden Nugget is known to have the smallest poker room in all of Atlantic City NJ. This casino which is also located in the Marina district has about 80,000 square feet of casino gambling space with many slot machines and table games available. However, Golden Nugget only has 20 poker tables on offer. The poker tournaments that you can participate in include;

  • Every Monday: $2,500 star prize poker competition.
  • Every Wednesday: A guaranteed $2,500 cash award tournament.
  • The last Saturday of every month you can take part in a $10,000 poker tournament.

The address of Golden Nugget Casino is 600 Huron Avenue and Brigantine Blvd, Atlantic City, NJ 08401 and you can call them on 609-441-2000.

5. The Bally’s World Series Of Poker (WSOP) Poker Room

Bally’s is one of two Atlantic City Boardwalk casinos whose poker rooms are still functional. The poker room at Bally’s was rebranded and is now known officially as the WSOP poker room. Bally’s has more than 225,000 square feet of casino gambling space housing over 4,900 slot machines and hugely popular table games.

The reputable “Dennis Tower” which was opened in 1921 is part of Bally’s casino gambling space. The poker room at Bally’s is well known as the second largest poker room in Atlantic City and houses a total of 42 poker tables. In this poker room there are several poker tournaments on offer and these include;

  • Every Tuesday: A poker tournament that guarantees a cash reward of $2,500.
  • Every Thursday: $2,500 star prize poker tournament.
  • Every Friday: $1,000 and $5,000 cash reward poker competitions.
  • Every Saturday: Guaranteed $1,000 and $5,000 star prize poker competitions.
  • Every Sunday: $1,000 cash prize poker tournament.

Visit Bally’s today at 1900 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ 08401 or reach them by phone call on 609-340-2000. When visiting try out the hotels near Atlantic City Boardwalk. You can also find cheap hotels in AC if you want to minimize your travel expenses. There are many cheap hotels near Atlantic City NJ that you can also check out and lodge in.

Online Poker Tournaments

Apart from taking a trip to a land-based casino to play a game or two of poker, you can also take part in online poker tournaments. You should know that in the U.S there are very few states in which online poker is legal. New Jersey is actually one of the few known places in the U.S where online poker is both regulated and legal.

Online poker in New Jersey was legalized on the 21st of November, 2013. However, to participate in an online poker tournament in New Jersey, you will have to physically be in the region if you want to join a poker room online. There are three online networks providing online poker services and these networks include;

  • PokerStars network which has 40% of the online poker market share,
  • the WSOP and 888 Poker network which holds 35% of the online poker market share and
  • the Party Poker and Borgata network that hold a little over 20% of the online poker market share.

Poker players can choose from any of these online poker networks in order to join a poker room and participate in online poker tournaments. However, 888 Poker NJ tournaments rooms are viewed as having a larger global outreach than the other online poker networks.

Here is a look at some of the online poker tournaments that you can participate in while on the 888 Poker network.

1. 888 Poker BLAST

There Can Be Only One!

While booking Atlantic City rooms and taking a tour of the land-based poker rooms in city can be a lot of fun, you can also catch as much excitement from playing in an online poker tournament. One of such tournaments is the Poker BLAST.

What Casinos Have Poker Rooms In Atlantic City

You begin this tournament with the BLAST timer countdown where 4 poker players face off until only one player is left. This tournament comes with prize multipliers of 2x to 10,000x your respective buy-in. At the moment 888 Poker offer a variety of Poker BLAST Sit & Gos tournament (SNGS) that include the following;

  • $0.10 BLAST SNGs which comes with a $1,000 maximum prize pool and a 10,000x prize pool multiplier.
  • $1.00 BLAST SNGs which have a $10,000 maximum prize pool and a 10,000x prize pool multiplier.
  • $5.00 BLAST SNGs with a $50,000maximum prize pool and 10,000x prize pool multiplier.
  • $15 BLAST SNGs with a $150,000 maximum prize pool and a 10,000x prize pool multiplier.
  • $30 BLAST SNGs with a $300,000 maximum prize pool and a 10,000x prize pool multiplier.

In Poker BLAST the blinds increase after every couple of minutes. However, the ante bet size as well as the big and small blind will differ depending on the prize pool multiplier. With a prize pool multiplier of 1,000x and above, the small blind will be $150 while the big blind is $300 and the ante bet is $30.

The prize pool distribution of Poker BLAST tournaments will vary depending on the prize pool multiplier. By taking first position in a Poker BLAST tournament with a 2x prize multiplier you will claim 100% of the overall pot. However, taking first position in a Poker BLAST tournament with a 1,000x or more prize pool multiplier will earn you 60% of the overall pot.

Taking second place will earn you 20% of the overall pot while the third and fourth place will fetch you 10% of the overall pot for each position. With 888 Poker BLAST the larger the overall pots, the larger the distributions.

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2. 888 Poker Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs)

If you are a professional poker player looking for some real poker competition. One option is to visit any of the five poker rooms highlighted earlier. You can lodge in hotels in Atlantic City NJ on boardwalk if you want to play in Bally’s or Tropicana poker rooms. While this may be an appealing thought, it could also be a costly one. However, there are other viable alternatives out there and one offered by 888 Poker are their Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs).

This poker tournament will test your poker skill level to its limits. With the 888 Poker MTTs, players will be able to flip a fixed value buy-in into a massive payout. As players bust as well exit the MTTs the other players left in the MTTs would be able to claim massive payouts. At the start of MTTs there are a large number of poker players as well as virtual poker tables, but this will eventually drop to just one poker table where the best poker players in the MTTs get to play for the ultimate payout.

In the MTTs the top ranking players (i.e. about 10 to 15%) will earn very decent payouts. However, the best three poker players of the MTTs will cash out most of the earnings. There are a number of MTTs that poker players can choose from when they sign up with 888 Poker.

The tournaments are fierce and feature a number of very skilled poker players that are very experienced and good at strategizing. With MTTs you can turn your little poker funds into massive payouts with little no added expense (except maybe a cup of coffee) and at minimal poker gaming risks. This sure beats spending extra money on hotels in Atlantic City, NJ on boardwalk regardless of if they are cheap Atlantic City rooms.

Even if you are not an experienced poker player, you can still learn the most effective MTT tactics with some coaching tips. Some of these strategies include; targeting the best three positions, playing the player and playing the bubble well.

3. The Sit & Go Poker Tournaments Of 888 Poker

888 Poker Sit & Go tournaments allows you to play a quick game of poker. In the SNGs a number of poker players are allowed to participate and this number can range from between 2 poker players to about 120 poker players at a time.

As soon as seats are occupied and the tournament fees have been paid by every participating player, the SNG commences. With the respective buy-in collected the tournament kicks off in frenetic fashion. There are SNGs that offer both add-ons and rebuys. The participating poker players are seated at random and these poker players can be moved from one poker table to another during the duration of the tournament.

The blinds will increase depending on the previously organized schedules. The tournament comes to an end when only one poker player is left in the SNG tournament and this poker player will be deemed the winner of the poker tourney. In addition to this, the prize pool structure of the SNG tournament will determine the expected payouts.

888 Poker Rebuys and Add-Ons

Just like poker tournaments played in poker rooms in Casinos in Atlantic City NJ, 888 Poker offers poker players the opportunity for rebuys and add-ons. So if you want to boost your poker bankroll, you can make use of the 888 Poker rebuys and add-ons option.

If your chip count is equal to or less than the chips available to you when you began the poker tournament, you can make use of the rebuys option to increase your chip count. There is a plus (+) button available to you when you play a poker tournament on the 888 Poker gaming site.

Click on this plus (+) button and you will be able to increase your chip count by funding your poker bankroll. By clicking on the buy chips icon, there will be a one minute timeframe available for you to validate your respective rebuys. Furthermore, there are add-on periods available for you to add-on when you want to.

Obtaining 888 Poker Tournament Tickets

While you can walk into poker rooms of land-based Atlantic City Boardwalk Casinos to play a game of poker, however to play poker tournaments on 888 Poker you will need virtual tournament tickets. These 888 Poker virtual tournament tickets are obtained in a number of ways and some of these ways include;

  • Free poker tournament tickets.
  • Poker tournament tickets given to SNGs.
  • Poker tournament tickets given for prearranged poker tournaments.
  • Poker tournament tickets earned via prize pools from the various poker rooms in 888 Poker gaming site.

As soon as the poker tournament tickets are obtained, you will have to log in to your respective gaming account. Next, you will need to navigate to “my tournament tickets” and you can then participate in the poker tournaments that the tickets are for. There is a “Tournaments” tab in 888 Poker, this is where you can obtain all the information you may require. You can get information on the following;

  • Information on Multi-Hand Poker tournaments as well as playing tips for the Multihand tournament.
  • Information on every poker tournament available on 888 Poker gaming site including their schedules, fees and buy-in costs.

888 Poker is a rich resource for virtual poker tournaments in Atlantic City. So rather than looking for hotels near Atlantic City or cheap hotels in AC while on a road trip. You can just sit back and log on to 888 Poker, select a preferred poker tournament and start playing all in the comfort of your home.

In Conclusion

If you are searching for the best places for poker in Atlantic City there are five places you can visit. Apart from poker these land-based casinos offer slot machines and table games as well. The five casinos whose poker rooms you can check out today include; Tropicana (22 poker tables), Golden Nugget (20 poker tables), Bally’s (42 poker tables), Borgata Hotel Casino (80 poker tables) and Harrah’s (40 poker tables).

However, if chilling out in hotels near Atlantic City Boardwalk is not for you, then you can explore the virtual world of online poker on the 888 Poker network. You will be able to play in a number of virtual poker games including Poker BLAST, Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs) and Sit & Go Poker Tournaments.

Getting poker tournament tickets are also easy and you can get them for free, from SNGs, from pre-organized tournaments and also earning from prize pools in other poker rooms. There are rebuys available for poker players to boost their poker bankroll and there are also add-ons if needed. There are now different ways for you to enjoy a game of poker in Atlantic City, whether you visit a land-based poker room from any of the five casinos listed or playing online.

The choice is yours, but whatever you decide, you can be sure of getting the best possible poker action out there. So whether you play for fun or you are looking for competition as a professional, Atlantic City is the place to be to play poker games. Join in on the various daily poker tournaments to turn your meagre bankroll to a handsome payout.

For the bulk of the past few months, we have been relegated to news about online poker in this column. Social distancing requirements and health protocols have kept both everyday players and hardcore professionals away from the felt, forcing them to settle for the online sphere.

This past week seems like a good indication that a return to live poker on a larger scale might not be too far off. Several poker rooms across the country either reopened or announced immediate plans to do so, including several within East Coast gambling hotspots like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Restrictions are in place, of course, but it is definitely a positive sign going forward.

Poker Reopening Review

The biggest news of all of these returns comes from Atlantic City, where poker rooms have been dark since March. But that will all change after the announcement that the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa will have its poker room up and running again this coming week.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, first of all, the Borgata’s poker room is essentially the largest one in AC, with 30 tables available. That’s a good way to start.

And that’s the other key here. The Borgata is the first of the five casinos in Atlantic City to reopen for live poker. Considering the city’s reputation as a gambling mecca, it is a kind of symbolic victory for all poker players to see one of the casinos getting back into the live game business.

Of course, precautions are being taken. Live cash games with seven-handed action will be taking place at the 30 tables. Dividers will be placed between each player, and no spectators will be allowed in the room. There will be no food allowed in the poker room, and masks must be worn.

But those little inconveniences seem like a small price to pay for the chance to bring live poker back to AC. And the good news doesn’t end there.

  • In Pennsylvania, Mount Airy Casino and The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono became the first casinos in the state to reinstate live poker this past week. Pennsylvania was one of the first states outside Nevada and New Jersey to legalize casino gambling, which makes it a hot spot for action.
  • In Las Vegas, eight-handed action will be returning to Planet Hollywood. Many other Vegas casinos got back to poker action in June, making Planet Hollywood one of the last holdouts.
  • Casino Helsinki, in Finland, announced a return to live action with a weeklong event scheduled for November. It will be the first live poker event in Finland since the shutdown. That makes it a nice item for those who players overseas who have been hankering to get back to live action.

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All of these are encouraging signs. But there is no doubt there is a still way to go before the poker scene is quite back to where it was.

Keep in mind that most of the announcements listed above are your basic run-of-the-mill daily action. There still haven’t been any major efforts at live tournaments to be conducted anywhere but online. (The one effort that was made recently, but it didn’t turn out so great.)

Still, it’s a matter of baby steps. The Borgata’s announcement and these other news items seem to indicate that the rumors of the demise of love poker seem to have been greatly exaggerated.

Poker as Life Book Club

This year, we’ve seen a boom in books that claim that learning poker can teach you a lot more than how to win a lot of money. Earlier this year, Maria Konnikova had a hit with The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself and Win. It was a combination of self-help and memoir that spoke to how poker’s life lessons can be healing and revelatory.

On the heels of that, this past week saw the release of How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices. To the uninitiated, this might not seem, based on the somewhat generic title, like it has much connection to the world of poker. But when you find out that the author is Annie Duke and that name rings a bell, you’ll figure it out quickly.

For those who might not know, Duke was one of the most popular poker pros at the time when real money Texas Hold’em events began showing up with regularity on TV in the 2000s. She was often the lone woman at some seriously star-studded tables. And she did more than hold her own; she, for a long-time, was the highest-earning woman in the sport and has multiple titles on some of the biggest stages.

Duke essentially retired from poker around 2012 and has turned her attention to other pursuits, such as consulting for major companies and corporate speaking. Along the way, she started to write books about these dual worlds, including the 2018 Thinking in Bets.

How to Decide is aimed at business owners and investors and attempts to demystify the decision-making process, using the lessons Duke learned in poker as an example. In interviews promoting the book, she has spoken a bit about the process.

The parallels that she draws between poker and investing are insightful, which the book likely expounds upon in much greater depth. She talks about how in poker, you can account for only so much, due to the luck of the draw. And when making decisions about investing or personal or business finances, the same applies, as you can’t possibly know what unexpected event might occur.

Books like Duke’s and Konnikova’s are beneficial to the poker world because of how they shine a different light on the pastime, especially for those who might not know much about it. They run against the stereotype of poker players as seedy and against the stereotype of the game itself as being one that doesn’t have a lot of redeeming value.

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Let’s hope that Duke continues to churn out informative, interesting books like these that branch far beyond the world of poker. In this way, she’s making a contribution to the game as impactful as the one she made when she played it.