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In the year 2000, poker was all but dead.

Sure, you will discover a game on the Mirage in Las Vegas, or at any collection of small above-board and underground card rooms across the U.s.. But in a spot like Atlantic City, despite a slight uptick in interest within the game after the 1998 film Rounders made the Trump Taj Mahal the house of poker at the East Coast, the choice of poker tables in rooms at the aging Boardwalk was steadily declining.

In fact, Atlantic City gaming revenues were on a downswing around the board.

The latest plan to revitalize the city's gaming industry was still being bandied about. Casino mogul Steve Wynn was promising to construct a contemporary casino property within the city's marina area and was backing the government's plan to construct a tunnel from the Atlantic City Expressway to the soon-to-be-developed land.

Some residents and Atlantic City casino owner and now presidential candidate Donald Trump opposed the project, and Wynn's plans eventually changed, however the construction of the Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector did go ahead.

Trump agreed to drop his opposition to the project when an exit ramp resulting in his own Trump Marina property was added, and Wynn was bought out by MGM Grand Inc., creating the MGM Mirage company. That's when MGM went to work on an concept that might prove to be a game changer.

In the spring of 2003, Chris Moneymaker, an accountant and amateur poker player from Tennessee, won the arena Series of Poker Main Event, igniting the poker boom. But before Moneymaker's story had time to grip the yank public how it eventually would, and youngsters Atlantic City poker rooms were shrinking and most casinos were replacing table games with slots in an try to hold directly to what was left of declining gaming revenues, in July of 2003, MGM, in partnership with Boyd Gaming, opened the doors to an enormous Las Vegas-style hotel, casino, and spa with 200 table games, an array of top-quality nightlife, entertainment, restaurant options, and a 34-table poker site at the marina land.

"When Borgata opened its doors in 2003, Atlantic City was introduced to its first Las Vegas-style casino property; offering a first class hotel, great restaurants, an award-winning spa, and A-list entertainers and deejays the likes of which hadn't been seen on this city," says Borgata Senior Vice chairman of Operations, Joe Lupo.

Borgata was a right away success, becoming the top-grossing casino in Atlantic City right out of the gate and holding directly to that position to this day.

The property really bucked the trends. In 2002, The Sands pulled the last of its table games and was moving towards being a slots-only facility. Borgata took a unique approach altogether, looking to rejuvenate table games in Atlantic City.

When they opened the doors, poker hadn't really taken off yet. Still, Borgata opened 34 tables jointly some of the competition was pulling out of poker. Popular thinking on the time was that poker was an excellent resting place for the man who desired to relax and smoke a cigar while his wife pulled the arm on a slot machine within the casino. From 1994-2002 there have been about 124 poker tables in operation in Atlantic City. Borgata came out of nowhere with a room 25 percent of the scale of the present put it on the market. was almost as though they knew what lay ahead.

Borgata's poker room

It was well documented that over the following few years poker boomed immensely, and Borgata was right on the forefront if all of it. Hole-card cameras made the sport watchable on TV, and ratings started to soar for the burgeoning World Poker Tour broadcast.

Borgata jumped on board right away, hosting a Season 2 stop at the tour within the year the valuables opened, seeing the WPT as an effective way to present the valuables and its poker product some credibility and exposure.

By the time 2006 rolled around and poker was peaking in popularity, Borgata was running two WPT stops each year, and setting field-size records for tour events on every occasion across the. property itself also underwent a $200 million expansion, bumping its poker site as much as 85 tables. Room revenues went in the course of the roof and Borgata was running probably the most biggest cash games within the country.

By that specialize in providing the most productive facilities, and customer service, including the highest dealers and floor staff within the country, Borgata drew the largest and best games around, quickly becoming the proving ground for the highest poker players at the east coast and across the country.

Over the following few years, Borgata expanded its major tournament series to incorporate seasonal festivals five times a year. The 15-20 day poker tournament series at the moment are the largest within the country outside of the WSOP in Las Vegas and run on a 100-plus table footprint throughout the property's Event Center simply to stay alongside of ever-increasing entry numbers. Plus, when the WPT decided to take its World Championship event on a tour of its properties outside of Las Vegas three years ago, it landed on the only place that truly made sense over the following two years: Borgata.

Pundits has been writing the poker boom's obituary ever because the game's popularity peaked in 2006, but Borgata continues to forestall the presses.

While some feel as if poker is in a state of decline, industry numbers tell a unique story. With the growth of poker outside of recent Jersey — introduced in Pennsylvania (July 2010) and Maryland (March 2013) — poker is constant to grow in rooms within the east coast region.

The only thing that had waned were the web satellite numbers on which those early, record-breaking fields from live events at Borgata were built. They fell by the wayside with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, and ultimately Black Friday, when the dep. of Justice shut down the last of the key online poker operators within the country on April 15, 2011, causing the demise of online poker within the United States.

At the time, the dream of qualifying right into a major event at Borgata for pennies at the dollar appeared dead, but in February 2013, the brand new Jersey Legislature brought it back to life, legalizing online casino gambling, including poker, for a 10-year trial period. By the point the brand new legal, regulated, and taxed online poker market opened in November 2013, Borgata was greater than able to come back within the game.

"Anticipating New Jersey legislation to legalize online gaming would come earlier than later, Borgata initiated mobile gaming on property, which not just enabled us to be told a few new form of online gaming, but put Borgata on the forefront of the industry," explains Lupo. "We worked tirelessly in order for Borgata was one of the most first providers launching our very successful poker and casino sites."

From the jump, BorgataCasino.com and BorgataPoker.com has been offering a fully safe and secure, full-service online gaming product that consumers can quickly and simply join all around the country, and use the minute they step foot throughout the state of recent Jersey.

Almost immediately, the net poker room began running qualifiers for land-based events at Borgata and they are now sending qualifiers from online into every body of its on-property championship events. This has proven a successful proposition for Borgata, as its online satellite program put 104 entries into its most up-to-date Borgata Winter Poker Open series.

The biggest advantage they have got within the online market is the building, and the power to provide online players the danger to qualify for land-based events for as low as $5. By all accounts, the web poker and casino sites are delivering on all of the lofty expectations people have for the Borgata brand.

In the spring of last year, Asher Conniff proved the system works, satelliting into the large $560 Borgata Spring Poker Open opening event and winning it for $203,231. Two weeks later, he accidentally entered a $1,600 buy-in satellite for the $15,000 WPT World Championship on BorgataPoker.com and went directly to win the seat, and all the tournament, for an additional $937,683.

Asher Conniff (photo: WPT)

Borgata listens to its players and tries to present them what they would like. They see that the sport is changing and evolving, and so they attempt to do the similar at the side of it.

"We strive to be the premiere destination within the country, offering not just the most efficient poker product, but world-class entertainment, nightlife, fine dining and spa amenities, and that is the reason why it's imperative to stick sooner than the curve," says Lupo.

The property celebrated its 13th anniversary this year, but you would not realize it from taking a walk at the casino floor. Borgata has continued to make capital improvements at the property now into its second decade within the market, keeping things fresh and updated as a way to ensure that it never looks as dated as one of the vital old-school Atlantic City Boardwalk properties.

Restaurant offerings from celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay (Bobby Flay Steak) and Wolfgang Puck (Wolfgang Puck American Grille), alongside Fornelletto, Izakaya, and Old Homestead Steak House continue to attract rave reviews from East Coast foodies. The Borgata Outdoor Pool was recently launched, including over 300 lounges, daybeds, and cabanas surrounding a 3,200-square-foot Roman-style pool, they usually spread out the Borgata Beer Garden right next door, featuring a full-service canopied bar serving greater than 15 domestic and craft beers.

The two nightclubs at the property were popular, but beginning to feel a little bit stale, so Borgata recently built and spread out the $14 million state-of-the-art Premier Nightclub to exchange mur.mur and MIXX.

"Borgata has always recognized the necessity to evolve and remain innovative through capital investment in differentiating ourselves from the remainder of the competition," explains Lupo. "WE'RE continuously trying to ensure our property is fresh and considering new amenities for our customers with a brand new project always under consideration. For example, in 2017, we can be opening a brand new culinary experience. We simply don't rest on our laurels, which partially is why Borgata continues to guide the market because the premier resort destination at the east coast, which we fully intend to continue on that path."

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