The $5,000 WPT Venetian Las Vegas Fall Championship has become the first World Poker Tour event in the United States to use slide dealing, replacing the traditional airborne pitch with a method that keeps cards against the felt.
The tournament, which carries a $2 million guaranteed prize pool and runs through Nov. 10, is the first domestic test for the approach at a WPT stop. Matt Savage confirmed the milestone, noting that slide dealing had previously been used at a WPT event in Sydney, Australia.
As we reported in October, the Venetian had already made slide dealing mandatory throughout its 50-table Las Vegas poker room, becoming the first room on the Strip to do so.
In the method, a dealer places the top card face down on the table and pushes it to the player rather than tossing it. The aim is to prevent cards from tipping or flipping during a deal, which can create brief opportunities for a nearby opponent or a concealed camera at table height to see a hole card.
The Venetian introduced smoother speed felts and shoes for dealing cards when it adopted the practice property-wide. Dealers were trained before the WPT event, after being required to move away from conventional pitching the previous month.
The security change follows wider concern about micro-cameras and other devices that could exploit exposed cards. Slide dealing had already been used in casinos in Europe and Asia, while PokerStars announced in 2024 that it would gradually introduce the practice on the European Poker Tour as part of its game-integrity changes. South Point had begun using slide dealing in August, becoming the first Las Vegas poker room to do so.
Early player feedback at the Venetian event was mostly favorable. Savage said the system was “going great” and that professional players appeared to appreciate it. Andrew Lichtenberger said he encountered no problems.
Justin Saliba said that, with most dealers, the technique did not detract from the speed of play and resulted in fewer flipped cards. He said some players at his table believed it slowed the game, but his own experience was positive and he welcomed the emphasis on game integrity.
Daniel Negreanu also supported the change, arguing that it makes cheating substantially harder. Savage said he did not expect the Wynn World Championship to use slide dealing this year, though it could do so next year. He added that he doubted the WPT would require venues to adopt it, while saying the Tournament Directors Association would encourage the practice.
Across the first two starting flights at the Venetian, the championship had drawn 264 entries and sent 89 players through to Day 2. A third starting flight was scheduled with unlimited re-entries available until the start of Level 9, and the final table was scheduled to be livestreamed on PokerGO.
