Sahara Poker Las Vegas The Sahara – like the Tropicana – is one of the oldest casino and resort hotels on the Las Vegas strip. It was built in October of 1952 and was the favorite place of many members of the infamous ‘Rat Pack’ (Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop if you weren’t sure who they were). As a matter of fact, the Sahara was featured prominently in the original version of the movie ‘Ocean’s Eleven’.

Keeping with the tradition of the casino’s Arabian feel, the casino floor and poker room have been renovated over the years to reflect that tradition and history. Done in dark wood paneling and ornate architecture reflective of the Middle East, the sixteen table poker room is comfortable and quiet, albeit crowded every night with every level of player. The tables, however, only sit nine plus the dealer, so there is a bit more room than some. The dealers are used to the variety and used to the big name stars that tend to come and go here, another tradition of the Sahara Casino and Resort.

Sahara Vegas Poker Games and Limits

The poker card room at the Sahara spreads $2/$4 and $4/$8 limit Texas Hold’Em and $1/$4, and $4/$8 with $1/$2 pre-flop no limit Texas Hold’Em with a buy-in of $100/$500. However, if the majority of the people sitting at the table want to play Omaha or Sever Card Stud or any other variation of poker, the management will spread it. The same goes for limit. Players who could use a little help can attend lessons held at 10am Monday through Friday.

The Sahara offers extremely popular no limit Texas Hold’Em tournaments at 11:00am, 7:00pm, and 11:00pm every day. Because of the limited room, players are advised to sign up early and the tournaments usually sell out at two hundred players. The buy-in is $45 with a $2 add on and one $20 re-buy during the first hour. The tournaments are always populated to the maximum amount of players and it takes four shift manager and the tournament director to keep things going. Don’t be surprised to find additional tables at the Sahara the next time you go there just to handle this traffic.

Comps for players at the Sahara’s poker room are pretty decent with $4 of food coupons for every three hours of play. Hotel guests are also treated to the poker room rate for their hotel room after three hours of play and all visitors to the poker room who are staying in the hotel need to remind the poker room manager so they get the right rates.