Browse > Home / Poker News / WSOP Cleveland Relocated to St. Louis

WSOP Cleveland Relocated to St. Louis

December 9, 2013

Much to the dismay of many Cleveland-area players, who were looking forward to the WSOP stop in Cleveland next spring, the tournament announced that it will instead stop in St. Louis in late march instead of the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland due to the casino’s size.

The tournament made the following statement last week:

“Despite the World Series of Poker Circuit’s belief in the Cleveland market as an exciting market to host a second World Series of Poker Circuit event in Ohio, it has been determined after further due diligence that the space originally conceptualized to host it will not be sufficient for the guest experience the property and the World Series of Poker both desire and require.”

The senior VP and GM for Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, Marcus Glover, says that both the poker tour and the casino had “exhausted every reasonable option” to try and make it work before finally seceding from the idea. Caesars Entertainment, owner of the WSOP, also has stake in Horseshoe.

Glover says, “The ability to provide an optimal experience for our loyal poker guests – as well as our non-poker customers — was primary to this difficult decision. We are fully committed to finding a way to accommodate a future World Series of Poker Circuit stop in Cleveland.

“We particularly appreciate the understanding of our guests and will continue to seek opportunities to further enhance the poker experience at Horseshoe Cleveland.”

When the announcement was made last May that the tour would make a Cleveland stop, they have been faced with the problem of how the Horseshoe would fit thousands of players that were expected to register. There would have been 12 events, two days each, and each event would average about 800 players. This would have required 30 tables, which the Horseshoe’s poker room would not have allowed for.

The original plan was to host the event in the ballroom of the adjacent Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, but not after the Ohio Casino Control Commission vetoed the plans citing the constitutional amendment that allowed gambling in Cleveland, only allowed it in certain places.

The press release also stated that the company “still desires to make Horseshoe Cleveland a future World Series of Poker Circuit stop and will continue to have dialogue with the property to weigh options for future events there.”

The tour will instead stop at downtown St. Louis’ Lumiere Place.

Written by Bea · Filed Under Poker News 

Comments

Comments are closed.