After a closure that lasted much longer than previously expected, the once-great poker room at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ, is set to reopen at 11AM today, but its future is still a bit murky.
The poker room was closed last February and, at that time, people were told that the iconic room – featured prominently in the seminal poker movie Rounders – would reopen during the summer of 2015. That reopening would drag out considerably later but now, under the auspices of Tropicana Entertainment, the chips will clatter and the calls of “all-in” will once again be heard.
“This is an exciting time for Trump Taj Mahal and we want our players to be a part of it,” Tony Rodio, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Tropicana Entertainment, said in a statement regarding the reopening of the Taj poker room earlier this month. “Our strategy is to put our customers’ interests at the heart of every decision we make as we return the Taj to its rightful place as a leading gaming and entertainment destination.”
- The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City (formerly Trump Taj Mahal) is a casino and hotel on the Boardwalk, owned by Hard Rock International, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States. The casino, originally known as the Trump Taj Mahal, was inaugurated by its then-owner Donald Trump in 1990, and was built at a total cost of nearly US$1.
- Plus de videos sur The United States Poker Championship - USPC 1999 Final Table. Daniel Negreanu - Vainqueur $210000. Wild bluffing at the USPC 2006 Championship. POKER STARTS AT 2:00 PLS.
Re: Taj Mahal Poker Coming Back? The proposed open is May 9th give or take a few, the room has a sliding partition and 25 tables is the strong rumor. The staff will be hand selected from the golden crew of the former room by the P.R.M. Who made your poker experience a wonderment.
As a part of that “player friendly” atmosphere, the Taj Mahal poker room is giving away 50 32-inch televisions throughout their reopening weekend and the next two weekends to celebrate. While players hang out and see if they were able to take one of those televisions home as a prize, they’ll be able to participate in all the usual accoutrements of a poker room – Texas and Omaha Hold’em (No limit and pot limit, no word on limit games) Seven Card Stud and the different hi/lo variations of the games.
Stepping out of the poker room, the Taj has also added in 250 new slot machines for players to take their shot. These games are from some of the bigger names in the industry such as Bally, IGT, Incredible Technologies and Konami. Finally, the Taj Mahal is offering one Trump One member a $1 million payday in their $1 Million Winning Ticket Game, which will run from June 3 through September 18. Daily drawings will be held five times per day to qualify people for the chance at winning a million dollars come this fall.
However, it may all be for naught. While the Taj Mahal may be in operation and the poker room may be active once again, the future of the once-mighty player in the Atlantic City casino scene isn’t known. Its previous ownership, current Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s namesake Trump Entertainment Resorts, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2014 and threatened to close the doors to the property in December of that year. It was only through the bailout of fellow billionaire Carl Icahn and his organization, Icahn Enterprises, that the doors to the Taj stayed open.
Icahn turned over the operations of the Taj Mahal to another one of his acquisitions, Tropicana Entertainment, after the bankruptcy case was resolved with Trump Entertainment Resorts (Icahn purchased the Taj for $300 million) and that group was folded into the Icahn empire. But recent moves in the state of New Jersey – including the opening of online casino gaming and poker and the possibility of opening up new casinos outside of the traditional (and legalized) Atlantic City area – have caused Icahn to issue veiled threats regarding the Taj Mahal.
In March, amidst the discussion in the New Jersey Legislature regarding gaming expansion, Icahn threatened to withhold a planned $100 million in improvements he was planning to make on the Taj Mahal and insinuated he could close the property outright. “It would not be judicious to proceed with those investments while gaming in north Jersey is an open issue, (so) we will have to wait to see the outcome of those proposals,” Icahn stated in March to the Associated Press.
While he has put enough money into the property to bring it up to speed – as witnessed by the opening of the poker room again – Icahn seems more interested in using the Taj Mahal as a bargaining chip than its long term success. For now, however, poker players can once again revel in having the room back that once welcomed the fictitious “Mike McD” and his bluff against Johnny Chan.
In a press conference Wednesday, Hard Rock International executives announced that the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City will open June 28th. Among the highlights the first year are almost 300 nights of live entertainment, including the likes of Blake Shelton, Amy Schumer, Stone Temple Pilots, Counting Crows, Florida Georgia Line, Steely Dan, and Frankie Valli.
“We think it’s a great start,” Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen said. “It demonstrates our commitment that we are about entertainment and not just about casino. But, certainly, we look forward to continuing to book more acts and even larger acts. There’s some amazing acts on that list, but, certainly, I think the best is yet to come.”
While I referred to the Hard Rock Atlantic City as “new,” it is actually the former Trump Taj Mahal, situated on the Boardwalk between Virginia and Maryland Avenues. Hard Rock International purchased the shuttered property, finalizing the sale about a year ago. The company is investing $500 million to get it refurbished, rebranded, and ready to go this summer. And yes, the iconic giant guitar will be prominently featured out front, though it has not been erected yet (permits, which have been procured, were needed before it could be done).
The Hard Rock will be a welcome sight to Atlantic City, which saw five casinos close from 2014 to 2016. 2014, in particular, was a disaster for the city, as Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, Showboat Casino, the $2.4 billion Revel, and Trump Plaza, all shut their doors. The Trump Taj Mahal closed on October 10th, 2016.
Of course, with all those casino closing went thousands of jobs.
Taj Mahal Attack
“They’re going to hire 3,000 people, which we need. We lost about 11,000 in 2014, so this means more jobs for Atlantic City,” New Jersey Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo told News 12 New Jersey.
“You’re talking about over 5,000 full-time jobs,” added Matt Doherty with the Casino Reinvestment Authority. “These are union jobs with pension, health insurance for pay. Then there’s probably another 2,000 seasonal jobs for the summer as well.”
The Hard Rock Atlantic City will have 2,000 hotel rooms, more than 20 restaurants and bars, and a 120,000 square foot casino floor with 2,100 slot machines and 120 table games. The Taj was once the hub for poker on the east coast and was prominently featured in the classic poker film Rounders. It was even home to the live finals of the long-forgotten Online Series of Poker, created by the original owner of this website and which I, personally, was involved in organizing. It remains to be seen if Hard Rock will make an effort to attract poker players.
Hard Rock does already have plans to offer online gambling, which is legal in New Jersey. In February, it entered into a five-year agreement with Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) to be Hard Rock’s online gambling provider.
Taj Mahal Construction
This will be a big summer for Atlantic City. In addition to the Hard Rock, Ocean Resort Casino, formerly Revel, will also open. No date has been announced for the Ocean grand opening.