M Resort shutters poker room, making way for slot-tourney area

A view of the poker room at the M Resort in Henderson Feb. 19, 2009. The hotel and casino property at St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard South opened the following month.

M Resort


Despite a weak local economy, the M Resort, pictured last week, opened in March to big fanfare and big crowds, some attracted by generous casino promotions. Since then, the property at St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard has tinkered with offers and games, scaling back on some of its higher-paying machines. Launch slideshow »

The M Resort has closed its poker room to make space for a new slot tournament area.

The resort previously held its slot tournaments in a conference-style ballroom, but players were unhappy with the lack of space, according to Rina Foster, an M Resort spokeswoman.

The players “demanded” the change, Foster said.

M Resort's monthly invitational tournaments average 800 guests between video poker and reel games, and the next slot tournament is scheduled for the end of August.

The new slots area will open next month, but it’s unclear what it will look like or how many slots the area will offer.

“We’re currently reconfiguring the room and don’t have an exact layout determined,” Foster said, “so I don’t yet know the number of slots we’ll have in there.”

While officials have no plans to reopen the poker room, the resort will continue to host poker tournaments and events in the future. The next poker tournament is the second-annual Hollywood Poker Open Championship, operated by Penn National Gaming and slated for June 2014.

The last Hollywood Poker open generated $1.4 million, attracting more than 600 players.

Gaming

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