Again, according to Abrams, it all comes down to staffing issues. Hours of operation starting in February will be completely different, with poker games running only from 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

The Encore poker room was open 24/7 prior to the 2020 coronavirus shutdown. 'Due to the current state of our operations, we do not have the real estate on our gaming floor to bring back poker at its pre-COVID capacity,' Abrams said. But the poker room will only operate with 12 card tables, down from the 74 tables in use pre-pandemic. On February 1, 2022, Encore will become the second. Poker at MGM Springfield, 90 miles west of Boston, returned in October and remains the only legal and open card room in the state. The poker room, however, has remained unoccupied ever since.

'On November 4, 2021, Encore Boston Harbor announced our plan for the return live poker operations on February 1, 2022.' Staffing Concerns Limits OperationsĮncore Boston Harbor closed down at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, but the casino reopened four months later. 'The poker room was closed under COVID-19 restrictions and while it didn’t immediately return along with other gaming operations, we have always said that we would make a decision about its return before December 31, 2021,' Abrams told PokerNews. Is it all just a big conspiracy to satisfy the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, as some on social media suggested? Rosie Abrams, Encore's Executive Director for Public Relations, said otherwise. PokerNews reached out to the casino for answers to some questions players had about Encore's poker return.

But the card room will have limited tables and hours, leading many locals to wonder why it's even reopening. Encore Boston Harbor, a Wynn Resorts property in the Northeast, will reopen its poker room in February 2022 for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

Encore casino reopening